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Remarks at Wenceslas Square [Czechoslovakia] 11/17/90 [OA 8318] [4]
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Remarks at Wenceslas Square [Czechoslovakia] 11/17/90 [OA 8318] [4]
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administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Speech File Backup Files
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Chron File, 1989-1993
OA/ID Number:
13738
Folder ID Number:
13738-004
Folder Title:
Remarks at Wenceslas Square [Czechoslovakia] 11/17/90 [OA 8318] [4]
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5
TELEFAX COVER SHEET
VOICE OF AMERICA 6 CZECHOSLOVAK SERVICE 0 TEL.: (202) 619-2208
RETURN FAX: Washington (202) 619-1208
DELIVER TO: Peggy Dooley, The White House, office of Speech Writing
(FAX NUMBER):
456-6218
UR6 ENT
Tel.: 456-7750
FROM:
Miroslav S. Dobrovodsky, Chief, Czechoslovak Service VOICE OF AMERICA
330 Independence Ave., S. W., Washington, D.C. 20547, United States
Tel.: (202) 619-2208, 619-2209
Her
COMMENTS
Enclosed is requested backround material on Czech and Slovaks in America, also
some general information.
Number of pages (including cover sheet): 24
P18
11.07.90 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
MIROSLAV S. DOBROVODSKY
VOI
Voice of America
European Division
Chief, Czechoslovak Service
330 Independence Ave., S. W.
Washington, D.C., 20547
Tel.: 2021619-2208, 619-2209
Fax Number: 2021619-1208
Date: November 7, 1990
Subject: Requested Background material I Czech and Slovak Federated Republik
To:
Peggy Dooley, The White House,
Speech Writers
Fax. No. 456--6218
Backround material and numbered attachments:
a. Changes, general information
Czechoslovakia is inhabited by two nations, over 15.5 million people (approximately 10
million Czech speakers (the Czechs and Moravians) and 5 million Slovak speakers, the
Slovaks). Pop. density: 314 per sq. mile. Area: 49, 365 sq. miles. Largest cities: Prague
(federal capital, capital of Bohemia, located in Czech lands: 1.1 million), Bratislava (capital
of Slovakia: 450.000), Brno (capital of Moravia: 385.000)
In tvelwe months, Czechoslovakia has undergone a major political transition from a
totalitarian Communist-type state to a yet slightly fragile but flourishing democracy. One-
party monopoly has been abolished by changes in constitution, there is a coalition
government in place headed by the first non-communist president in 41 years, Vaclav
Havel. Mr. Havel also has became the first non-communist president in Eastern Europe.
First free elections, open to all political parties took place in June.
Government type: democracy (since presidential elections on Dec. 29, 1990). President:
Vaclav Havel, a Czech, non-communist. Head of government: Marian Calfa, a Slovak, left
Communist Party in January 1990. President of Federal Parliament: Alexander Dubcek, a
Slovak, expelled from Communist Party after Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in
1968.
Economy: Industries: machinery, oil products, iron and steel, glass, chemicals, motor
vehicles, cement. Chief crobs: wheat. sugar beets, potatoes, rye, corn, barley, Minerals:
coal, mercury, Iron, uranium.
P19
11. 07 so 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
Finance: Currency: koruna (crown)
Education (1981): Literacy: 99%. Pop. 5-19: in school 60%, teachers per 1,000 30.
Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia were part of the Great Moravian Empire in the 9th
century. Later, Slovakia was overrun by Magyars, while Bohemia and Moravia became part
of the Holy Empire. Under the kings of Bohemia, Prague in the 14th century was a cultural
center of Central Europe. Bohemia and Hungary (with Slovak territory in the North)
became part of Austria-Hungary Empire.
In 1914-1918 T. G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes formed a provisional government with the
support of Slovak leaders including the French general and astronomer Milan Rastislav
Stefanik who became a minister of war.
On October 18, 1918, T. G. Masaryk issued via cable in Paris, France, the (Washington)
Declaration of Czechoslovak Independence. He worked on this document in D.C. houses:
3620 14th Street N.W. and 1145 14th N.W. A special copy of Declaration was sent to
president Woodrow Wilson.
T. G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes founded the Republic of Czechoslovakia at the end
October, 1918. The new state was based on the Pittsburg Agreement between
American Czechs and Slovaks on May 31, 1918, signed during the Masaryk's
stay in the United States.
By 1938 Nazi Germany, Britain and France signed with Hitler at Munich, September 30,
1938, an agreement to the cession of Sudetenland, demanded by German-speaking citizens
in Bohemia, with a "guarantee" of peace by Hitler and Mussolini.
On March 14, 1939, a Slovak politician and priest Jozef Tiso, upon his return from Berlin,
proclaimed an independent Slovak republic. On March 15, 1939, Hitler made protectorates
of Bohemia and Moravia. Nazi armies marched to Prague. Slovaks rose against Nazi-
oriented regime and later fought Germans in the ill-fated Slovak National Uprising (August
1944). At the end of that year the uprising was suppressed by Germans. Special American
and British intelligence contingents sent to the Central Slovakia to evaluate situation
perished. Soviet troops with Czechoslovak contingents entered eastern Slovakia in 1944
and reached Prague in May 1944. American troops under General Patton liberated Western
Bohemia but on the Soviet insistence stopped at Pilsen. Until November 1989 "velvet"
revolution was this American contribution to the liberation of Czechoslovakia either
falsified or neglected.
In 1948 Communist seized the power in Czechoslovakia in advance of scheduled elections.
In January 1968 a liberalization movement spread explosively through Czechoslovakia.
Antonin Novotny, long the Stalinist boss of the nation, was deposed as party leader and
succeeded by Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak, who declared he intended to make communism
democratic. On August 20, 1968, Soviet-led Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia
from all directions. Dubcek was taken to Moscow and later deposed. Censorship was
tightened, persecutions of people involved in the Dubcek's Prague Spring got a green light.
Twenty years of "normalisation" followed under Gustav Husak (who in 1968 was Dubcek's
follower) and later under Husak and Milos Jakes.
P22
11. 04:50PM EUROPEAN DIV
In 1977 the present President Havel formed with a small group of intellectuals the Charter
77 movement. In 1980s the Charter 77 gained strength and crackdowns on dissidents
continued. V, Havel spent five years in jail under various sentences. Dubcek and his family
were under constant surveillance by the secret police. Human and religious rights abuses
led to an activisation of the church. A petition for religious freedoms signed over half a
million of citizens. The petition "Few sentences" calling for respect of human rights signed
many prominent citizens. In Slovakia, in March 1988, a brutal police action in Bratislava
against few thousands mostly old people marching with candles for religious freedoms
shocked Czechoslovakia and Europe. Demonstrations in Prague prompted a renewed
crackdown by the regime.
On November 17, 1989, a peaceful, approved gathering by students in central Prague on
the 50th anniversary of the Nazi action against students turned violent and started the
"velvet" revolution. A week later party Boss Milos Jakes resigns. New communist
government is formed with participation of non-communists. It survives only few days.
Another government is formed with limited communist presence. Federal parliament
eliminates article 4 from the Constitution about Communist party monopoly in political,
cultural and social life of country. President Gustav Husak resigns making possible to elect
new leaders. Internationally known dissident playwright Vaciav Havel becomes the first
non-communist president of Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years. A legendary political
figure, Alexander Dubcek, is elected to the post of the president of Federal Parliament.
In April 1990, after a long parliamentary "hyphen debate" over the name "Czecho-Slovak
Republic", a new official name of Czechoslovakia is approved: The Czech and Slovak
Federated Republic. The political attribution "socialistic" has been eliminated.
In May 1990, Dubcek publicly denounces communism as a system unable to solve the social
and cultural problems of societies. In an exclusive interview with VOA Czechoslovak in
Washington, five days before his visit to Moscow and meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev
Dubcek says that communism - both the word and its content have been discredited,
and that Czechoslovakia wants to prosper as a democracy. The first democratic elections in
44 years took place in June 1990.
(Since Mr. Bush will address Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federated Republic,
it may be expected he will be introduced by the Speaker of Parliament Alexander Dubcek
(Duhb-chek), a Slovak by origin. A. Dubcek made an interesting statement on Voice of
America during his visit in Washington, D.C., in May 1990.
Interesting quote as a background information:
Alexander DUBCEK, President of the Czechoslovakian Parliament, former leader of the
aborted '68 Prague Spring, on Voice of America, at VOA Washington studio, May 12,
1990:
" today, here at the Voice of America, I probably have exactly the same feeling as any
other listener of yours (in Czechosiovakia) who very carefully followed your every single
word on the air, each one of your voices that so helped to inform our people about what
was happening. Unfortunately, during those days, and you must be very well aware of it,
P20
11. 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
we had no chance (to get information) from our domestic media, so the Voice of America
meant so much to us. So, in my opinion, it is a good feeling (to be here and speak with you)
not only for us (the Czechs and the Slovaks), and for me personally, but I hope you at the
Voice of America also feel a great deal of satisfaction at the fact that you also were among
(those) who had helped to get things done, thus in your own humble way made that
Brezhnevite militarism and neo-stalinism a thing of the past..."
"
I have to express my thanks for everything that the staff of this radiostation have
done for us. those of us who had worked at home in difficult conditions, (for you) in your
own way helped (us) to bring down, what I would call the Czechoslovak Bastille.
Personalities of Czech and Slovak origin, contributing to the United States:
Czechs and Slovaks and Americans of Czech and Slovak origin contributed in many areas,
business, sciences, political life, arts and sports.
Here are some examples.
Czechs and Moravians in American Life
Politics and the United States:
On October 18, 1918, T. G. Masaryk issued via cable in Paris, France, the (Washington)
Declaration of Czechoslovak Independence. He worked on this document in D.C. houses:
3620 14th Street N.W. and 1145 14th N.W. A special copy of Declaration was sent to
president Woodrow Wilson.
T. G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes founded the Republic of Czechoslovakia at the end
October, 1918. The new state was based on the Pittsburg Agreement between
A
American Czechs and Slovaks on May 31, 1918, signed during the Masaryk's
stay in the United States.
Interesting note: President Masaryk's wife was American citizen Mrs. Charlotte Garique of
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Music:
Antonin Dvollak (Dvor-zhak)
Some interesting facts on Antonín Dvořák:
Lived in the U.S.A. 1892 - 1895 (with the exception of summer '84 spent in home
Bohemia). Held position of director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York
City.
Dvorák reached the summit of his mastery while staying in the United States, and here he
wrote some of his most successful works:
Symphony No. 9 in E minor "Z Nového světa" ("From the New World") op. 95
P22
AIC
(Premiered by New York Philharmonic Society orchestra at Carnegie Hall, on 16 December
1893. Composition combines melodies in the style of Indian and Negro songs with typically
Czech tunes.)
The Cello Concerto in B minor op. 104
(Often considered the finest work of its kind.)
"American" String Quartet no. 12, op. 96
"American" String Quintet op. 97
The Biblical Songs op. 99
(Settings of verses from psalms taken from the Bible of Kralice. As with the Largo of the
Ninth Symphony songs seem affected by spirituals.)
Eight Humoresques op. 101
(The seventh Humoresque in G flat became one of Dvorák's most internationally popular
pieces).
Dvorák also composed a cantata "The American Flag" (setting of the poem by Joseph
Rodman Drake, January 1893).
While working on the Symphony "From the New World," Dvorak stated, "The influence of
America can be felt by anyone who has a 'nose."
Dvorák himself influenced U.S. composers to absorb American traditional and popular
music in search of a unique national voice.
BUSINESS
Internationally renown industrialist (a Moravian) Tomás Bata (BATA SHOES), who learned
American business practices in the U.S. and built a "shoe city" in Zlin, Moravia
McDonald Restaurants Founder Ray A. Kroc (a Czech by origin)
SCIENCE
B-1,
Nobel Prize American Winner by name Cech (a Czech by roots)
POLITICAL LIFE
Chicago mayor Cermák, members of U.S. Congress Vanik (of Vanik -Jackson law),
congressman Mrazek (N.Y.)
MUSIC
Composers and educators united in Moravian Church, composer Antonin Dvorák (see
above) known for his Symphony "From the New World" and other works composed while
teaching music in the U.S.A., operatic soprano Jarmila Novotná, conductor Rafael Kubelik,
P23
11. 07 90 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
piano virtuoso Rudolf Firkusný, composer Karel Husa, pop music performer Paul Simon and
jazz artist Jan Hammer.
FILM AND THEATRE
Film directors Milos Forman and Ivan Passer, theatre director Jon Jorry, actors George
Voskovec of famous American film "12 angry men" who was during the war with another
famous Czech actor-comedian Jan Werich one of the first speakers announcing on Voice
of America, Kim Novak of Hollywood.
SPORTS
Tennis stars Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova
The Slovaks in American life
SCIENCE
Nobel Prize American Winner for medicine by name Gajdusek (Ghay-du-shek), a third
generation Slovak.
Parachute inventor Stefan Banic (Bah-nich) / U.S. patent e-1,2,3
Father Joseph Murgas (Mur-ghash) wirelees telegraphy D-1,2
The U.S. astronaut Eugene Cernan, Gemini 9, commander of Apollo 17
D-1,2
Nobel Prize American Winner by name sech (a Czech by roots)
MILITARY
Iwo Jima Memorial: one of the men from the most famous battle
photographs ever taken, raising the U.S. flag - was a Slovak by origin Mikhael Strank
(Sh-trank)
History
E-1,2,3,4,5
Captain John Smith on his first trip to America in 1607 brought with him two
Slovak carpenters. They died during their first year in Jamestown of Typhoid fever,
which killed almost all the new settlers of Jamestown. They are buried in Jamestown.
Captain John Smith previously served as a mercenary of the Habsburgs and in his memoirs
claims he hired the two Slovaks since Slovaks are the best carpenters in the world
SPORTS
P24
1'1. 50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV
Famous post-war American hockey star was Stan Mikita of Chicago Black Hawks.
SOME ADDITIONAL NOTES
Czechs and Slovaks contributed new words and expressions to English lanuage, such as
"robot" (plyawright Karel Capek), "lightness of being" (writer Milan Kundera) and "Velvet
revolution' (probably anonymous, Fall 1989). On the other hand, dissident writer, today
Czechoslovak president, Václav Havel in his 1989 essay "Word about Word" (October 1989)
pointed to strange history of some expressions and appealed not to let the word "peace"
lose its meaning.
The Americans as well as the rest of the world learned from Czechoslovak history that
"appeasement" toward an agressor doesn't pay (Munich, 1938).
Czech and Slovaks in their majority always appreciated U.S. assistanance, be it at the time
of creation of independent Czechoslovak republic in 1918, during the WWII (american
military missions in Slovakia, liberation of south-western Bohemia), postwar offer of
Marshall plan, or present day efforts.
On less serious note:
The Czechs like to dance "polka". American forces in WW IL beloved song "Beer barrel
polka" is attributed to Czech composer Jaromir Vejvoda. The Czechs are beer makers and
beer lovers.
The Slovaks dance "ground-dance" (odzemok, pronn.: ohd-ze-mokh). The Slovaks are
wine makers and wine lovers.
Sometimes they jokingly accuse each others of mutual bad influence: Slovaks learned to
drink beer from Czechs and the Czechs learned to drink wine from Slovaks.
P25
AIC YOA* 06 20 IT
A
Pittsburgh Agreement of May 31,1918
The representatives of Slovak and Czech or-
ganizations in the United States, the Slovak
League, the Czech National Federation, and the
Crech Catholic Alliance, discussed the Casch-
Slovak question and our previous manifestoss
as to a program, in the presence of the presi-
dent of the Czecho-Slovak National Council,
whereupon the following agreement was
reached:
We approve a political program alming to
unite the Crechs and Slovaks into an indepen-
dent State comprising the Czech tands and Blo-
vakia.
Slovakia shall have its own administration,
its own parliament, and its own courts.
The Slovak language shall be the official lan-
guage in schools, in governmental offices, and in
public life generally.
The Czecho-Slovak State shall be a republic;
its Constitution shall be democratic.
The organization of the cooperation of the
Czechs and Stovake in the United States shall be
broadened and adapted by mutual consent as
necessity and changing conditions shall require.
DETAILED REGULATIONS (Podrobné #-
stanovenia) concerning the establishment of the
Caecho-Slovak State are left to the liberated
Caschs and-Slovaka and their legal representa-
shows
Signatures
W
Potts
burg eet en &
P 0 2
11. 07. 90 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
28
B-1
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 19
Ray A. Kroc Dies at 81;
James Storrc
Built McDonald's Chain
Of The Nati
James 3. Storrow Jr., publish
The Nation magazine from 1965 to
OAK BROOK, III., Jan. 14 (AP)
"There's a lot more future in hamburg-
died Friday at his home in Manh
Ray A. Kroc, who created the McDon-
ers than in baseball. Baseball isn't
He was $ years old and also 1
ald's Corporation, his fast-food empire,
baseball anymore."
home in Stormville, N.Y.
died in San Diego today. He was 81
Mr. Kroc cut a commanding figure,
years old.
Mr. Storrow died of a heart all
Mr. Kroc, who once also owned the
his thin hair brushed straight back, his
San Diego Padres baseball team, died
custom-made blazers impeccable, his
his family said He had had an (
tion to replace a heart valve in 19
of a heart ailment in Scripps Memorial
eyes constantly checking his restau-
had had & heart attack last March
Hospital here, said Dick Starmann,
rants for cleanliness. The bulky rings
vice president of corporate communi-
on his fingers glinted as he ate bis ham-
A descendant of Thomas Jef
cations for McDonald's.
burgers with both hands.
and of families long prominent &
"I guess to be an entrepreneur you
news and public life in Boston, Mi
Pioneer in Fast-Food Field
have to have & large ego, enormous
TOW was a lifelong liberal in
pride and an ability to inspire others to
and on civil liberties and other
follow your lead," he once said.
having had his Interest whetted
By ERIC PACE
But his sort of leadership entailed a
Sacco-Vanzetti case during his y
Ray A. Kroc, the builder of the
wish that his followers be, like him.
United From International
He was born in Boston and gra
McDonald's hamburger empire,
driven by an unending urge to build and
helped change American business and
Ray Kree
from the Milton Academy and,
to excel.
from Harvard College. He serve
eating habits by deftly orchestrating
"Some people reach their level of ex-
Navy in World War II and saw de
the manufacture of billions of small
pectations pretty quickly," be once ob-
beef patties.
Mr. Kroc was also unremittingly in-
the Pacific
served. "We want someone who will
Mr. Kroc, a former plano player and
get totally involved in the business. If
tense in training his franchise owners
salesman of paper cups and milkshake
his ambition is to reach the point where
at what he called McDonald's "Ham-
Film Company Executive
machines, made a fortune estimated at
he can play golf four days a week or
burger University" in Elk Grove, III. It
After the was, Mr. Storrow a
$500 million through his tireless, in-
play gin rummy for a cent a point, in-
gave a brief training course that made
Harvard Business School and
spired tinkering with the management
stead of a tenth, we don't want him in a
the graduate a "Bachelor of Hambur-
with a former Harvard recomms
of the McDonald's drive-ins and restau-
McDonald's restaurant."
gerology with a minor in french fries."
log Chase, in founding the Gene
rants, which specialize in hamburgers
Understandably, many McDonald's
Skilled H.U. instructors told now
crofilm Company, an early =
and other fast-food items.
executives decorated their offices with
service concern, becoming #
McDonald's owners how to clean their
He was a pioneer in automating and
scrolls inscribed with his favorite inspi-
as well as a CO-OWDST. He also
grills, how to flip a hamburger and how
standardizing operations in the fiercely
rational dictum:
treasurer and co-owner of the
to tell when one was done: "It starts
competitive, multibillion-dollar fast-
Thayer Company, a food and a
Nothing in the world can take the
turning brown around the edge.'
food industry. He concentrated on
carn.
place of persistence.
Mr. Kruc met his wife, Joan, in a res-
swiftly growing suburban areas, where
Talent will not; nothing is more com-
taurant in 1956 when be and she had
Mr. Storrow went on to bec
family visits to the local McDonald's
mon than unsuccessful men with
other spouses, They were married in
executive of Trident Films,
became something like tribal rituals.
talent.
1963, and she went on to found and be-
made documentaries about
He started his first McDonald's in
Genius will not; unrewarded genius
come the head of Operation Cork, a DR-
Recinvell, Currier & Ives an
Chicago in 1955, and by 1973 he had a
is almost a proverb.
tional education program to help the
subjects. In the early 60's, Trid
chain of more than 2,500 outlets, most
Education will not; the world is full
families of alcholics. It went into
made two feature-ledgth film
of them run by holders of McDonald's
of educated derelicts.
operation in 1976 and had its $1 million
Crocked Road," based on a
franchises. The chain spanned nine
Persistence and determination alone
budget paid for by the Kroc Founda-
West novel, and "Kid Rodelo,
countries and employed 130,000 people
are omnipotent.
tion, which in turn was financed by
on a novel by the Western writ
in 1973, and its 1972 sales of $1.03 billion
McDonald's revenues.
L'Amour.
made It America's largest meal-serv-
ing organization of the time, surpass-
Mr. Kroc established the McDonald's
ing even the United States Army.
headquarters in Oak Brook, III., A few
What made Mr. Kroc so successful
miles from the Chicago suburb of Oak
Braths
Braths
was the variety of virtuoso refinements
Park, where he was born Oct. 5, 1902,
he brought to fast-food retailing. He
the son of an unsuccessful real estate
TMAN-DY. Donald, Husband
Altman, Donald
Ginsburg, Lucille
Petrie, D
Sylvia. Father of Stephen and
Arond, Eva
Gotteank, Sochie
Pfaiffer,
carefully chose the recipients of his
man whose family came from Bohemia
fames. Son of Harvey Solemen.
in what is now Czechoslovakia.
Baldinger, Joneh
Gresnberg, Selemon
Piscletta
Brother of Chester. Grandfather
McDonald's franchises, seeking
of Brian and Michael. In me-
Bater, Peter
Hadds, George
Pollack.
managers who were skilled at personal
Sold Milkshake Machines
moriam contributions may be
Bester, Rally
Hadler, Morris
Raymon
made to Fund for Blood and
relations; he relentlessly stressed
Ray Albert Kroc went to public
Blumenson, Philip
Hadler, Lucille
Reff, Arl
Cancer Research, Box 179, 525
quality control, banning from his ham-
E. 68 St, NY, NY.10021.
Brandt, William
Harris, Norman
Resenth
schools in Oak Park, but did not gradu-
burgers such filler materials as soy-
Braverman, Edward
Harrison, Manrietta
Rost, $8
ate from high school In World War I,
AROND-Eve (Fisher), 87. On
Canterella, Cacella
Hausfather, Nathan
Rowley,
beans. And, as the 70's went on, his
like his fellow Oak Parker, Ernest
January 3, 1084, beloved wife of
company, seeking even closer control
Hemingway, he served as an ambu-
Michael, loving mother of Les-
Chappell, George
Herzberg, Sen
Russe,
ter, HI and Natalle Feingold.
Chilewich, Michael
Johanson. Elsie
Scaville
of local operations, placed more em-
lance driver. Then, after holding vari-
Addred grandmother of David,
Cobb, Ade
Kaye, Marrill
Sherma
phasis on company-owned outlets, less
ous short-term jobs, be spent 17 years
Judi, Carol Neidlich, Roberta
Palant, Ellst Feingold. Manya
Cole, Leon
Kemethor, Minnie
Slegal,
on franchising.
with the Lily Tulip Cup Company,
Befor and Paul, loving great-
Collins, Pat
Kisin, Milton
Smith-J
Mr. Kroc also made extensive, inno-
becoming sales manager for the Mid-
grandmother of Danny Josh,
Dane, Richard
Kraindier, Harry
Smyer,
vative use of part-time teen-age help;
Ellse, Shans and Emily.
dle West.
Flaxman, Charles
Lashew, Louis
Storrow
he struggled to keep operating costs
But by 1941, "I felt it was time I was
BALDINGER-Jonah, on Jan. 11,
Garvin, Mary
LIVY, Allen
Tornac,
down, to make possible McDonald's
1984. Beloved husband of Mario-
Gollert, Harold
Malcie, Maria
Vive, N
on my own," Mr. Kroc once recalled in
rie, adored father of Jane and
perennially low prices, and he applied
Michael. Services were held.
Gliman, Altrad
Mitchell, Irwin
Weinbs
an interview, and he became the exclu-
complex team techniques to food
sive sales agent for & machine that
BATOR-Peter A. On January
preparation that were were reminis-
could prepare five milkshakes at a
13, 1984. Husband of Josnna c.
CANTARELLA-Coola We at
GARVIN-Mary M
Sturges Bafor, father of Mrs.
WP Stewart and Company, Inc.,
cent of professional football.
Ite), Jan. 13. 1984.
time.
William Philip Johnson, Alexa
desply mourn the loss of our
of the late Charl
Influential in Sports
Then, in 1954, Mr. Kroc heard about
5. Bater. Anthony B. Bafor and
good friend and associate and
mother of Joseph
Timony C. Bator. Brother of
extend decuast sympathy to her
and Elizabeth R.
After McDonald's had made him a
two brothers, Richard and Maurice
Paul M. Bator and Francis M.
bereaved family.
mother of Williar:
McDonald, the owners of a fast-food
Bafor. Visitation at the Frank E.
major figure on the business scene, Mr.
Campbell Funeral Charge from
CHAPPELL-George 5., J5., 75.
and Katherine :
A long time resident of Lake
Travers, Guthrie,
Kroc became influential in the sports
emporium in San Bernadino, Calif.,
3-5 PM and 7-9 PM, Monday,
Forest, Illinois born in Pelham
ranGarvin. Funer
her huring the Gan Diego Padres
that was using several of his mixers.
January 16. Memorial service at
the Church of The Heavenly
Manor, N.Y. died TUES, Jan 10.
from the McMi
EUROPEAN
Husband of Caroline Smith
Home, 2001 FI
*VOA
5.0 P M
T
"I
for $10 million in 1974.
As a milkshake specialist, Mr. Kroc
the Church of The Meavenly
Husband of Caroline Smith
Home, 2001 Fla
later explained, to - what kind
Rost. 2 M. form Street at " AM,
Chapsell. Father of Barbars $
Brocklyn Funeral
The new and enger was Wher was
Terrify, Jersiery 17. in Has of
(Mrs. Fairmate Carpenter, Jr.),
Secred Heart of Mr
notably outspoken: After the Padres
of an operation was making a at one
to Beakman
Downfown The Graten
Susan c. (Mrs, Edward J. Mc.
R.C. Church, 307 EL
made three arrors and a costly base-
time."
School or Harvard University
Cabe, Jr.) Williams $ (Patri-
Informent Calven
would beforence
cia M.) 111. Grand-
Denations to the
running blunder in a 1974 game agaist
"I went to see the McDonald opera-
father 07-12 Grant Frandfather
AMount St. Urade,
tion,' Mr. Kroc went on in a memoir
BATOR-Peter
The Board of
of 1. A memoria service will be
or Madonna Resid
the Houston Astros, he used the San
Trustees
held on Privays Jan 13, 4PM at
pect Park West, a
Diego Stadium public address system
published in The New York Times, and
ry-Beckman Do mouth Hospital
Therchurch the Helly Spirit,
is deply apprect
'to tell the team's fans, "I suffer with
suddenly insights gained during his
record with . do of loss
Like Forger, (HARGIS, Please
Sun, 2-5 and 7-9PAR
the death of Mr
A.
Emit flews Contributions may
you; I've never seen such stupid ball
years in the paper-cup business and the
on Friday, Jay JORY 13th Mr.
be made d'Rush-Presbyterien-
milkshake machine business mingled
Bator's associat with the Hos-
S7. Lukes Medical Center Leuks-
GELLERT-HEFOIC
playing in my life." The fans laughed
pital began in THAN 35 wherene was
mis Research Fund, Chicago, III
denly on January
and cheered.
fruitfully in his mind.
elected to the and Beekman
"I can't pretend to know what it is
Downtown When Beek-
CHILEWICH-Michael. The an-
shed sen of the 16th
In the major leagues of American
man nergan-With New York in-
tire Yeshlve University family
and Derethy Gelh
firmary in November 1979, Mr.
note with scrrow the passing of
brother and broth
business, Mr. Kroc's career was UZ)-
certainly, it's not some divine vision,"
the beloved brother of Aron
Marcie and Dr. Sta
usual because its snormous success
be continued. "Perhaps it's a combina-
Bater was siscted Trustee, Vica
President and & member of the
Chilewich, Master Builder of the
loving uncle of Rio
University end Founder and
ra and Nancy Gling
was so late in coming. He was in his
tion of your background and experi-
Executive Committee of the con-
friend only Albert Elnstein Col-
nephew of the late
solidated institution. Mr. Bafor
50's when he went into the hamburger
ence, your instincts, your dreams.
Was genuinely concerned with
lage of Modicine. The Chile-
derson and Sadle
fostering the goals of the new
wiches have long been ardent
Sere Nathanson a
business, making himself president of
"Whatever it was, I saw it in the Mc-
hospital, and be gave
supporters of the University and
Fidell and the lafe
the McDonald's Corporation in 1955. In
Donald operation, and in that moment,
its medical school. We extend
zen. Services Swand
of his time and telents to the de-
I suppose, I became an entrepremeur. I
our heartfull condolences to the
is of 10:30 AM at
1968 be became chairman, and he
velopment of New York Infirme-
decided to go for broke."
ry-Beskman Country Hospital
entire family. May they be cam-
side", 74 St and
moved farther up his own corporate
forted among the mourness of
Ave.
23 & full-service hospital for the
ladder by taking the title of senior
Franchise Is Initiated
Zion and Jerusalem.
Lower Manhattan community.
His wite counsel has been Inve-
Dr. Narman Lamm, President
GELLERT-Marcid
chairman in 1977, when McDonald's
And SQ Mr. Kroc talked to the Mc-
luable and he will be long re-
YESHIVA INVERSITY
purvsyed more than $3.7 billion worth
membered and analy missed
Mon. Herber? Tenzer, Chairman
Members of the DI
Donald brothers about opening fran-
Board of Trustees
Rehabilitation Met
of fast-food fare, outselling its arch-
by all his grateful colleagues.
Burton P. Resnick, Chairman
Vincent's Hospital
chise outlets patterned on their San
We convey heartfell sympathy
Center, New York
competitor, the Pillsbury-owned
Bernardino restaurant, which sold
to his family.
Board of Overseers
express their 50m
Burger King, by 4 to
FArs. Rush H. Kress,
Albert Einstoin
College of Medicine
less of their extem
Dr. Harrid Gollert
McDonald's shares were a Wall
hamburgers for 15 cents, french fries
Chairman of the Board
for 10 cents and milk-shakes for 20
CHILEWICH-Midael. The Offi-
member of this dep
SESTER-Rolly. Tike loss we feel
Street favorite in the early 70's, before
is shared by anyone who had the
curs and Directors of The Amer-
Gellert was € care
cents.
Ican Friends of The Assolcation
physician WHOSE
the bear market took hold. They
special pleasure of experiencing
Eventually, the McDonalds and Mr.
reached a peak in January 1973 of
your style, your numer, your no.
for The Welfare of Soldlers in 15-
knowledge and his
real, Inc., are seddened at the
loved by all who kg
Kroc worked out a deal whareby he was
Tal blessed honesty and guts and
passing of Micheel Chilewich,
will be missed. Our
around 77 - which meant investors
we want you to know once again
to give them a small percentage of the
who contributed his council and
are extended to at
who bought them when they were first
how much we love you. We will
support for the State of Israel
other members of hi
offered to the public in the mid-1960's
gross of his operation. In due course the
bs having a memorial service
and for the wall being of the sol-
Samual Sverdlik, N
5000L
first of Mr. Kroc's McDonald'ses was
diers. We extend heartfelt COM-
Department of R
had seen their wealth multiply more
several Old Friends
defences to his wife Mina, TO his
Medicine, St. Vince
opened in Des Plaines, another Chicago
BESTER-Rolly. We mourn the
brother Artn fa his children and
and AREY
than sixtyfold. And even in early 1979,
suburb, which had long been famous as.
loss of 4 loved and loving riend,
other members of his family.
10
E
after various Wall Street vicizsitudes,
who shared her love of life with
Bun Gelzhels,
the site of an annual Methodist en-
those investors' holdings were worth 35
so many-encouraging. nurtur-
Chairman of the Board
campment.
ing, caring, She has left us all In
Joseph Landow, Pres
GILMAN-ALATES
times their original price.
her debt. We will never stop mis-
Brigadler General Halm Granit
bert Einstein Coffe
Over the years, Mr. Kroc was repeat-
Business proved to be excellent, and
sing her.
North American Representative
cine deeply regrets
Mr. Kroc soon set about opening other
Joan and Bernie Berrow
CHILEWICH-MIChasi. We are
of Dr. Affred Grime
edly involved in controversy. The au-
Emeritus and For
McDonald'ses. The second and third,
BLUMENSON-Phillp, on Jan.
deeply saddened by the passing
man of our Departm
there Max Boas and Steve Chain
13. beloved husband of Carol. be
of Michael Chllewich. our devof-
charged in a 1976 book, "Big Mac: the
both in California, opened later in 1955;
ad friend. Our sincere condoler-
macology, who help
loved father of Laura, Diane and
derds of excellence
within five years there were 228 and
Amy. and addred grandfether of
as to his WITE Mina and the an-
Paul Adam, Arms: Nonh, Erica,
fire family.
the development of
Unauthorized Story of McDonald's,"
in 1961 he bought dut the McDonald
non. One of the
that McDonald's had exploited its em-
and Michele. Services today. at
Art Auction Committee for the
scientists In his fli
brothers.
Temple Beth-El. $ Old MIII Rd.
Association for Welfare of
ployees by forcing them to take lie-de-
man. who also serve
In choosing franchise owners to man-
Great Neck, at 12:30PM.
Soldiers In isreet
as Associate Dean
tector tests and by appropriating their
BLUMENSON-Pll. The Offi-
COBE-Ada J., on January 13.
Studies, Was a
I
tips. The architecture of McDonald's
age the new outlets, Mr. Kroc and his
cers and Employees of Blumen-
1984, refired librarian of the
professional achiev
associates looked, as he explained it in
son-Sussman Co., Inc. record
Brooklyn Library, sister of Con-
personal qualities 1
outlets was sometimes criticized, as
1971, "for somebody who's good with
with deep scrrow and a profound
stance C.Pierce of Sarasula,
remembered.
was the nutritional content of the food.
sense of loss the death of Philip
Fla. Virginia Night of Lendon.
Ernat Я
However, one of the critics, Jean
people; we'd rather get a salesman
Blumenson on Jan. 13, 1984. Mr.
England, Richard Cobb of the
than an accountant or even a chef."
Blumenson served admirably as
Bronx NY and the late John
Alb
Mayer, the Harvard nutritionist, once
a Founder and Officer of the
Robert, M.D. and Carl Cobb. In-
College
said: "I am nonfanatical about McDon-
Among the license holders they 88-
Corporation and was active as
terment Pine Grove Cemetery,
lected were a member of the House of
an attorney and real estate bro-
South Trure, MORE. on TUES.,
ker for over furty-five years. He
January 17, 1934. Donations may
GINSBURG-Lucille
ald's; as a weekend treat, It is clean
Representatives from Virginia, a
will be greatly missed.
be made to Reserv Hill Home,
Jesse, long farm ,
and fast."
In 1972 Senator Harrison A. Williams
chemist, & golf professional, dentists,
Herman R. Sussman President
Hawthorne, NY.
NYC, In recent decar
Blumensm-Suitmen Co., Inc.
Tucson, died Januar
COLE-Leon, age 87. Born in Chi-
Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, sug-
lawyers, advertising men and even a
SLUMENSON-Philip. Termel
CEOO. March 14, 1896. Died Jan-
former Under Secretary of Labor.
Bett-El of Great Neck records
very 12, 1984 at his home in Sa-
gested that there was a link between
with profound the
rasola, Florida. Survived by his
year, Dear wife of il
the more than $200,000 that Mr. Kroc
Streesed Grass Roots
ing of its longtime member. We
wife Derothy, 0 son Thomas
beloved and caring
extend heartfelf sympathy to his
Cole, a daughter Alice Brill. 7
her children Mildred
had contributed to President Nixon's
Under Mr. Kroc's persistent goad-
bereaved family.
grandchildren and 2 great
Rumack and Ruth
re-election campaign and the Nixon
ing, McDonald's insisted that franchise
Marlorie B. Kurcles, President
grandchildran,
Balter, devoted a
Jereme K. Davidson, Rabbi
owners run their own outlets. It also
COLLINS-Pat. Husband of
grandmother of Jal
Administration's position on the ques-
BRANDT-WILliam. of Holly.
Charlotte C. Brather of Sr. Imel-
Kathe, Lucy, David,
tion of teen-age wage restrictions - a
poured hundreds of millions of dollars
wood, Florida, formerly of New
da and Sr. Patricia at Drishane
Susan, good and
matter that was of prime importance
into advertising to the point where
York City. Deleved husband of
Convent, County Cerk, Ireland.
friend. She shared
Ruth. Devoled father of Linds
Also survived by several nieces
wisdom and love. W
to McDonald's.
the head of another fast-food company
(Edward) Hyman of New Jer.
and nephews. Friends may call
her. Funeral Sunde
And when, after a stormy stint in the
said in 1978 that consumers were "so
sey. Charlshed grandfather of
of Frank E. Campbell, 1076 Ma-
15, PM at Nassau
Jason. Loving brother of
dison Avenue at ST Street, Sun-
pels, 55 North Ste
baseball limelight, Mr. Kroc an-
preconditioned by McDonald's adver-
Mildred Smith. Funeral services
day, 2-5 and 7-9PM. Funeral
Great Neck, NY.
nounced in August 1979 that he was giv-
tising blanket that the hamburger
Sunday, 11:30 A.M., at "The
Mess at Chapai of Mary Man-
Riverside", 2220 Hollywood Bou-
ning Walsh, York Avenue at 72
ing up operating control of the Padres,
GREENBERG-Solan
would taste good even if they left the
levera, Hollywood, Florida.
Street. Monday, 9:30AM. Pri-
loved husband of Ani
he said, with typical crustiness:
meat out."
BRAVERMAN - Dr. Edward.
vate Interment at Artist's Came-
father of Carol Kapi
Temple B'rail Sholom Rockvilla
hery, Woods/ock, New York.
grandfather of Robe
Centre meurns with SOCTOW the
DANA-Richer's Henry. On Jan-
zabeth. Services todi
loss of the asserned member.
vary 6. NYC. Husband of Nine
West End Chapais, N°
Hearthclt conditionces to the en-
Mantgomery Dana. Father of
tire family.
Richard H. Dans, Jr. of Albany,
Robert D. Edulation, President
Cornella Dana Mead of Sodus
HADDA-Goorge M.,
Established 1838
Maryl Gallatin,
Paint, NY and Namalie Dana of
plemat American Bo
Sisterhood President
gery, Fellow Interna
Placing
NYC. Memorial service Man-
Barry Dov Schwartz, Rabbi
day, January 14 11 AM St.
lega of Surgeons. $1
Jan 9, 1984, age 68, B
Four Generations of
a classified
James Church, Madison Ave
and 71 St. Those who wish may
band of Annemarie,
Sympathetic Understanding
ANNOUNCEMENTS OF
ad? Call (212)
DEATHS MAY RE TELE-
contribute la his memory to the
father of Janel, Cerl,
Olller-Qualls School of Music, 24
and Allan Tchin, devi
herman's
PHONED TO (212) 354-3900
East 95 5f, NYC of to Columbia
er of Eva:5aigo and
354-3900
UNTIL 5:30 P.M. FOR WEEK.
NYC. Presvosierian Medical Center,
rence. Service Wad, 1
DAY EDITIONS, UNTIL 2:30
Schwertz Brothers
P.M. ON SATURDAY FOR
Chapel, 114-03 Que
between
SUNDAY EDITION. IN NEW
The Offi-
Forest Hills. Contril
FLATSUSH MEMORIAL CHAPEL, INC:
JERSEY (201) 623-3900:
of the Fur
charity in lieu of fli
DIRECTORS:
ARNOLD and SHERMAN
A.M. and
WESTCHESTER CO. AND
record with
mourn our terrible Ics
WILLIAM a. SHERMAN
NORTHERN NEW YORK
great seciness the untimely D859-
JOSEPH SHERMAN
Ing of one of our founders and
HADLER-or. Morris
5:30 P.M.
STATE COUNTIES (914) 949-
members of the board of
cille. Loving mother
5300; NASSAU CO. ($16) 747-
1253 CONEY ISLAND AVE, E'KLYN, N,Y, (nr, Art. J)
0600, SUPPOLA CO. (616)
trustees, May his memory
of Nortin and Mone.
377-7200
682-1900; CONNECTICUT
forever be disleasing.
grandparents of Jet
(203) 349-7767.
Model, Fresident
Liena. Services today
the Westchester Riv
Sansal Blech Rabbl
West Broad St, Ant Var
P 0 4
AIC
EUROPEAN
C-1
STEFAN BANIC
1870 - 1941
Stefan Banic's neighbors in Greenville probably considered the balding, mid-
die aged Immigrant coal miner a little crazy in 1914, when he came home from
Washington, D.C. with a patent for the world's first working parachute.
Today, seventy-five years later, we are gathering In Greenville, PA to honor the
man and his invention - recognition he never received during his life.
Stefan Banic was born November 23, 1870, In Nestich, present day Smolenice,
in the Trnava District, Slovakia, In Northern Hungary.
He was employed by count Palffy, who dismissed him for trying to Improve the
conditions of his people. Later, Banic was refused enrollment to high school be-
cause of his Slovak consciousness.
Stefan Banic then came to America where he settled In Greenville, PA while
here he worked as a coal miner, stone mason and was employed by the Chicago
Bridge & Iron Company, where he Improved production through his innovative
Ideas. Banic also completed technical school at night.
After developing the parachute, Stefan Banic successfully parachuted from a
building in Washington, D.C. before a large crowd. At the request of the Army,
he successfully made a Jump from an aircraft.
The patent for the parachute was received on August 25, 1914, the same week
Germany invaded Belgium and touched off World War I.
Stefan Banic donated his patent rights to the fledgling Army Air Corps, which
worked from hot air balloons during World War I. Out of gratitude, the Army and
the American Society for the Promotion of Aviation made him an honorary member.
Stefan Banic returned to his homeland and Smolenice, in 1921, which was by
then part of Czecho-Slovakia, where he lived until his death on January 2, 1941
at age 70.
Stefan Banic's Invention, the parachute, gained military prominence during World
War II. He never knew how Important his Invention was to become to our Armed
Forces. However, because of his foresight and remarkable courage, many men's
lives were saved and our soldiers were able to reach positions that would have
been Inaccessible prior to the parachute.
AMERICA OWES STEFAN BANIC A DEBT OF GRATITUDE
-1-
DIV.
PRINTER'S NO. 1946
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
C-2
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No. 128
Session of
1989
INTRODUCED BY ROBBINS, DININNI, FARGO GRUITZA AND LaGROTTA,
JUNE 5, 1989
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON RULES, JUNE 5, 1989
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
1 Honoring Stefan Banic, a Slovak immigrant, on the 75th
2
anniversary of the patenting of his invention of the
3
parachute.
4
WHEREAS, Stefan Banic was born on November 23, 1870, in
5 Nestich, present day Smolenice, in the Trnava District,
6 Slovakia, Northern Hungary, and
7
WHEREAS, Stefan Banic was employed by Count Palffy, who
8 dismissed him for trying to improve the conditions of his
9 people. Later, Banic was refused enrollment to high school
10 because of his Slovak consciousness; and
11
WHEREAS, Banic came to America where he settled in
12 Greenville, Pennsylvania, and remained until 1921; and
13
WHEREAS, He worked as a coal miner and stone mason and was
14 employed by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company, where he
15 improved production through his innovative ideas. Banic also
16 completed a hight technical school; and
17
WHEREAS, Stefan Banic developed his parachute and
18 successfully parachuted from a building in Washington, D.C.,
POS
AIC * O A * WIO:O 06 20 tt
1 before a large crowd; and
2
WHEREAS, At the request of the Army, Banic successfully
C-3
3 parachuted from an aircraft; and
4
WHEREAS, Banic received his patent for his parachute on
5 August 25, 1914, the same week that Germany invaded Belgium and
6 touched off World War I; and
7
WHEREAS, Banic donated his patent rights to the fledgling
8 Army Air Corps, which worked from hot are balloons during World
9 War I. Out of gratitude, the Army and the American Society for
10 the Promotion of Aviation made Banic an honorary member; and
11
WHEREAS, Banic, a Slovak, returned to Smolenice, which was by
12 then part of Ceecho-Slovakia, and lived another 20 years. He
13 died January 2, 1941, at 70 years of age; therefore be it
14
RESOLVED (the Senate concurring), That the General Assembly
15 honor Stefan Banic, a Slovak immigrant, on the 75th anniversary
16 of the patenting of his invention of the parachute.
@
E30L82RDG/19890H0125R1946
2
POP
11 07. 90 4:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
Page 4
JEDNOTA, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1985
TRUTH AT
D
MY TABLE
By Joseph C. Krajsa, KSGG
Promoting Murgas Stamp
Slovak Heritage Month
The Senate of the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania passed Ree-
olution 82 designating the month of
November 83 "Slevak Heritage
Month" The Resolution was intro-
duced by our member
from Reading Permsylvania,
Senator Michael A C Pake and
Senator John J. Schumaker, 18th
District in which Jadnota is
The Senate
contrad the outdenday contribu-
lions of Father
Walkes
Barra,
Mged the Clizan Acbisory
of the
Postal Service to Commen-
ordive
stamp
Telegraphy Transmission 11/23/95
Father Joseph Murges was bdrn
wireless messages could be trans-
on February 12. 1664 in Tajov (Ja.
mitted over land for great distances.
brokova), Slovake by his you!!!
Father Murgas, by his individual
Father Murges had an indination
work, has earned his place
for sciences. While studying fer the
die a pignes? experiments and in-
pristhood a the sentiriary, among
contor in the latt of Wireless tale
the subjects studied were exerc-
graphy. Me and becomeded in Irans
astronomy, and advanced
miding By voice, Thus from wire-
provide
less Megraphy evolved what is
$1 1888 he was ordained to the
known today as Radio. how taken
priesthood and was assigned am a
for granted, Out on reflection, SD
oursia Its the bereh of Dubove,
marvelous and mystifying.
Slovant). Holder envolled as an ad-
At the start of this century, there
Vanced studatti the Expirical Oil
were many experimenters whose
the or viorina, where he pioneered
efforts were no less outstanding
in the expeniment at wireless tele-
than those whose names fill the
aradity.
&
a the United
history books. But, Father Joseph
Murges, for one, drew the eyes of
contin
the communications world to his ex-
export
perments in Wikes-Barre.
Alice Brankingen, # her Afticle
"Stak Mari
Radios Fordetten
LAR COMMUNI-
said Some
early
BOD
AIC
EUROPEAN
you
the Murgas Amalleur Radio
recreated Statemed 1905 Murs
experiment. R was a thrilling
ment to see a repeat performar
using the same type of equipm
that Murger Lised. The crowd
was gathered in both Scranton
Wilkes-Barre was just as promin
es the one in 1905. Comman
Berald A. Copple, USN, represe
the the Chief of Naval Operatic
U.S. Navy, gave a deserving trib
to the contributions of Fr. Murg
Father Murgas inventions.
still regarded as brillent and ahe
of their time, Certainly his.
deserves a prominent piece in
communications history.
His work. however, did not
whout recognition after This
on May 11, 1922 In 1939. on,
10th Anniversary of be death,
then independent Slovak Repul
named its only breadcasting
after him and also issued for
due stamps, in #46
OFF a STATE IN
70% THE DOLLED SEA due
& member of 02.Nabook
Middletown,
Coolidge appointed Father
Name
and Previous
or 2020
No. in abdien 1103.
#
before no ared,
Commission.jt
STATE
towers
the Universal Aethor Telegraphy,
JEDNOTA
Ama person
FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UP UNITED
of the United States of America and Cente
with
JOSEPH a KRASA, KSGG,
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
ADDRESS withine P.O. Ddx 150, Participants Must
Telephone: (717)
Shia businessmen folitied # can
pany with Father Murgas, known as
Company. This brought some
money to assist Father Murgas in
his experiments. Wireless
were eracted to Wilkes-Barre and
Scranton. The Wilkes-Barre station
was located where she present Sa-
ched Heart Cluich poivent stands
on Madison Street. The Scranton
etation was located in the rear of
No. 914 East Alder Street
On November 23. 1905, M 2:00
P.M., Father Murgas held a public
demonstration of transmitting and
receiving messagés between his
two stations. There were about 100
persons present at the Wilkes-Barre
station and at large number at the
Scranton design The dificers and
directors of the new company were
on hand, together with public of
ficials, néwspaper reporters, and
close friends of Father Murgas.
The United States Navy at this
time was very much delated the
wireless communications. to # the
reficent that the U.S. Navy consid-
gred the event so important that *
sent Commander Total Administ
S.S. Robison from Washington,
PARKING 3 x
amonstra Theye who were
present were new Name:
ges and many WITH
at in Dur. know
The demos
By
of wireless cigar
within distine
United States $15.00
VOA
6 2
Second Older
Blovak,
Entered
sylvania, under
EUROPEAN
D-2
Pride in Slovak Origin
D-1
by Joseph A. Mikus
Cervan
25. EUGENE ANDREW CERNAN
It is impossible to bring this series to an end without
mentioning one of the most famous astronauts of our times,
Captain Eugene Andrew Cernan whose ancestors come
from the Kysuca valley, North Slovakia,
Starting on June 6, 1966, he orbited the earth with
Th. Stafford for three days on Gemini 9. On May 18. 1969.
he was a crewman with Th. Stafford and J. W. Young on
the Apollo 10 space flight lasting eight days. Aboard the
lunar module Cernan and Stafford orbited the moon at
a distance of 10 miles and returned to the Apollo Cabine
to land on May 26, 1969 on one of the Samoa Islands
Finally, from December 8, to December 19. 1972 Cernan was
commander on the Apollo 17 lunar mission with H Schmitt
and R. Evans. That was the most perfect and the longest
lunar flight. After all these successful space missions
including the landing on the moon, Cernan has achieved
in the history of astronautics a permanent place as a
courageous man, physically and mentally balanced, and
endowed with the highest degree of self-control. His cool-
ness was properly characterized by the following episode:
Cernan "was once flying a helicopter over water near
Cape Kennedy when, as an investigative board later de-
termined, he misjudged his altitude and slammed the craft
into the water. The helicopter broke up and sank. Its fuel
tank split open and caused a fire. Captain Cernan was
picked up from the water suffering burns and bruises.
Asked later about the rumor that he was chasing a dolphin,
Captain Cernan replied: 'Nope. It was a mermaid.'
38
With his legitimate title to immortality, Cernan has
remained closely attached to the religious tradition of his
Slovak forefathers. He is a parishioner of Saint Paul Cath-
olic Church in Nassau Bay, Texas, and serves as lector
at Mass when his schedule permits. Before the takeoff
on his last lunar flight he made this profound statement
about the Creator of the Universe:
95
07. 90 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
atd
"When you look back at the earth from the moon and
you see the perfectness of it and the beauty of it and the
logic of it all, you know it didn't happen by accident.
"It is moving with beauty and you get a feeling that
you are looking at our earth as God, whoever that God
might be, envisioned it when be created it. I am anxious
to get back and get that feeling again.
"The serious, "square" side of Gene Cernan emerges.
America, God and duty are not just words but major forces
in his life." 37
These and other similar examples-tob many to be
dealt with here-demonstrate that the Slovaks have respect
for higher values and mossess strong convictions on their
0 W 0 0 0 O 0 C X 0 M
behalf. They have what is the most precious ingredient in
man's personality: character. For a small nation this counts
more than quantity. They 80 not easily change their mind,
make compromises, nor turd like a weathercock with every
wind. Retractions, self-confersion and flagellantism are
repugnant to them.
Sense of personal humor and dignity, firmness and
endurance in adverse situations and preoccupation with
their place in history are the qualities that characterize
73
the Slovaks. They may be one of the smallest Slav nations;
but those moral virtues tower high over their numerical
importance, and put then ahead of some much bigger
peoples than themselves. And these qualities have secured
E.A.CERNAN
their survival and will allow them to survive also the
present scourge of Soviet occupation.
EUGENE ANDREW CERNAN (1934-
96
E -1
THE UNITED STATES M ARINES
ON IWO JIMA
The Battle and the Flag Raising
T
HISTORICAL DIVISION
HEADQUARTERS, U.S. MARINE CORPS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
07 50PM EUROPEAN DIV
E-2 -
Slock
6
,
KIA;
The most famous battle photograph ever taken, the second flag-
RADLEY;
raising on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Photo by Joe Rosenthal,
courtesy of the Associated Press, (USMC Photo #113162).
KIA
P13
11 07 90 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
22 November 1944. In the latter part of January 1945, after
extensive training and maneuvers, Sousley sailed for Iwo Jima
where he landed with his company on D-Day, 19 February. Sousley
survived the battle for Suribachi and moved northward with his
regiment. On 21 March, Private First Class Sousley was killed
during the fighting around Kitano Point.
Private First Class Sousley was buried in the 5th Marine
Division Cemetary at Iwo Jima in Plot 8, Row 7, Grave 2189.
On 22 March 1948, a request was made to return the remains to
the United States for reinternment in the Elizaville, Kentucky,
Cemetary.
h
Private First Class Sousley has been awarded the following
decorations and medals: Purple Heart (posthumously), Presi-
dential Unit Citation with one star (for Iwo Jima), Asiatic-
Pacific Area Campaign Medal with one star (for Iwo Jima), and
World War II Victory Medal.
Sergeant Michael Strank, USMC
(275228)
Michael Strank was born at Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, on 10
Eastern
November 1919, the son of Vasil and Martha Strank, natives of
(his father is also known as Charles Strank), a
He attended the schools of Franklin Borough, Pennsylvania, and
he
was graduated from high school in 1937. He joined the Civilian
Conservation Corps where he remained for 18 months and then
became a highway laborer for the state.
He
Michael Strank enlisted in the regular Marine Corps for
four years at Pittsburgh on 6 October 1939. He was assigned
to the Recruit Depot at Parris Island where, after completing
recruit training in December, Private Strank was transferred
to Headquarters Company, Post Troops, at the same base.
Transferred to Provisional Company W at Parris Island, on
cky,
17 January 1941, Strank, now a private first class, sailed for
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arriving on the 23d. Strank was assigned
ob
to Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine
Brigade (on 1 February, the 1st Marine Brigade was redesignated
the 1st Marine Division). On 8 April, now assigned to Company
944
K, he returned to the States and proceeded to Parris Island.
In September, Strank moved with the division to New River, North
Carolina (now known as Camp Lejeune). He was promoted to
any
corporal on 23 April 1941, and was advanced to sergeant on 26
hen
January 1942.
th
With the 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, early in April 1942,
he journeyed cross-country to San Diego, California, from whence
he sailed on the 12th. On 31 May, he landed on Uvea, largest
of the Wallis Islands.
on
11
90 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV
PIA
In September, after a short tenure with the 22d Marines,
he was transferred to the 3d Marine Raider Battalion, also
at Uvea. With the raiders, he participated in the landing
operations and occupation of Pavuvu Island in the Russell
Islands from 21 February until 18 March, and in the seizure and
occupation of the Empress Augusta Bay area on Bougainville, from
1 November until 12 January 1944. On 14 February, he was re-
turned to San Diego for rest and reassignment.
On return from leave, Sergeant Strank was assigned to
E-4
Company E, 2d Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division.
After extensive training at Camp Pendleton and in Hawaii,
Strank landed on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945.
After the fall of Mount Suribachi, he moved northward with
his unit. On 1 March, while attacking Japanese positions in
northern Iwo Jima, he was fatally wounded by enemy artillery
fire. He was buried in the 5th Marine Division Cemetary with
the last rites of the Catholic Church. On 13 January 1949,
his remains were reinterred in Grave 7179, Section 12,
Arlington National Cemetary.
Sergeant Strank was entitled to the following decorations
and medals. Purple Heart (awarded posthumously), Presidential
Unit Citation with one star (for Iwo Jima), American Defense
Service Medal with base clasp (for his service in Cuba before
the war), American Area Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Area
Campaign Medal with four stars (for Pavuvu, Bougainville,
Consolidation of the Northern Solomons, and Iwo Jima), and the
World War II Victory Medal.
Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John Henry Bradley, USN
(868-16-81)
John Henry Bradley was born at Antigo, Wisconsin, on 10
July 1923, the son of Mr. and Mrs. James J. Bradley. The
family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, when John was a boy. He
was graduated from Appleton High School in 1941. Apprenticed
to a funeral director, Bradley had just completed the necessary
18-months' apprenticeship course when he enlisted in the Navy
on 13 January 1943.
Following boot camp at Farragut, Idaho, Seaman Bradley was
assigned to the Hospital Corps School there. Upon the completion
of that course, he was transferred to the Naval Hospital at
Oakland, California. Assigned to the Fleet Marine Force in
1
January 1944, Pharmacist's Mate Bradley attended Rield Medical
School--standard training for corpsmen prior to serving with
the Marines.
a
E
3
12
P15
11. 04:50PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
83
High single game individual,
lives upon charity." Lent begin
High single game individual
Mary Valenta
81
Mike Gulinski, 245.
on Ash Wednesday, February 16.
vidual -
Profiles Books
women,
vidual -
Pennsylvania Profiles
Vohame Six of Pennsylvania Profiles "Pennsylvonia's Hectic Heritage' is now
available for $3.60 postpaid. The complete set of six books plus a handsome
slipcase casts $19.60 Mahe check or money order payable to PR. PROFILES.
women,
by, Patrick M. Beynolds
Mail to The Red Rose Studio, 9 Flintlock Drive, Willow Street, PA 17584.
0
Fu1
IWO JIMA
FEB, 23, 1945. A PLATOON OF MARINES KNOCKED
OUT JAPANESE DEFENSES ON MT, SURIBACHI
W L
AND RAISED A.SMALL AMERICAN FLAG.
31
11
THE "BRASS" ON THE BEACH WANT ED TO FLY
20 16
A FLAG BIG ENOUGH TO BE SEEN ALL OVER
17 25
10 32
THE ISLAND AND FROM THE SHIPS OFF SMORE,
Ollens,
SO THEY ORDERED FOUR MARINES TO CARRY
A 96 X 56-INCH FLAG UP THE MOUNTAIN
AND RAISE IT IN PLACE OF THE SMALLER ONE.
THIS "FLAG SQUAD" CONSISTED OF A TEXAN,
A KENTUCKIAN, AN ARIZONA INDIAN AND THEIR
LEADER: A SON OF SI OW K IMMIGRANTS,
SGI. MICHAEL STRANK, FROM
DIV. EUROPEAN E & 0 a 0 Ollers, A 0 0 0 0 0
FRANKLIN, CAMBRIA COUNTY, PENNA.
$
ON REACHING THE SUMMIT STRANK (THIRD
FROM THE LEFT) AND HIS MEN FASTENED THE
FLAG TO A SCRAPPED JAPANESE PIPE AND
TRIED TO SET IT IN THE GROUND. TWO OTHER
MARINES CAME TO HELP. AS THEY WERE
STRUGGLING TO RAISE THE FLAG, AN ASSOCIATED
PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER, JOE ROSENTHAL,
TOOK A PICTURE OF THE SCENE.
IT BECAME ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS PHOTOS
EVER TAKEN AND WON A PULITZER PRIZE.
SIX DAYS LATER THE PENNSYLVANIAN AND THE
TEXAN WERE KILLED IN ACTION JUST A FEW
MILES FROM WHERE THEY RAISED THE FLAG
3
ON Crechs and Slorabs iN America
may BE CHERKED THis ENCYCLOPEDI.
WHICH is NOT READILY Available
at OUR ORGANIZATION.
THANKS.
Harvard Encyclopedia of
American Ethnic Groups
Stephan Themstrom, Editor
Ann Orlov, Managing Editor
Oscar Handlin, Consulting Editor
The Belknap Press of
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
and
London, England
1980
P 1 7
04.:5.0PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
02.18.90 01:52PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
P 0 1
TELEFAX COVER SHEET
VOICE OF AMERICA CZECHOSLOVAK SERVICE
RETURN FAX, Washington (202) 475-6208
URGENT
DELIVER TO:
Peggy Dooley, WHITE HOUSE SPEECH WRITING
(FAX NUMBER): 456-6218
URGENT
FROM:
Miroslav S. Dobrovodsky, Chief, Czechoslovak Service, VOICE OF AMERICA
330 Independence Ave., S. W., Washington, D.C. 20547, United States
Tel.: (202) 475-2208, 475-2209
COMMENTS:
I BELIEVE YOU MAY BE VERY MUCH INTERESTED: THE PRESIDENT WILL MEET
PRESIDENT HAVEL ON THE EVE OF THE FIRST "ANNIVERSARY" OF SENTENCING
HAVEL TO NINE MONTHS IN PRISON ON CHARGES OF INCITEMENT AND
OBSTRUCTION. MR. HAVEL'S ADDRESS TO JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS
(WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1990) WILL BE DELIVERED EXACTLY ONE YEAR
LATER. ENCLOSED IS A COPY OF ORIGINAL SCRIPT BY OUR CORRESPONDENT SENT
TO US (VOA-CZECHOSLOVAK) FROM PRAGUE ON FEBRUARY 21, 1989, A YEAR AGO.
IT WAS IMMEDIATELY AIRED IN TRANSLATION.
MIRO H.
URGENT
Number of pages (including cover sheet): 5
02. 18. 90 01:52PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
P O 2
2/21/89
CORRESPONDENT REPORT 2-00000
CZECH TRIALS (L)
JOLYON NAEGELE/PRAGUE
FEBRUARY TIME OF His CONGRESS speecH
21,1989
0 - VOICED AT:
CAT joiNT THE session of
exactly A yeAR A60
INTRO: A PRAGUE COURT TUESDAY SENTENCED CZECHOSLOVAK
PLAYWRIGHT AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST VACLAV (VAAHTS-LAV)
HAVEL TO NINE MONTHS IN PRISON ON CHARGES OF INCITEMENT AND
OBSTRUCTION. V-O-A'S JOLYON NAEGELE REPORTS FROM PRAGUE A
SECOND TRIAL OF EIGHT HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEACE ACTIVISTS ALSO
OPENED IN THE CZECHOSLOVAK CAPITAL TUESDAY.
TEXT: THE PRAGUE DISTRICT COURT FOUND PLAYWRIGHT, PHILOSOPHER
AND CHARTER 77 CO-FOUNDER VACLAV HAVEL GUILTY ON BOTH CHARGES
INCITING THE PUBLIC TO DEMONSTRATE AND OBSTRUCTING A POLICE
OFFICER.
THE PROSECUTION DEMANDED HALF THE MAXIMUM PENALTY WHICH
WOULD HAVE MEANT AT LEAST ONE YEAR. BUT JUDGE HELENA HLIVATA
FOUND HIM GUILTY OF WHAT SHE TERMED UNINTENTIONAL INCITEMENT
AND SENTENCED MR. HAVEL TO NINE MONTHS IN PRISON (CZECH EDS:
DRUHA NAPRAVNA SKUPINA).
MR. HAVEL IS APPEALING THE VERDICT.
THE PROSECUTOR, KAREL FLORIAN, SAID RADIO FREE EUROPE AND B-B-C
HAD TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF MR. HAVEL'S WORDS. LAST MONTH, THE 52-
YEAR-OLD HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST RECEIVED AN ANONYMOUS LETTER
FROM SOMEONE WHO THREATENED TO COMMIT SUICIDE ON PRAGUE'S
WENCESLAS SQUARE ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SELF-
IMMOLATION OF CZECH STUDENT MARTYR, JAN PALACH.
02. 18. 90 01:52PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
PO3
2
MR. HAVEL IMMEDIATELY TURNED THE LETTER OVER TO THE POLICE BUT
ALSO MADE A PUBLIC PLEA BROADCAST BY WESTERN RADIO STATIONS N-
O-T TO COMMIT SUICIDE AND SAYING THAT HE AND OTHER HUMAN
RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WOULD BE ON WENCESLAS SQUARE JANUARY 15TH TO
LAY FLOWERS IN PALACH'S MEMORY AND PREVENT ANY SUICIDE ATTEMPT.
POLICE BLOCKED OFF THE SQUARE AND MUCH OF THE CENTER OF PRAGUE
AND ALSO TEMPORARILY DETAINED A GROUP OF DISSIDENTS WHO HAD
PLANNED TO LAY FLOWERS. NEVERTHELESS, PROTEST DEMONSTRATIONS
ERUPTED AT AT LEAST 10 LOCATIONS IN PRAGUE. POLICE USED FORCE TO
DISPERSE THEM.
THE FOLLOWING DAY, JANUARY 16TH, THE ACTUAL ANNIVERSARY OF
Anniversa
PALACH'S SUICIDE, SEVERAL HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS CONVERGED
INDIVIDUALLY ON WENCESLAS SQUARE TO LAY FLOWERS. POLICE
DETAINED THEM AND OTHER PASSERSBY. POLICE DETAINED MR. HAVEL
MORE THAN ONE HOUR LATER ALTHOUGH HE HAD N-O-T PARTICPATED
IN THE FLOWER LAYINGS.
SEVEN (CORRECT) OF THE DISSIDENTS DETAINED THEN WENT ON TRIAL
TUESDAY IN A SEPARATE COURTHOUSE IN PRAGUE ON CHARGES OF
HOOLIGANISM (VYTRZNICTVI). THAT TRIAL IS EXPECTED TO CONCLUDE
WEDNESDAY. (EDS: SEPARATE STORY TO FOLLOW)
MR. HAVEL TOLD THE COURT TUESDAY HE HAD N-O-T HEARD AN ORDER
TO DISPERSE UNTIL HE WAS ARRESTED.
//UNVOICED OPT// MR. HAVEL SAYS THE COURT HE HAD WANTED TO LEAVE
RIGHT AFTER WITNESSING THE DETENTIONS OF THE OTHER ACTIVISTS, BUT
STAYED IN THE SQUARE FOR AN HOUR, BECAUSE AS HE PUTS IT, "I COULD
N-O-T BELIEVE MY EYES" -- HE SAYS THE POLICE ACTION TURNED
RANDOM PASSERS-BY INTO PROTESTERS. IN MR. HAVEL'S WORDS, I
REALIZED HOW DEEP CIVIL DISSATISFACTION MUST BE IF THIS WAS
2. so 01:52PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
P 0 4
3
HAPPENING AND THAT THE SITUATION WAS EVEN MORE SERIOUS THAN
EVEN 1 HAD THOUGHT.
MR. HAVEL SAID THE AUTHORITIES WOULD LEARN A LESSON AND
EVENTUALLY WILL BE READY TO OPEN A DIGNIFIED DIALOG WITH THE
WHOLE OF SOCIETY, N-O-T EXCLUDING ANYONE. //END OPT//
A KEY STATE WITNESS, DAVID KABZAN TESTIFIED THAT ON THE 15TH OF
JANUARY HE WAS NEAR THE NATIONAL THEATER, N-O-T ON WENCESLAS
SQUARE. HE TOLD REPORTERS WAITING OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM HE HAD
BEEN BEATEN BY POLICE AND FORCED TO SIGN A STATEMENT SAYING HE
HAD GONE TO THE WENCESLAS SQUARE DEMONSTRATION AFTER HAVING
HEARD MR. HAVEL'S CALL ON A WESTERN RADIO STATION. MR. KABZAN
SAYS HE IS NOW SUING THE POLICE.
MR. HAVEL STOOD UP IN COURT TO POINT OUT THAT THE STATE'S ONLY
WITNESS-TO SAY HIS BROADCAST HAD ATTRACTED PEOPLE TO
DEMONSTRATE HAD RECANTED.
//OPT// THE JUDGE THEN READ TRANSCRIPTS OF WESTERN RADIO NEWS
ITEMS (EDS: JAN 9, 10, 14, 15) MENTIONING AN UNOFFICIAL CEREMONY
'8
WOULD BE HELD JANUARY 15TH. //END OPT//
MR. HAVEL TOLD THE COURT HE DOES N-O-T FEEL GUILTY AND SAID THE
CHARGES HAD N-O-T BEEN PROVEN. HE SAID IF HE IS SENTENCED, HE
WOULD ACCEPT IT AS A SACRIFIC FOR A GOOD CAUSE WHICH HE SAID IS
NOTHING IN COMPARISON WITH THE ULTIMATE SACFRICE JAN PALACH
MADE.
//OPT// MR. HAVEL SAID HE HAD HAD N-O INTENTION TO INCITE THE
PUBLIC AGAINST THE STATE.
02.18.90 01:52PM *VOA EUROPEAN DIV.
P 0 5
4
//REST UNVOICED// IN MR. HAVEL'S WORDS, THE TERMS "ANTI-STATE AND
ANTI-SOCIALIST HAVE LOST ALL SEMANTIC MEANING" IN
CZECHOSLOVAKIA. HE POINTED OUT THAT RUDOLFILANSKY, GUSTAV
HUSAK AND ALEXANDER DUBCEK, ALL FORMER PARTY FIRST SECRETARIES
HAD ALL FACED ACCUSATIONS OF ANTISTATE AND ANTISOCIALIST
ACTIVITIES AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER.
MR. HAVEL WENT ON TO DEFEND THE CHARTER 77 HUMAN RIGHTS
MOVEMENT, SAYING THAT EVER SINCE ITS FOUNDING 12 YEARS AGO,
CHARTER 77 HAD BEEN PEACEFULLY CALLING ON THE AUTHORITIES TO
RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS AND HAD BEEN OFFERING DIALOG. HOWEVER, HE
SAID, THE STATE HAS N-O-T RESPONDED TO CHARTER'S INITIATIVES.
HE SAYS THE AUTHORITIES TODAY CONCEDE THE EXISTENCE OF MANY
PROBLEMS THAT CHARTER 77 POINTED OUT LONG AGO AND THAT HE SAYS
COULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED MUCH SOONER. (SIGNED)
NEB/JN/
2/21/89 7:26 pm
Services of Mead Data Central JG tound this in my Havel/radio search Thought you
might he interested gave it to Peggy too
PAGE
46
(c) 1990 States News Service, May 24, 1990
elections.
As they walked under lilac trees to the town square -- an empty platform now
that the oversize head of Lenin has been toppled -- Mary asked her 27-year-old
cousin if he was surprised by the demonstrations. He smiled and wrote '68' on a
piece of paper. "Watch this." He turned the slip of paper upside down so it
reads '89.' "We knew something would happen."
He showed photos of his recent wedding -- a mandatory civil ceremony and a
clandestine church mass. His bride, Emilia, wore a heavy winter coat over her
frilly wedding dress as they stood at the church altar. "They didn't ever heat
the church," Bystrik shrugged.
In Bratislava, an industrial town where smokestacks from chemical plants and
baroque church spires reach skyward like fingers from the center of town, Mary's
aunt Ilonka, 68, a Catholic nun since she was a girl, hung posters of Pope "Jan
Pavel" in her window.
Another aunt, Giska, 61, and her husband, Gino, took Mary to the old Moravian
castle of Devin, built on a steep promonotory overlooking the Danube River and
Austria -- a good stone's throw away.
Until November, the couple was never allowed to photograph this scene. AS
they walkedlong the banks of the Danube, Gino, a retired surveyor, stopped
short. "You know, I've never been this close to the river." Until the
revolution, this path, considered dangerously close to the West, was blocked off
by barbed wire.
Later in the evening, the three took a bus across town to Sister Ilonka's.
Ilonka bustled about the basement apartment preparing supper -- her quick gait
gave no hint of the 10 years of forced labor she underwent for refusing to
renounce her YOWS during the Stalinist 1950s.
The nuns gathered around the richly laid table and bowed their heads to pray.
One of them looked up, puzzled. "Should we close the windows before we sing?"
Sister Ilonka leaned her head back and laughed. "Leave them open, leave them
open," she said. "The communists are gone."
LEXIS NEXIS LEXIS® NEXIS
background
notes
Czechoslovakia
United States Department of State
February 1990
Bureau of Public Affairs
PROFILE
Administrative subdivisions: Two
semiautonomous "republics"-Czech Socialist
Republic (Bohemia, Moravia), Slovak Socialist
GERMAN
SOVIET
Geography
Republic (Slovakia); 10 administrative districts
DEMOCRATIC
POLAND
UNION
REPUBLIC
and 2 city administrations.
Area: 127,896 sq. km. (49,381 sq. mi.); about
Defense: 7% of 1987 state budget.
the size of New York. Cities: Capital-Pra-
Prague
Flag: A blue triangle extending the length
gue (pop. 1.2 million). Other cities-Bratislava
FEDERAL
of the staff side, with its apex toward the cen-
REPUBLIC
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
(413,000), Brno (385,000), Ostrava (327,000),
OF GERMANY
Kosice (220,000), Plzen (Pilsen-175,000). Ter-
ter, a white band on the upper half of the re-
maining space, and a red band on the lower
AUSTRIA
rain: Rolling area in wet, low mountains to the
half.
HUNGARY
north and south, hills in the center, rugged
mountains in the east. Climate: Temperate.
Economy
People
GNP (1987): $107 billion. Annual growth rate
(1987 est.): 2.6%. Per capita income (1987):
Nationality: Noun and adjective-
$6,900.
Official Name:
Czechoslovak(s). Population (1988): 15.6 mil-
Natural resources: Coal, coke, timber,
lion. Annual growth rate: 0.25%. Ethnic
Czechoslovak
groups: Czech (64%), Slovak (31%), Hungar-
lignite, uranium, magnesite.
Agriculture (7% of GNP): Products-
Socialist Republic
ian, Polish, Ukrainian, German. Religions:
Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish.
wheat, rye, oats, corn, barley, potatoes, sugar
beets, hogs, cattle, horses.
Languages: Czech, Slovak, Hungarian.
Industry (60% of GNP): Types-iron and
Education: Literacy-99%. Health: Life ex-
steel, machinery and equipment, cement, sheet
pectancy-males-67.5 yrs; females-75 yrs.
glass, motor vehicles, armaments, chemicals,
Work force (7.8 million): Agriculture-14%.
ceramics, wood, paper products.
Industry, construction, and commerce-64%.
Trade (1987): Exports-$8.4 billion: ma-
Services and government-22%.
chinery, iron and steel, chemicals, raw materi-
als, consumer goods. Imports-$8.4 billion:
Government
machinery, equipment, raw materials, con-
sumer goods. Partners-Austria, Bulgaria,
Type: socialist republic. Independence:
East Germany, West Germany, Hungary, Ro-
Czechoslovak state established 1918.
mania, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia.
Constitution: July 11, 1960 (being redrafted
Exchange rates (January 1990): 38
during 1990).
crowns=U.S. $1.
Branches: Executive-president (chief of
state), prime minister (head of government),
cabinet. Legislative-bicameral Federal
Membership in
Assembly. Judicial-Supreme Court (1960),
International Organizations
Constitutional Court (1968).
Political parties: With free parliamen-
UN and its specialized agencies, Council for
tary elections set for 1990, many new parties
Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), War-
saw Pact.
are emerging to challenge the Czechoslovak
Communist Party for power. Suffrage: Uni-
versal over 18.
2
14
18
9
22
Breslau
Dresden
GERMAN
ELOCA
0
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
DEMOCRATIC
Kammienna
Oder
REPUBLIC
Góra
Decín
International boundary
0
Teplice
Usti nad Labem
P L AND
*
National capital
Railroad
Most
Chomutov
Klodzko
Road
Náchod
Ohre
Hradec
+
International airport
Králové
Katowice
Kladno
PRAGUE
0
25
50
75
100 Miles
Cheb
+
Kolin
Elbe
50
Marktredwitz
Pardobice
0
25
50
75
100 Kilometers
Ostrava
Vitava
Krosno
Pizen
Olomouc
Furth im Wald
Pisek
Tábor
Jihlava
Gottwaldov.
Zilina
FEDERAL
Brno
Poprad
Ceské
Pachov
Budejovice
Presov
Straubing
Moren
Hornad
REPUBLIC
Znojmo
Trenčín
Bredav
Banská
Bystrica
Kosice)
OF
Danuba
Uzhgorod
S
Zvolen
Freistadt
Hron
Chop
GERMANY
Danube
Linz
Nitra
Tisza
VIENNA
Bratislava
Váh
0
48
Maly Dunaj
Nové
Ipel'
Miskolc
48
Zámky
AUSTRIA
Mosonmagy arovar
Danube
HUNGARY
Salzburg
Komárno
80
as
0
Tisza
o
o
BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION IS
BUDAPEST
ROM.
14
NOT NECESSARILY AUTHORITATIVE
18
GEOGRAPHY
Other ethnic groups include about
nated in September 1938, when, at Mu-
600,000 Hungarians in Slovakia, smaller
nich, France, Italy, and the United King-
Czechoslovakia borders on Poland and
numbers of Ukrainians, Germans, and
dom acceded to Nazi pressure and agreed
East Germany to the north, the Soviet
Poles, and about 250,000 gypsies, the fast-
to force Czechoslovakia to cede the Sude-
Union to the east, Hungary and Austria
est growing ethnic element in the popula-
tenland to Germany. Fulfilling Hitler's
to the south, and West Germany to the
tion, who live mainly in Slovakia.
aggressive designs on all of Czechoslova-
west.
Although the government has a regu-
kia, Germany invaded what remained of
Czechoslovakia's three principal re-
latory role in religious organizations, laws
Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939, es-
gions are Bohemia, Moravia, and Slova-
promulgating religious freedom were
tablished a German "protectorate," and
kia. Bohemia, the westernmost region, is
passed in late 1989. The major denomina-
created a puppet state out of Slovakia.
politically and economically the most im-
tions and estimated memberships are the
With the support of Slovak commu-
portant part of the country. Its largest
Roman Catholic Church (10.5 million), the
nists, Slovak democratic forces engi-
city, Prague, is Czechoslovakia's capital.
Czechoslovak Hussite Church (400,000),
neered a revolt in the summer of 1944. It
The landscape consists of rolling plains,
the Slovak Lutheran (Evangelical)
failed because of German military action
hills, and plateaus surrounded by low
Church (400,000), the Evangelical Church
and the Soviet refusal to intervene or to
mountains to the north, west, and south.
of the Czech Brethren (265,000), the
permit more than token U.S. and British
Moravia, the central region, has im-
Greek Catholic Church (450,000), and the
help (including a U.S. Air Force airlift of
portant coal and steel industries in the
Eastern Orthodox Church (150,000).
supplies and an Office of Strategic Serv-
north and agricultural areas in the south.
About 10,000 Jews remain of the prewar
ices mission). Soviet troops overran all of
It is bordered on the north by mountains
population of 360,000.
Slovakia and Moravia and much of Bohe-
and generally has more hills than Bohe-
mia, including Prague, were overrun in
mia. Bohemia and Moravia make up the
the winter and spring of 1944-45. U.S.
historic Czech lands, now forming the
forces liberated the city of Plzen and most
Czech Republic.
HISTORY
of western Bohemia in May 1945. In Pra-
Slovakia, in the east, has rugged
gue, a civilian uprising against the Ger-
mountains in the central and northern
The Czechs lost their national independ-
man garrison had taken place in early
part and lowlands in the south that are
ence to Austria in 1620 at the Battle of
May 1945. Following Germany's surren-
important for agriculture. Traditionally
White Mountain and, for the next 300
der, some 2.5 million ethnic Germans
less developed politically, economically,
years, were ruled by the Austrian monar-
were expelled from Czechoslovakia.
and culturally, Slovakia has become more
chy. With the collapse of the monarchy at
From May 1945 until the spring elec-
important since Czechoslovakia's inde-
the end of World War I, an independent
tions of 1946, the country was ruled by a
pendence; it now forms the country's sec-
country of Czechoslovakia was formed
coalition government that included Com-
ond republic.
with the assistance of President Woodrow
munist Party members. The democratic
Before World War II, Czechoslovakia
Wilson. The Slovaks, ruled by the Hun-
elements, led by President Eduard Benes,
encompassed a fourth region, Ruthenia, in
garians for 1,000 years, joined in the com-
hoped the Soviet Union would allow
the Transcarpathian Ukraine. The Soviet
mon country with the Czechs. The Slo-
Czechoslovakia freedom to choose its own
Union annexed that section after the war
vaks were not at the same level of eco-
form of government, and aspired to a
under a treaty between Prague and
nomic and technological development as
Czechoslovakia that would act as a bridge
Moscow.
the Czechs, but the freedom and opportu-
between East and West. This objective
The climate in most of Bohemia and
nity found in the new Czechoslovak Re-
was sustained by Czechoslovakia's highly
Moravia is temperate. Lush springs and
public enabled them to make rapid strides
developed economy, its strong democratic
pleasant autumns alternate with cool
toward overcoming these differences.
traditions, and its readiness to accept con-
summers (average July highs-lows:
Although Czechoslovakia was the only
siderable socialization of the economic
74°-58°F) and cold, overcast winters (av-
East European country that remained an
system. The Communist Party, however,
erage January highs-lows: 34°-25°F). Slo-
effective parliamentary democracy
which won 38% of the vote in the 1946
vakia is characterized by wider ex-
throughout 1918-38, it was plagued with
election, held most of the key positions
tremes-warmer summers in the south
minority problems, the most important
and gradually managed to neutralize or
and colder, more severe winters in the
stemming from the country's large Ger-
silence anticommunist forces. Although
mountains in the north. Precipitation in
man population. Constituting more than
the Benes government initially hoped to
Prague is low-about 51 centimeters (20
22% of the population and largely concen-
participate in the Marshall Plan, it was
in.) annually.
trated in the Bohemian and Moravian bor-
forced by Moscow to back out. Under the
der regions (the Sudetenland), this minor-
cover of superficial legality, the commu-
ity was encouraged to reject Czech-Ger-
nists seized power in February 1948.
PEOPLE
man reconciliation in the new Czechoslo-
After extensive purges modeled on
vak country by nationalistic elements
the Stalinist pattern in other East Euro-
The 15.6 million people of Czechoslovakia
urged on in large part by Nazi Germany.
pean states, the Communist Party tried
include about 65% Czechs and 30% Slo-
Internal and external pressures culmi-
14 of its former leaders in November 1952
vaks. Although the Slovaks are a nation-
and sentenced 11 to death. For more than
ality distinct from the Czechs, most favor
a decade thereafter, the Czechoslovak
working with the Czechs in a common
communist leadership was characterized
federal state with extensive autonomy for
by its stability of tenure under the leader-
Slovakia.
ship of party chief Antonin Novotny.
3
The 1968 Soviet Invasion
The communist leadership allowed only a
little relaxation in the early 1960s. How-
ever, in the mid-1960s, discontent arose
within the ranks of the Communist Party
Central Committee because of the slow
pace of economic reform, resistance to
cultural liberalization, and the desire of
Slovaks within the leadership for a larger
share of the country's investment re-
sources.
The discontent culminated with the
removal of Novotny from party leader-
ship in January 1968 and from the presi-
dency of the republic in March. He was
replaced as party leader by a longtime,
Soviet-educated party activist of Slovak
origin, Alexander Dubcek, and as presi-
dent by Gen. Ludvik Svoboda, a military
hero of both world wars. In addition to
Novotny, many other orthodox commu-
nists were subsequently forced from
party and government positions.
After January 1968, the Dubcek lead-
The exterior courtyard of the Hradcany Castle, which is located in Prague.
ership began practical steps toward politi-
cal, economic, and social reforms that
mediately declared that the invading
positions in a purge of the Communist
promised a better life for the Czechoslo-
troops had not been invited into the coun-
Party that lasted until 1971 and that re-
vak people. In addition, it called for polit-
try and that their invasion was in viola-
duced party membership by almost one-
ico-military changes in the Soviet-domi-
tion of socialist principles, international
third.
nated Warsaw Pact and Council for Mu-
law, and the UN Charter.
By October 27, 1969, the Soviets had
tual Economic Assistance (CEMA). The
The principal Czechoslovak leaders
achieved their basic objectives: the
leadership affirmed its loyalty to social-
were forcibly and secretly taken to the
Czechoslovak liberalization movement
ism and the Warsaw Pact but also ex-
Soviet Union. Under obvious Soviet du-
was dismantled; elements of the orthodox
pressed the desire to improve relations
ress, the Czechoslovaks engaged in a se-
Communist Party were back in control;
with all countries of the world regardless
ries of negotiations at Moscow on August
and Soviet troops remained stationed in
of their social systems.
23-26, again on October 2-3, and finally at
Czechoslovakia. On that date, General
A program adopted in April 1968 set
Prague on October 16. On that day, Soviet
Secretary Husak, Prime Minister Cernik,
guidelines for a modern, humanistic-so-
Premier Aleksei Kosygin, acting on behalf
and President Svoboda signed a joint
cialist democracy that would guarantee
of all the invading countries, and Czecho-
communique with the Soviets at Moscow
freedom of religion, speech, press, assem-
slovak Premier Oldrich Cernik signed a
that justified the invasion, accepted the
bly, and travel; insulate the government
treaty that provided for the "temporary"
Brezhnev doctrine of limited sovereignty,
from the Communist Party; create inde-
stationing of an unspecified number of
avowed that stationing Soviet troops in
pendent courts; introduce multiple-choice,
Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia.
Czechoslovakia was essential to the secu-
secret-ballot elections; and effect eco-
In November, the troops of the other
rity of Czechoslovakia's western borders,
nomic reforms. After 20 years of little
countries and some of the Soviet forces
and opened the way for the further inte-
participation, the public gradually began
were withdrawn. In addition to accepting
gration of Czechoslovakia's economy with
to take an interest in the government and
the "legalization" of stationing Soviet
that of the Soviet Union. This relation-
leadership. Dubcek became a popular na-
troops in Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak
ship was further formalized in a 20-year
tional figure and the first Czechoslovak
leaders were forced to censor the media
Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty of Friend-
communist leader to enjoy broad public
and to curb virtually all of the reforms
ship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance
support.
that Dubcek had promoted.
signed on May 6, 1970. In May 1975, Gus-
Internal reforms and foreign policy
Dubcek was removed as party First
tav Husak replaced the ailing Svoboda as
statements of the Dubcek leadership cre-
Secretary on April 17, 1969, and was re-
president, retaining at the same time his
ated great concern among some of the
placed by another Slovak, Gustav Husak.
position as Communist Party General
other Warsaw Pact communist govern-
Later, Dubcek and many allies within the
Secretary. Milos Jakes, who presided
ments and parties. On the night of Au-
party were stripped of their other party
over the purge of party members after
gust 20, 1968, Soviet, Bulgarian, Hungar-
the 1968 invasion, succeeded Husak as
ian, Polish, and East German troops in-
party general secretary in December
vaded and occupied Czechoslovakia. The
1987.
Czechoslovak Party and Government im-
4
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
ion, which sought to promote freedom of
In Czechoslovakia, a distinction is
cultural expression, resulted in the trial of
made between the federal government
In November 1989, student protests of
several of the section's leaders after
and the national government. Czechoslo-
police brutality ushered in a period of
months of detention.
vakia has two national governments-the
rapid changes that culminated, by year's
Despite persecution, Charter 77 had
Czech and the Slovak-and one federal
end, in a new, noncommunist government
grown to at least 1,500 signatories in
government for the entire country.
and the election of dissident playwright
1989. More important, the charter had be-
The bicameral Federal Assembly,
Vaclav Havel as president. The new gov-
come only one of many independent initia-
which was reconstituted from a unicam-
ernment ended the Communist Party's
tives critical of the government. These
eral legislature on January 1, 1969, is
leading role in political life, eliminated re-
new groups helped launch a series of
nominally the highest organ of state au-
strictions on travel abroad, and passed
peaceful demonstrations by thousands of
thority. The Chamber of the People con-
legislation guaranteeing freedom of
citizens in Prague in late 1988 and early
sists of 200 deputies elected by districts
speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom
1989 that drew worldwide attention and a
based on population; the Chamber of the
of conscience. All political prisoners were
strong government response. The regime
Nations consists of 150 deputies, of whom
freed, and work began in earnest on
forcibly dispersed a series of demonstra-
75 are elected by the Czech National
democratic political reform.
tions in January 1989 and subsequently
Council and 75 by the Slovak National
After Husak had consolidated the
imprisoned several prominent human
Council. The two bodies are bridged by
"normalization" of the post-1968 period,
rights activists, including Havel who
the chairman of the Federal Assembly
Czecholslovaks generally had retreated
served 4 months in prison on charges of
and two deputies who chair the chambers.
from political life. The roots of 1989's
incitement.
The consent of both chambers is required
Civic Forum movement that effected the
In the events of November 1989,
to pass a law. The number of majority
"gentle revolution" can be found in human
these disparate groups united to become
votes needed to pass a bill depends on the
rights activism. On January 1, 1977, more
Civic Forum, an umbrella group champi-
kind of bill under consideration and on the
than 250 people signed a manifesto called
oning bureaucratic reform and civil liber-
chamber voting.
Charter 77 criticizing the government for
ties. Civic Forum quickly gained the sup-
The election law of July 1971 length-
failure to implement human rights provi-
port of millions of Czechs, as did its Slo-
ened the terms of the deputies from 4 to 5
sions of documents it had signed, among
vak counterpart Public Without Violence.
years. Legislative reforms under way in
which are the constitution; the Interna-
Faced with overwhelming repudiation by
1990 are likely to produce parliamentary
tional Covenants on Political and Civil
the population, the Communist Party all
representation similar to Western democ-
and Economic, Social, and Cultural
but collapsed. Its leaders, Husak and
racies. Until that time, the Chamber of
Rights; and the Final Act of the Confer-
party chief Milos Jakes, resigned in De-
the People will continue to represent the
ence on Security and Cooperation in Eu-
cember 1989.
National Front, a coalition of political par-
rope. Although not organized in any real
ties and mass organizations controlled by
sense, Charter 77 constituted something
the Communist Party. Apart from the
of a citizens' initiative aimed at inducing
GOVERNMENT
Czechoslovak and the Slovak communist
the Czechoslovak Government to observe
parties, four others are, in theory, non-
its formal obligations to respect the hu-
A coalition government in which the Com-
communist. In the second chamber, the
man rights of its citizens.
munist Party has a minority of ministerial
Chamber of Nations, members currently
To stifle opposition, Husak subjected
portfolios was formed in December 1989.
are selected by the National Councils, the
Charter 77 signatories and other "dissi-
The government is drafting a new
legislative bodies of the Czech and Slovak
dent" groups to periodic harassment and
constitution to replace the one promul-
Republics.
persecution. This included both judicial
gated on July 11, 1960. A 1968 law re-
Administrative and executive powers
and nonjudicial measures, ranging from
vised some sections to establish more
are vested in the cabinet and the presi-
loss of job or denial of educational oppor-
equitable representation between Czechs
dent of the republic. The president is
tunities for children to detention, trial,
and Slovaks in federal bodies and in eco-
elected by the Federal Assembly for a 5-
and imprisonment. The government also
nomic development. The law canceled the
year term. With the approval of the Fed-
induced or forced human rights activists
historic preferential treatment of Czech
eral Assembly, the president appoints a
into exile abroad and deprived them of
lands by increasing the autonomy of na-
cabinet including a prime minister as head
their citizenship.
tional (Czech and Slovak) organizations in
of government.
In October 1979, the government
the formation, administration, and opera-
The country's highest court is the Su-
staged a "subversion" trial of six leading
tion of the economy. In practice, how-
preme Court, elected by and responsible
activists of the Committee for the De-
ever, exercise of political power re-
to the Federal Assembly. The lower
fense of the Unjustly Persecuted as a
sembles a unitary system more than a
courts are elected by the districts and
warning to other "dissidents." As political
federal one.
counties. In 1990, Czechoslovakia will re-
tension in neighboring Poland mounted
form its judicial system to introduce
during 1980-81, the government, perhaps
Western-style legal rights for individuals.
fearing a "spillover" effect, became in-
creasingly repressive in its treatment of
Charter 77 and other activists. In March
1987, government efforts to neutralize the
Jazz Section of the Czech Musicians' Un-
5
Principal Government Officials
ECONOMY
pleted in 1950-51. Exceptions to private
ownership in these sectors are negligible
President-Vaclav Havel
Czechoslovakia has a developed, but
and consist mainly a few artisans. Collec-
Prime Minister-Marian Calfa
gradually deteriorating, industrialized
tivization of agriculture began in 1949.
Deputy Prime Ministers—
economy. Its strong industrial tradition
Today, all but about 7%-8% of the agricul-
Valtr Komarek
dates to the period when Bohemia and
tural land is in the "socialist sector," ei-
Jan Carnogursky
Moravia were the industrial heartland of
ther in state farms or in state-run coop-
Vladimir Dlouhy
the Austro-Hungarian empire. Today,
eratives.
this heritage is an asset and a liability.
Ministers
Heavy industry received major eco-
Czechoslovakia has a well-educated popu-
nomic support during the 1950s, but
Foreign Affairs-Jiri Dienstbier
lation and a developed transport system,
waste and inefficient use of resources re-
National Defense-Gen. Miloslav Vacek
but much of its plant and equipment, in-
sulted from the adaptation of centralized
Finance-Vaclav Klaus
adequately modernized in almost 40 years
planning techniques to the complex indus-
Foreign Trade-Andrej Barcak
of communist rule, is among the oldest in
trial sector. Although the labor force was
Interior-Richard Sacher
Europe. The country's centrally planned
traditionally skilled and efficient, inade-
Premier, Czech Socialist Republic-
economy is tightly linked with the Soviet
quate incentives for labor and manage-
Frantisek Pitra
Union and other East European coun-
ment contributed to a high labor turn-
Premier, Slovak Socialist Republic-
tries, although the coalition government
over, low productivity, and unsatisfactory
Milan Cic
challenged traditional ties with its East
quality. Economic failures reached a
Ambassador to the United States—
Bloc neighbors at the January 1990
critical stage in 1963.
Rita Klimova
CEMA conference in Sofia. The economy
A period of de-Stalinization and eco-
Czechoslovakia maintains an embassy
is characterized by low growth, low tech-
nomic reform was launched during
in the United States at 3900 Linnean
nological sophistication, and structural
1963-67. Proposed reforms involved de-
Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008
imbalances caused by inappropriate in-
centralized decisionmaking, including
(tel. 202-363-6315).
vestment decisions over the last 40 years.
greater freedom for managers to set
Czechoslovakia is deficient in energy
prices, production levels, investments,
resources and many raw materials. Its
and wages. The new mechanisms were
DEFENSE
major natural resources are coal (brown
invoked with insufficient preparation and
and hard), timber, and uranium. Its main
failed to receive support from some im-
A major overhaul of Czechoslovak de-
agricultural products include sugar beets,
portant elements in the Communist Party
fense forces is underway in 1990. At the
fodder roots, potatoes, wheat, and hops.
and from many economic officials and
end of 1989, regular forces totaled about
Principal industries are heavy and
planners. Inflationary pressures began to
200,000 and included:
general machine-building, iron and steel
develop, and wholesale prices were per-
production, metalworking, chemicals,
mitted to rise rapidly in 1967. Firms
The army, with 145,000 members
electronics, transport equipment, textiles,
were making substantial profit without
organized into 5 tank divisions, 5 motor-
glass, beer brewing, china, ceramics, and
having to improve productivity or quality
ized rifle divisions, 1 airborne regiment,
pharmaceuticals.
of output.
and 1 artillery division; and
The gross national product (GNP) was
Hope for more wide-ranging economic
The air force, with 55,000 members
approximately $107 billion in 1987,
reform came with Dubeck's rise in Janu-
organized into air defense, and a tactical
amounting to about $6,900 per capita.
ary 1968. Under his leadership, Czecho-
air army, each with two air divisions.
GNP grew steadily during the early and
slovakia could not immediately come to
mid-1970s, stagnated during the years
grips with inflationary forces, much less
Border guard and interior guards,
1978-82, and resumed modest growth of
begin the immense task of correcting the
with 35,000 members, and the people's
about 2.5%-3% a year in 1983.
economy's basic problems-overconcen-
militia, with 120,000 members.
At the time of the 1948 communist
tration on heavy industry, low productiv-
Compulsory military training for men
takeover, Czechoslovakia had a balanced
ity, lack of modern equipment, and infe-
required service of 2 years in the army, 3
economy and one of the higher levels of
rior quality.
years in the air force, or 27 months in the
industrialization in Europe. In 1948, the
Any opportunity the Dubcek leader-
border and interior guards.
government began to stress heavy indus-
ship might have had to place economic re-
As a charter member of the Warsaw
try over agriculture and consumer goods
form on a sounder footing was cut short
Pact (May 1955), Czechoslovak forces are
and services. Many basic industries and
by the 1968 invasion, which brought re-
subject to the command and direction of
foreign trade, as well as all domestic
newed strains on the balance of pay-
the Warsaw Pact commander, always a
wholesale trade, had been nationalized
ments. Although industrial production
Soviet officer. At the end of 1989, about
before the communists took power. Na-
improved during the immediate period af-
80,000 Soviet troops, including 5,000 air
tionalization of most retail trade was com-
ter the invasion, inflationary panic-buying
force personnel, were stationed in
continued, and worker productivity fell as
Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak-Soviet dis-
demoralization spread.
cussions on Soviet troop withdrawals be-
gan in January 1990.
6
Price increases and wage controls im-
largest share. In 1987, U.S. imports from
plemented under Husak's leadership re-
Travel Notes
Czechoslovakia totaled $86 million, and
duced inflationary pressures and, to some
U.S. exports totaled $47 million at the of-
extent, increased productivity. Unful-
ficial rate of exchange.
filled targets in housing construction and
Climate and clothing: The climate is most
Post-1989 Czechoslovakia had made
inadequate supplies of fuels and power
pleasant during May-August; smog and
expanded trade with the West an explicit
continued. High rates of absenteeism
dampness prevail in November-March.
Bring rainwear and lightweight or heavy
policy in an effort to join the global econ-
continued to reveal the attitude of work-
woolens depending on the season.
omy. Austrian and West German firms
ers.
already have increased activities in
The economy grew during the 1970s
Customs and currency: U.S. citizens
must have visas. Tourist visas, valid for
Czechoslovakia, and U.S. businesses have
but stagnated between 1978 and 1982.
one entry, usually can be obtained within 2
revived their interest.
The Czechoslovak approach to its eco-
weeks. Visas require the tourist, upon en-
The government has justified itself
nomic problems has been to continue to
try, to purchase 30 West German marks
largely by its efforts to improve the mate-
uphold central planning. After a 3-year
(about $17 at the exchange rate of early
(1978-80) experiment involving about
1990) a day in Czechoslovak crowns.
rial welfare of the population. The stand-
Crowns may not be imported or exported.
ard of living is difficult to measure, but it
15% of the economy, in January 1981 the
is certainly highin comparison to other
regime introduced a "Set of Measures" to
Health: No unusual health precautions
need be taken in Prague; however, visitors
Eastern bloc countries. Unemployment
improve management of the production
coming from areas where yellow fever or
has been virtually nonexistent, the result
process. Its general goals were to im-
cholera are endemic must have proper in-
of inefficient use of labor. About 7.8 mil-
prove export performance and the quality
oculations. Tapwater is usually safe.
lion people, or half the population, are em-
of production, with particular emphasis on
Bring any needed medications.
ployed. Women make up about 47% of
economizing on labor, materials, and en-
Telecommunications: Telephone and
the labor force. Workers receive ample
ergy. The new measures, in addition to
cable service is adequate. Czechoslovakia
fringe benefits and an extensive social se-
reinforcing central planning and controls,
is six standard time zones ahead of
curity program. Food and consumer
included a system of rewards and penal-
eastern standard time. Because of higher
Czechoslovak rates, phone calls to the
goods, although by no means abundant,
ties intended to distinguish the perform-
United States should be made collect, if
are in good supply, and the level of auto-
ance of enterprises and workers. Ideologi-
possible.
mobile ownership is the highest in East-
cal campaigns were maintained to dimin-
Transportation: Czechoslovakia has a
ern Europe.
ish apathy and aversion to the incentive
wide network of bus, rail, and air services.
In January 1990, the government in-
system. The leadership later acknowl-
Prague has a subway and streetcars, and
troduced a series of legislative changes
edged that the "Set of Measures" failed to
trolley buses serve cities and suburbs.
designed to increase enterprise auton-
stimulate exports, achieve efficiency, or
Taxis and rental cars are available. Main
roads are adequate.
omy, efficiency and productivity. These
promote technological innovation.
changes could improve economic perform-
The economy grew after 1982, achiev-
ance, but government experts agree that
ing annual average output growth of more
more substantial reform on private prop-
than 3% in 1983-85. Imports from the
forces are being prepared, introduction of
erty, currency, investment, and financial
West were curtailed, exports boosted,
those changes is proceeding slowly and
institutions is needed.
and hard currency debt reduced substan-
cautiously.
tially. New investment was made in elec-
About 80% of Czechoslovakia's trade
tronics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals,
is with other communist countries. The
FOREIGN RELATIONS
and these sectors were industry leaders
Soviet Union alone accounts for about
by 1986. But the economy remains troub-
45% of Czechoslovak trade and supplies
The foreign policy of Czechoslovakia had,
led by central planning and stifling bu-
the country with almost all of its oil, natu-
until 1989, followed that of the Soviet Un-
reaucracy, which produced low exports
ral gas and iron ore, as well as many other
ion, the result of the Soviet presence in
and productivity, and overreliance on the
key raw materials. To secure these re-
Czechoslovakia, and the country's eco-
Soviet Union and other CEMA countries
sources, Czechoslovakia is investing large
nomic and military ties to the Soviet bloc.
as sources of raw materials and as mar-
amounts in natural gas, and iron ore ex-
Since the beginning of 1990, Czechoslova-
kets for goods. A recent decline in im-
traction projects in the U.S.S.R. In re-
kia has sought to carve a niche as a small
ports from the Soviet Union and problems
turn, Czechoslovakia supplies machines
power serving as a bridge among its
in trade with some other CEMA mem-
and other industrial products to the
neighbors.
bers, caused in part by their unwilling-
U.S.S.R. After the Soviet Union, Czecho-
Czechoslovakia is a member of the
ness to accept poor-quality products, may
slovakia's major trading partners are
United Nations and participates in its
foreshadow a gradual change in the pat-
East Germany, Hungary, and Poland.
specialized agencies. It also is a member
tern of trade.
Among Western countries, Austria, West
of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Economic reform is the greatest
Germany, and Switzerland account for the
Trade (GATT). Czechoslovakia maintains
hurdle facing the post-1989 government.
diplomatic relations with more than 100
Although sweeping structural changes
countries, of which 63 have permanent
that would increase the role of market
representation in Prague.
7
U.S.-CZECHOSLOVAK RELATIONS
aimed at solving some problems. Negotia-
U.S.-Czechoslovak trade, hindered by
tions were begun on a consular conven-
Czechoslovakia's failure to qualify for
President Woodrow Wilson and the United
tion, a trade agreement, an accord on fi-
most-favored-nation tariff status and its
States played a major role in the estab-
nancial issues dating back to World War
trade orientation toward the Soviet Un-
lishment of the state of Czechoslovakia on
II, an exchanges agreement, and an ac-
ion and other CEMA countries, was stag-
October 28, 1918. President Wilson's 14
cord to open consulates in Bratislava and
nant until the events of 1989. Of $47 mil-
Points, including the right of ethnic
Chicago. The discussions failed to pro-
lion in U.S. exports to Czechoslovakia in
groups to form their own states, were the
duce results.
1987, cattle hides and fertilizers ac-
basis for the Czechs and Slovaks joining
The 1980s saw modest improvement
counted for almost half. The United
to form the Czechoslovak state. Tomas
in U.S.-Czechoslovak relations at the offi-
States purchased $11 million in glassware
Masaryk, the father of the state and its
cial level. In 1982, agreement was
from Czechoslovakia in 1987. Other lead-
first president, visited the United States
reached to resolve outstanding financial
ing imports included leather footwear,
during World War I and worked with
issues, including compensation from
hops and beer, and small tractors. In
U.S. officials in developing the basis of
Czechoslovakia for the U.S. citizens and
1990, as part of the general development
the new country. He used the U.S.
corporations whose properties were na-
of warmer relations, prospects for im-
Constitution as a model for the first
tionalized after World War II and the de-
proved trade relations and mutual eco-
Czechoslovak Constitution.
livery to Czechoslovakia of its share of
nomic cooperation increased rapidly.
Since before the founding of the
the gold recovered from Germany and
Czechoslovak state, the U.S. Government
other countries by the Allies at the end of
and people have maintained a friendly
the war. The gold was in the custody of a
Principal U.S. Officials
and sympathetic attitude toward the
tripartite (United States, United King-
Ambassador-Shirley Temple Black
Czech and Slovak people. Millions of
dom, and France) commission established
Deputy Chief of Mission-Theodore E.
Americans have their roots in the Czech
by international agreement to allocate the
Russell
lands and Slovakia, and a large commu-
pool of recovered gold among the coun-
Counselor for Political and Economic Af-
nity in the United States has strong cul-
tries from which gold was stolen by the
fairs-Clifford G. Bond
tural and family ties with Czechoslovakia.
Nazis. The United States blocked the
Press and Cultural Affairs Officer
After World War II and the return of
gold identified by the commission for de-
(USIA)-Thomas Hull
the Czechoslovak government-in-exile,
livery to Czechoslovakia pending a settle-
Economic Affairs Officer-
normal relations were continued until
ment of the nationalization claims.
Harvey D. Lampert
1948, when the communists seized power.
Another lengthy negotiation was con-
Commercial Officer-Janet G. Speck
Relations cooled rapidly.
cluded in 1986 when the United States
Consul-Richele Keller
The Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslo-
and Czechoslovakia signed the first ex-
Defense Attache-Col. Edwin Motyka
vakia in August 1968 further complicated
changes between the two countries. The
Administrative Officer-Steven J. White
U.S.-Czechoslovak relations. The United
agreement provides for exchanges in cul-
States referred the matter to the UN Se-
ture, education, science, technology, and
The U.S. Embassy is located at
curity Council as a violation of the UN
other fields. In addition, the U.S.-Czecho-
Trziste 15, Prague (tel. 536641/8).
Charter. In a report to Congress, Secre-
slovak Consular Convention, signed in
tary of State William P. Rogers con-
1973, was finally brought into force by an
Published by the United States Department
demned the invasion as an infringement
of State
Bureau of Public Affairs
Office
exchange of instruments of ratification in
of Public Communication
Editorial Divi-
of Czechoslovakia's sovereignty and
October 1987.
sion
Washington, D.C.
February 1990
stressed that improvement in East-West
With the "gentle revolution" of 1989,
Editor: Jim Pinkelman
relations must be based on respect for the
bilateral relations have improved mark-
principles of sovereign equality, political
edly. Dissidents once sustained by U.S.
Department of State Publication 7758
independence, and the territorial integ-
Background Notes Series
This material is
encouragement and human rights policies
in the public domain and may be reprinted
rity of each European state, regardless of
reached high levels of government. In
without permission; citation of this source
its political or social system.
1990, both governments are moving rap-
is appreciated.
Despite cool relations, both sides de-
idly to forge close ties.
cided in the fall of 1972 on limited steps
For sale by the Superintendent of Docu-
ments, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. 20402.
8
REMARKS AT WENCESLAS SQUARE
EVENT INFORMATION
1)
Event will take place in Wenceslas Square on Saturday,
November 17th. Perhaps as many as 200,00 are expected to
attend. In all likelihood, Czech President Vaclav Havel
will introduce POTUS. Looks like no more than 15 mins.
2)
DAY IN HISTORY: This is a biggie--exactly one year ago on
the date POTUS is schedualed to deliver his remarks,
Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution" began with a student
confrontation with police in Prague (see ARTICLES).
3)
An address to the Czech legislature will precede the remarks
in Wenceslas Square.
4)
NSC is working on the possibility that the original copy of
Czechoslovakia's 1918 Declaration of Independence be
presented to Havel during the event.
5)
Two areas of sensitivity:
a.
The first is the delicate balance between Slovak,
Czech, and Czechoslovakian nationalism. Hutchins of
NSC suggests that, without fanning the flames of Slovak
nationalism, we make some sort of bow to their cultural
integrity and uniqueness--to show that POTUS undersands
and appreciates their cultural seperateness.
b.
The second area is the economic hardship Czechs are
dealing with at this time. POTUS should show that he
understands how hard the ramifications of the Gulf
crisis is hitting the Czech economy. POTUS should
express America's gratitude--indeed the world's--at
Czech sacrifice in the face of brutal agression against
another member of the international community.
6)
While there are some parallels between Kuwait in 1990 and
Czechoslovakia in 1938, we should hold off on any "Saddam as
Hitler" analogies until that debate clears up at NSC. The
point to remeber, and one that trancends that debate, is
that aggression against a faraway country is everybody's
business. It's not about oil. It's not about Israel. It's
about the world community united against international
bullies, united for peace and national integrity.
7)
Hutchins says any reference to Wilson can't miss. Wilson's
a hero over there; he was the first world leader to
recognize Czechoslovakian independence. (see Masaryk-Wilson
connection).
WENCESLAUS SQUARE HISTORY/COLOR
1)
On 28 October 1918, after hearing that the Austrian Empire
fell apart, huge crowds celebrated on WS the birth of the
independent Czechoslovak Republic. They cheered Thomas
Masaryk and Woodrow Wilson.
2)
In September 1939 thousands protested here against the
Munich diktat, i.e. the dismemberment and political
enslavement of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis.
3)
Not far from WS, on 28 October 1939, the Nazis shot and
mortally wounded Jan Opletal, one of the students who
demonstrated against the Nazi oppression. New students'
demonstration after Jan Opletal's death led to the complete
suppression of the Czech universities on 17 November 1939.
17 November became a symbolical day for freedom-loving
students all over the world.
4)
In May 1945, when W W II ended, thousands of people again
came to WS to celebrate the liberation of their country.
5)
In February 1948 the Communist leaders announced on the WS
the overthrow of a freely-elected democratic coalition
government.
6)
In August 1968 huge crowds gathered here to protest the
invasion which crushed the Czechoslovak Reform Movement.
7)
On 19 January 1969 the student Jan Palach set himself afire
in the WS and sacrificed his life in protest against
foreign intervention.
8)
On 17 November 1989 demonstrations which started as a
commemoration of the students' revolt 40 years ago, were the
beginning of the Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution". Again,
as many times before, most of the demonstrations of hundreds
of thousands of people took place here, on WS.
U.S.-CZECHOSLOVAK TIES
1)
"Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, had a
lifelong intellectual relationship with America which must
be called unique even today, fifty years after his death.
His practical contacts with the American people spread over
four decades and consisted of four visits paid to the United
States in the years 1878, 1902, 1907, and 1918, The
crowning achievement of this relationship was American
recognition of Czechoslovak independence on September 3,
1918."
--Masaryk and America, by George Kovtun,
p.vii
2)
"America meant more to Masaryk than the powerful, prosperous
country whose entry into the war turned the scales in favor
of the Allies. Masaryk regarded America as a spiritual
force."
--ibid., p. 47
3)
Excerpt from Masaryk's speech at the American Unitarian
Association in Boston, reported by the Christian Science
Monitor on May 21, 1918:
"It is the American idea of a liberated mankind, that
nations should not be forced to live under a
sovereignty against their will. They should be allowed
to seek refuge in the equality of nations which is
preached by President Wilson, which was preached by
President Lincoln and which we regard as the real
Kingdom of God. "
4)
Exerpt from the final version of the Czechoslovak
Declaration of Independence, sent to President Wilson:
"We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern
democracy, as they have been the ideals of our nation
for centuries. We accept the American principles laid
down by Presidnet Wilson: the principles of liberated
mankind--of the actual equality of nations--and of
governments deriving all thier just powers from the
consent of the governed. We, the nation of Comenius,
cannot but accept these principles expressed in the
American Declaration of Independence, the principles of
Lincoln, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen. For these principles our nation shed
its blood in the memorable Hussite Wars five hundred
years ago, for these same principles, beside her Allies
in Russia, Italy, and France, our nation is shedding
its blood today."
5)
Masaryk and Woodrow Wilson were called "liberators" in the
first proclamation of the revolutionalry Czechoslovak
National Council to the people issued on 28 November 1918:
"At the beginning of a new great work the National
Council calls on you, Czech and Slovak people, to show
by your behavior and by your joy that you are worthy of
this great hour. Our liberators Masaryk and Wilson
shall not be disappointed in their conviction that they
had won freedom for a people who is able to govern
itself."
6)
At a celebration of the Fourth of July in Prague in 1919,
attended by a group of Czech-American soldiers, Masaryk
described his leaning toward American democracy in a brief
speech which had a strong personal note. An exerpt follows:
"
I had the privilege of visiting the battlefield of
Gettysburg and I think I can say I was never more
deeple impressed
And then I came to the cemetery and
read the eternal message of Lincoln, I read of that
true 'government of the people, by the people, for the
people' that never shall perish from off the earth.
This message touched me deeply and I realized what
American democracy means
and I accepted the
principles of American democracy. I can say that these
principles have been and ever will be the policy of my
government and my life. They appeal to our people, our
people have adopted them as their own and through them
we shall for ever be united with the American people,
united with them in the spirit of liberty and
democracy. You, boys, are returning to your homes. We
shall never forget what you have done for us. We have
been and are united in endeavor for liberty and I hope
that one day I may once more meet with you out there in
your adopted country. Do no forget that the same
ideals, the same principles ever unite us. Do not
forget us, as we shall never forget you. "
7)
Iwo Jima Memorial: one of the men from the most famous
battle photographs ever taken, raising the U.S. flag, was a
Slovak by origin, Mikhael Strank (Sh-trank). The soldier
was born at Conemaugh, PA, on 10 November 1919; his parents
were natives of Czechoslovakia. Strank fought with the 3rd
Battaliaon, 7th Marines.
On 1 March 1945, while attacking Japanese positions in
northern Iwo Jima, he was fatally wounded by enemy artillery
fire. Sgt. Strank was entitled to the following decorations
and medals: Purple Heart (awarded posthumously),
Presidential Unit Citation with one star (for Iwo Jima), and
many more (see xerox).
8)
Captain John Smith on his first trip to America in 1607
brought with him two Slovak carpenters. They died during
their first year in Jamestown of Typhoid fever, which killed
almost all the new settlers of Jamstown. They are buried in
Jamestown. Cpt. Smith claims in his memoirs that he hired
the two Slovaks since Slovaks are the best carpenters in the
world. **This makes a nice analagous lead into: "and now
those carpenters are lending their skills to the
reconstruction of one of the world's greatest democracies."
9)
McDonald Restaurants Founder Ray A. Kroc was a Czech by
origin. Maybe there's a line in this, like:
POTUS: "And I think we all want to recognize the man who
started a worldwide revolution, a man whose influence is
even felt today in the capital of the Soviet Union, that
great Czechoslovak-- Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's. "
10) One of the most famous astronauts of our times, Cpt. Eugene
Andrew Cernan, traces his roots back to the Kysuca valley,
North Slovakia. He took part in some of the most
significant space flights of our time.
With his legitimate title to immortality, Cernan has
remained closely attached to the religious tradition of his
Slovak forefathers. Before takeoff on his last lunar flight
he made this profound statement abut the Creator of the
Universe: "When you look back at the earth from the moon and
you see the perfectness of it and the beauty of it and the
logic of it all, you know it didn't happen by accident. "
11) Places in America with Czech names: Bohemia, NY; New Prague
and Moravia, Minnesota; Prague, Nebraska; Moravia, Texas;
and Slovaktown, Arkansas.
12) Czech-ered canvas: Andy Warhol, the artist who turned soup
cans into money-making canvases, was born sometime between
1927 and 1932 in Pennsylvania. His father was a
Czechoslovakian coal miner and his mother was an immigrant
from Mikova.
JOKES
1)
Sometimes the Czechs and Slovaks accuse each other of mutual
bad influence: Slovaks learned to drink beer from Czechs and
the Czechs learned to drink wine from Slovaks. Maybe we can
extend this, something along the lines of
POTUS: "And I think we have a similar exchange going on
between the Americans and the people of Czechoslovakia
you
gave us the polka, and we give you breakdancing. "
OR:
"
you gave us Dvorak, and we give you rap-music."
CZECHOSLOVAK COLOR
1)
The Czechoslovak National Anthem gets a little complicated
with parts that are "Czech parts" and others that are
"Slovak parts. " Nonetheless, per you request, here are some
exerpts:
CZECH PART
"Where is my home, where is my home?
Streams are rushing through the meadows,
'Mid the rocks sigh fragrant pine groves,
Orchards decked in Spring's array
Scenes of Paradise portray.
And this land of wond'rous beauty
Is the Czech land, home of mine,
Is the Czech land, home of mine. If
SLOVAK PART
"Lightning strikes our mighty Tatra tempest-shaken,
Lightning strikes our mighty Tatra tempest-shaken.
Stand we fast, friends of mine,
Storms must pass, sun will shine,
Slovaks shall awaken. If
ARTICLES
1)
"Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, as it came to be
called, began with the crack of riot sticks against student
heads
On Friday night, Nov. 17, more than 3,000 young
people stood in the cold and faced down a line of riot
police. As the students chanted for elections and entry
into Wenceslas Square, hundreds more police moved in behind
them, sealing off connecting streets and forming a human
cage
At about 10 p.m., the police attacked. With help
from the Red Berets, an anti-terrorist squad, they bashed,
bludgeoned and kicked with methodical fury, continuing even
as unarmed students fell bledding to the ground
"
"The blood that stained Narodni Street that night, and the
rumor that a student had been killed, worked like a red flag
before the Czechoslovak people
"
"Czechoslovakia's hard-line leadership, installed by Leonid
Brezhnev to crush reform after the Soviet-led invasion of
1968, had for two decades treated independent thought as
treason. Govbachev presented them with an unsolvable
problem. If they allowed democratic reform, they faced
certain extiction. If they didn't they increased
Czechoslovakia's isolation
"
"Operation Student, as the Interior Ministry called it,
proved to be the worst incident of government violence
against citizens in 20 years. The next day, protesters
crept back toward Wenceslas Square, to light candles and
sing anthems where the students had fallen
"
-Washington Post
2)
"After the First World War, independence returned. The new
democratic Czechoslovak Republic united the agricultural,
often impoverished Slovaks and the industrial, prosperous
Czechs
"Soon came the tragic Hitler years the partition of
Czechoslovakia, and liberation by the Soviet Army. By 1948
the postwar coalition government succumbed to the country's
militant Communist Party, which was aided by the Soviet
Union
" Czechs often dismiss Slovaks as hillbillies, lacking
culture, while many Slovaks perceive Czechs as cold and
conceited.
"
"That year (1968) a Slovak, Alexander Dubcek,
Czechoslovakia's Communist Party general secretary, aided by
party members and ordinary citizens sanctioned an
unprecedented drive toward liberalization. His attempt to
create 'socilism with a human face' shook the country,
ending abruptly with the Soviet-led invasion of Warsaw Pact
troops. The 'Prague Spring' of 1968 was discredited as an
attempt to disrupt the very foundation of socialist order.
Disgraced, Dubcek was forced to resign."
The article quotes a Slovak woman as confiding: "We have a
saying: 'From anything old a new sapling must grow. That's
what happened after the war. Facism rotted away, and on its
ruins we built socialism, such as it is. It could be better
if people were better. Bad often tries to destroy the
good.
-National Geographic, "Slovakia's Spirit of
Survival," Yva Momatiuk, January, 1987
3)
" (in Prague) street vendors sell not only folk art but also
anti-Communist buttons, including a cute one with a skull
and a red hammer and sicle instead of crossbones.
"Not included in the tour was the Prague monument to Soviet
liberators. A statue of a Russian soldier locked in an
embrace with a Czech civilian, it has become, I was told, a
gathering place and an ironic symbol for the country's
budding gay liberation movement, its pedestal plastered with
the movement's leaflets." "
--The American Spectator, Cathy Young,
October 1990
QUOTES
1)
"Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity;
and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of
language, nationality, or religion."
--John Comenius (1592-1670) **he is
Czechoslovakia's greatest philosopher. To
give you an idea of his stature among
Czechs, note that Masaryk often referred to
Czechoslovakia as "the home of Comenius."
2)
"O holy simplicity!"
-John Huss, the great Czech martyr, his last
words at the stake.
3)
This would be a great quote to pay deference to Havel as a
man of letters. Franz Kafka, the great Czech poet once said,
"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. "
Maybe we could paraphrase "the book" into "the power of the
written word" or something along those lines.
4)
"PRAVDA VITEZI" (THE TRUTH WILL WIN) This is
Czechoslovakia's motto, adopted by the Czech Republic in the
15th century.
COME ON BABY LIGHT MY FIRE
1)
In 1668 Comenius dedicated a treatise, The Way of Light (Via
Lucis), "to the torch bearers of this enlightened age,
members of the Royal Society of London, now bringing real
philosophy to a happy birth." He expressed the "confident
hope" that through their endeavors "philosophy brought to
perfection" would "exhibit the true and distinctive
qualities of things for the constantly progressive increase
of all that makes for good to mind, body, and estate.
VOL. 171, NO.1
JANUARY 1987
NATIONAL
GEOGRA PHIC
Medicine's
New Vision
CALIFORNIA DESERT
A-WORLDLY
WILDERNESS 42.*
ICE ON THE,WORLD
79
GLACIERS ON
THE MOVE 107
SLOVAKIA'S SPIRIT
OF SURVIVAL. 120
Slovakia's Spirit of Survival
Article and photographs
by YVA MOMATIUK
and JOHN EASTCOTT
F
ollowing in Lenin's
footsteps, thousands
of young Communists
climb Rysy peak in
the High Tatras of
Slovakia, an annual
pilgrimage
commemorating his
ascent in 1913. When
the throngs depart and
peace returns to the
mountains, the music
of past ages still echoes
through the valleys.
Surviving centuries
of foreign rule, Slovakia
has never surrendered
its cultural heritage.
Since 1968, when
Soviet tanks arrived in
Czechoslovakia to quell
socialism with a
human face," the
Slovaks have practiced
compliance in pursuit
of increased prosperity,
while preserving the
language and spirit
of their ancestors.
120
No one goes hungry in rural Slovakia. Villagers like Katarína Mišurová
available store foods. Home produce, preserved for winter, supplements
of Párnica raise livestock and vegetables to augment erratically
abundant potatoes and dairy products.
123
URAJ JÁNOŠÍK was one hell of a man."
Others cherish the material improvements
The tired voice trailed off.
of the past 40 years and accept the regime
Then Vincent Patrnčiak, an old fid-
that, although oppressively rigid by West-
dle player from Terchová, a mountain
ern democratic standards, they believe
village in Slovakia, one of Czechoslo-
has brought prosperity to once impover-
vakia's two republics, told me about
ished Slovakia.
Terchová's legendary hero, whose short
Leaving the old musician, I followed a
and stormy life inspired the saddest moun-
path made by generations of feet between
tain tunes. The story unfolded slowly, tat-
Terchová's blossoming orchards, looking
tered memories that have survived more
for my husband, John, and Tara, our five-
than 200 years.
year-old daughter. They were watching
"Jánošík was born here. Handsome and
Gypsies erect a shooting arcade and a merry-
clever he was. He studied to be a priest. One
go-round.
day Jánošík's mother died. Her husband,
Along Terchová's main street, banners
Jánošík's father, buried her. But the gróf-
heralded Jánošík Days. Loudspeakers,
people worked for big landlords in Slova-
omnipresent in Czechoslovakia's towns and
kia-the gróf demanded to know why he
villages, blared folk music. A festive crowd
wasn't at work. Burying his wife? That
marched toward Vrátna Valley's amphi-
wasn't an excuse. And the gróf ordered the
theater, several miles away. John ran
old man beaten. Four hundred lashes.
"
ahead. I followed with Tara in tow.
I listened intently. To my Polish ear the
Suddenly a dusty bus puffed up behind
melodious Slovak language was familiar yet
me. "Get in!" said the driver. Helping hands
oddly archaic, springing from the ancient
grabbed my aluminum case and tapped it
font of all Slavic tongues. Vincent went on:
curiously. "Electronic equipment?"
"Jánošík saw his father's lifeless body.
"Nie," I said. 'Aparaty fotograficzne."
He told the gróf: 'I swear I will burn your
"Ah, a Polish journalist! You must be spy-
castle down,' and he did. After that nothing
ing for Jaruzelski." Loud laughter greeted
could stop him. He plundered the rich and
this reference to Poland's leader.
gave to the poor. People loved Jánošík.
"Ilive in the United States," I explained.
They prayed to him.
"Aha! Then you must be spying for Rea-
"One day a traitor gave him out. The cap-.
gan." Even Tara joined in the laughter.
tors put an iron hook between his ribs, hung
Flushed and happy, she was already sitting
him over a fire. Jánošík dangled there,
in somebody's lap, her hands sticky with
smoking his pipe, swearing. At last he
chocolate.
yelled, 'Now that you've cooked me, eat me!'
The Slovaks apologized for their jokes.
and died. Even the mountains cried."
How did like their country? Wasn't Vrátna
Vincent added sarcastically, "And now
the most beautiful valley I had ever seen?
they say Jánošík fought for Communism."
Where was my man? A pretty woman
During our months in Slovakia we found
should not run around alone.
such pointed remarks rare. Fearful of
"There he is, I see him!" our driver yelled.
the consequences, people seldom criti-
High on the slope was John, his cameras
cize Czechoslovakia's Communist system.
While there are dissident groups in the large
This is the sixth NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC assign-
cities of Prague, Brno, and Bratislava, in
ment for author-photographer team Yva Moma-
the hills and mountains of rural Slovakia the
tiuk and John Eastcott, also wife and husband.
Their subjects have included Canada's Inuit,
lack of anonymity makes such groups virtu-
New Zealand's Maoris, and Poland's mountain
ally nonexistent. Most Slovaks resign them-
people. They live in the Catskill Mountains
selves to the pursuit of safe, personal goals.
of New York.
Once upon a time the fairy-tale towers of Bojnice Castle, dating from the 1100s,
housed Hungarian nobility. Now a museum to Slovakia's past, the castle forms
a spectacular backdrop to bathers enjoying the mineral waters at Bojnice Spa.
Other popular outdoor activities include hiking, skiing, climbing, and tennis.
124
National Geographic, January 1987
M
N
N
T
A
POLAND
steps followed masterful jumps. Native
A
N
TATRA
Hranice
NATIONAL Dunaje
wind instruments joined violins, cymbals,
YPARK
Zdiar
Spišska Stará
Ves
and high-pitched voices. Yet amid rainbows
Nižná
of costumes the songs lamented.
Terchová
TATRAMTS.
Lendak
Brno
Párnica
Tatranska Lomnica
Vrátna
Valley
Poprad
(Prešov
THOUGHT of the history of the Slovak
Východná
I
Liptovská Osada
Rysy
Levoca
Cirocha
people, as woeful as these songs. Their
2,499 m
Hornád
ancestors had migrated to this moun-
Banská
8,199 11
Bojnice,
Bystrica
Podbrezova
tainous, landlocked heart of Europe
Košice
Ziar
more than 1,500 years ago. Invaded in turn
nad Hronom
Piešťany,
Detva
by Avars, Magyars, Tatars, and Turks,
they paid in blood to hold on to their lands.
Topo) čianky
HITOR
In the ninth century they were briefly part of
the Great Moravian Empire, but the Mag-
Bratislava
S
yar invasion resulted in a thousand years of
HUNGARY
O
50 km
Hungarian rule.
AUST.
equed
o
50 mi
Incredibly, the Slovaks kept their iden-
tity. Schools taught them in Hungarian;
West
Berlin
Berlin
Warsaw
churches saved their souls in Latin, Czech,
EAST
and German. Their own language, not re-
GERMANY
POLAND
corded in writing until the late 1700s, sur-
Seeking the heart of the Slovak
Prague
CZECH
SOCIALIST
vived in the hills and mourned in songs:
Socialist Republic, the authors threaded
REPUBLIC
the mountain valleys that rib eastern
WEST
Feed us, God, feed us,
V
A
K
A
GER.
U.S.S.R.
Czechoslovakia. Celtic tribes, then
SLOVAK SOCIALIST
In these hard, hard times,
Slavs settled the fertile plain fed by the
REPUBLIC
Vienna
Or we will perish
Danube. Slovakia was invaded by
Budapest
AUSTRIA
Avars, Tatars, and Turks and ruled by
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
And many did perish.
Hungary for a thousand years. Briefly
ITALY
After the First World War, independence
YUGOSLAVIA
200 km
a democratic republic, then controlled
returned. The new democratic Czechoslo-
Adriatic
O
200 mi
by Hitler, it fell to Communists in 1948.
Sea
vak Republic united the agricultural, often
impoverished Slovaks and the industrial,
prosperous Czechs.
NGS CARTOGRAPHIC DIVISION DESIGN: NANCY SCHWEICKART: RESEARCH: DAVID B. MILLER. MARGUERITE B. HUNSIKER: PRODUCTION: MARYANNE BREITHAUPT
Soon came the tragic Hitler years, the
Workers unite to celebrate harvest's end
partition of Czechoslovakia, and liberation
on Cooperative Day in Liptovská Osada,
Hist
fertile plains of the Danube basin in the
LOVAKS COMPLAIN that the changing
by the Soviet Army By 1948 the postwar
southwest. Medieval castles cast elegant
where lengthy speeches finally give way
coalition government succumbed to the
S
life-style has made people hurried,
shadows on wheat fields. Names of rivers—
aloof; among the young, the divorce
to music, food, and dancing. Acceptance
country's militant Communist Party, which
Váh, Hron, Cirocha, Hornád-tickle the
rate has soared.
of the socialist land reforms of 1948 has
was aided by the Soviet Union; the U.S.S.R.
throat with their harsh r's and h's.
A geologist said: "When I was young, the
grown with the improved standard of
thus gained one of its staunchest allies
New industrial plants dot the valleys,
teacher spanked me, the priest spanked me,
living. All houses now have electricity,
Czechoslovakia's industry was completely
and most have a TV and refrigerator.
producing machines, engineering and trans-
my father spanked me. Three big men tried
nationalized, cooperative farms estab-
portation equipment, robots, pharmaceuti-
to make a good citizen out of one little boy.
lished, a new constitution adopted, and
cals, textiles, shoes, and beer. Domestic
Today they don't spank in school, the priest
shining. "That's strange. He isn't fat. He
opposition silenced.
isn't even old," the driver mused.
Today Czechs and Slovaks elect an equal
$100
coal, nuclear and hydroelectric power, and
is less visible, and parents are busy working.
Soviet oil and gas provide energy.
Whom do we breed? Hooligans?"
"What does he mean?" I asked my neigh-
number of deputies to the House of Nations
Not until the 1960s did the number of Slo-
Among family and friends, Slovaks are
bor. She giggled. "When a Slovak girl mar-
in the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia.
vaks working in industry approach the total
warm, generous, upholding old-fashioned
ries an American, we suspect he must not
The Communist Party stresses harmony
of those in agriculture. Today only 15 per-
courtesies of the rural communities from
only be rich but also old and fat. Is he an
and brotherhood between both peoples. Yet
cent till the land. With its five million citi-
which many have stemmed.
American?"
Czechs often dismiss Slovaks as hillbillies,
zens the Slovak Socialist Republic earns
Yet in casual encounters the very same
"No," I answered, "he's from New Zea-
lacking culture, while many Slovaks per-
about 30 percent of the national income in a
people can be abrupt and rude. Store clerks,
land," and we both laughed.
ceive Czechs as cold and conceited.
country of 15 million. Nearly every family
officials, repairmen, and waiters often treat
At the Vrátna amphitheater we watched
Cradled inside the great arch of the
owns a refrigerator, washing machine, and
customers with impatient indifference. A
folk dancers from throughout Slovakia
Carpathians, Slovakia unfolds gracefully,
television; every third family, a car.
teacher told us: "We don't like this behavior
thundering on stage. Tense, light-footed
rolling from wild peaks in the north to the
127
Slovakia's Spirit of Survival
126
National Geographic, January 1987
Dwarfed by towering mountains, high rises mushroom in the old
factories. Garden plots with storage sheds, foreground, allow
town of Poprad, part of an effort to meet housing needs of nearby
apartment dwellers to grow their own produce and enjoy fresh air.
129
Political survivor once imprisoned by
his own party, Czechoslovakia's
President Gustáv Husák (above) was
selected in 1969 to restore law and order,
Soviet style, after Alexander Dubček's
attempt at liberalization. Husák has
since made an unspoken bargain with his
people-docility in return for increased
material comforts. Party member
Veronika Goliánova watches her friend
Marta Rybárová (left) embroider a
tablecloth for the local priest. Husák
received a similar present from both
women on his 70th birthday in 1983.
any more than you do. But since almost
Because they have farther to go to church.
"Now you can see that the church is alive
ease. "I understand that if you are a Com-
everybody works for the state, people aren't
One day we met a funeral procession. An
here," the minister told us later. "Remem-
munist, you can't teach in West Germany,"
worried about being fired, even for incom-
old woman dressed in black took my hand.
ber, Slovakia is a mosaic of nationalities:
he retorted.
petence or rudeness."
"Your legs are younger, dear," she said,
Czechs, Hungarians, Russians, Germans,
People can be fired, however, for not ad-
leaning on me. In the cemetery she intro-
Poles, Gypsies, and others. We have Catho-
OOPERATIVES, called družstvá,
hering to the ruling Communist Party line,
duced me serenely to sunken tombstones.
lics, Lutherans, and members of the Re-
C
have changed the Slovak land-
or-if they are teachers, police, or party
Here lay her parents, her sister, a baby
formed and Orthodox Churches."
scape even more than new indus-
members-for attending church services.
daughter. "God gives, God takes away, she
In Czechoslovakia, clergymen are civil
trial plants. The hills, once a
For others, churchgoing can be detrimental
said simply.
servants, receiving salaries and funds to
bright patchwork of private plots, are now
to career advancement. On Sundays many
The minister intoned over an open grave:
maintain their churches. They may not par-
cultivated in multiacre sections. Quaint
people drive to distant village churches,
"Through me the deceased says to his wid-
ticipate in political life or seek to motivate
wooden farm buildings have been replaced
hoping to worship in anonymity. Slovaks
ow: 'Forgive me, darling, for not being able
their followers politically.
with large družstvo compounds, their
joke that if gasoline becomes rationed, party
to cherish you one more day.' Women
"I am told that teachers cannot attend ser-
offices, barns, combines, and tractors pro-
members will get double coupons. Why?
wept. A soft breeze stirred white lilies.
vices," I said to him. He was suddenly ill at
tected by fences and armed guards.
130
National Geographic, January 1987
Slovakia's Spirit of Survival
131
The farms produce basic crops-grain,
Dr. Paučula laughed heartily at this.
potatoes, fodder. Some add sugar beets,
"Their fathers tell them how they had to
hops, fruits, and vegetables, or breed live-
get up at 3 a.m., work on a plot too small to
stock. Thanks to machinery and fertilizers,
feed them, rush to their factory job, then
one Slovak farm worker now feeds 15 peo-
return to their field, often after dark."
ple; his father might have fed three.
At the village of Liptovská Osada in cen-
I
F YOU ASK about the Communist land re-
tral Slovakia, the director of the local coop-
form of 1948, you will be told that farm-
erative told us that the farm's steep land
ers then considered it robbery. Today
supports 300,000 chickens, 50,000 geese,
many have accepted it.
12,000 sheep, 2,500 cattle, 2,000 pigs, and
"When the official ordered me to sign
45 horses. The cooperative also operates a
our fields over to the družstvo," Mária
vegetable store and a cheese factory, distills
Bartková-Mandačka told us in the village of
fiery plum brandy, sells carnations, and
Východná, "I grabbed a pot of boiling water
owns a tourist hotel.
to scald him, as if he were the devil. They or-
"We employ 1,000 workers and earn
dered my husband home from work: 'You sit
about 180 million Czechoslovak crowns, or
there till she signs.' After three weeks I gave
30 million dollars annually," said Dr. Milan
up. We didn't get a penny! The other day the
Paučula. Urbane and gentle, with degrees in
same man asked me: 'Mária, are you hurt-
law and agriculture, he oversees the farm.
ing?' And I said, 'Not at all!"
"Wouldn't people prefer to own the land,
Mária found her niche in the system. She
the way their fathers did?" asked John.
proudly showed me medals awarded for her
achievements. She hopes to
have 36 grandchildren:
"Multiply my six children
by six. What do you get?"
But, I protested, most
women today work outside
their homes.
"At home they used to
toil all day and nobody was
even grateful," she replied.
"Now women have their
own money, friends, and
children too." The govern-
ment grants a working
mother maternity leave for
six months, including bene-
fits amounting to 90 per-
cent of her salary. Day-care
centers charge five crowns,
or 85 cents, a day.
But often in the morning
Slovak cowboy Ján Záhorec (above)
I saw weary women on their way to the day-
serves as caretaker of brood mares at
care center, carrying babies, urging on
the internationally renowned stud
sleepy toddlers.
farm in Topol'čianky. Exported for
"I hate these superwomen who tell the
breeding, Thoroughbreds, Arabians, and
government how they love to work full-
Lipizzaners boost the economy with
time, rear children, and take care of the
much needed hard currency.
house," complained a mother of three.
Taking a break from a hot anvil, the
ranch's blacksmith (facing page) offers
"Even our husbands expect us to work an
typical Slovak hospitality, sharing his
80-hour week and smile too."
lunch with the authors.
The lure of industrial employment in-
cludes a salary averaging 3,000 crowns
132
National Geographic, January 1987
are now being replaced by electric arc fur-
N SLOVAKIA the upbeat im-
naces. Heaped beside the Hron River, rusty
ed, pulled, and rounded into pipes of all sizes
I
age of a happy society is cul-
pyramids of scrap metal waited to be melt-
tivated by the government-
controlled media. Posters
and many destinations: the Middle East,
advertise sunny holidays and
Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the
bright prospects. Red banners
U.S.S.R.
praise the leadership of the prole-
Engineer Milan Pivovarči, a fourth-
tariat. Slogans read: Long Live
generation man of iron, took us through the
the Soviet Union! Communism
works. They were no longer a man's world.
Means Peace! Down With Im-
Women were operating cranes and pipe-
perialism!
sorting machines. My ears tingled; the noise
The system guarantees jobs,
reached a deafening 90 decibels.
housing, education, health ser-
Outside, Milan told us: "The old workers
vices, and pensions, but the aspi-
marvel at our progress. Work is still hard,
rations of the individual are
but the salaries we get are second only to
mired by a political doctrine that
what miners are paid, and average 3,550
relies on bureaucratic regula-
crowns a month. We retire at 55." He
tions to ensure loyalty.
laughed. "But these old crows just want to
Since the rise and fall of Po-
keep on working."
land's Solidarity trade union,
neither Slovaks nor Poles can
S
UCH ZEST for the job is rare in
easily cross their joint border.
Slovakia. Even during regular work
Slovaks show little interest in
hours shops are full of customers.
the political upheaval in Poland.
People play hooky to visit a hair-
"Frankly, we don't know what's
dresser, repair a car, or speed off to their
happening in Poland," a forester
summer cottage. Many feather their nests
explained to us. "People have
with illegally obtained building materials
learned not to touch matters they
or quietly subcontract a state-owned bull-
can't influence. They keep their
dozer to do a bit of excavating for their new
heads down. They had their les-
house. The government seems to be saying:
son in 1968
"Keep your political profile low, and we
($500) a month, as much as four weeks of
That year a Slovak, Alexander
won't interfere."
paid vacation a year, and retirement be-
Dubček, Czechoslovakia's Com-
Restaurants employ a maximum number
tween 53 and 60, with pension benefits up to
munist Party general secretary,
of workers and frequently offer minimum
75 percent of pay. Workers have their own
Hist
aided by party members and or-
service. One person brings a menu, another
sports and recreation facilities.
dinary citizens, sanctioned an
takes your order, another delivers drinks
We were told, however, that a quiet revo-
another serves the food. Money is handled
Pragns
unprecedented drive toward lib-
lution is sweeping the factories, that hand-
eralization His attempt to cre-
by an elusive "cashier" waiter.
operated machines are being replaced by
ate "socialism with a human
Rather than waiting for the missing links
robots and computerized assembly lines.
face" shook the country, ending
in this human chain, we learned to send
Engineer Anton Kolenička, a balding vet-
abruptly with the Soviet-led invasion of
Raising a child need not conflict with a
Tara to fetch menus and summon waiters.
Warsaw Pact troops. The 'Prague Spring"
job for Slovakia's mothers. The Tesla-
eran of 45 years in the steel industry, directs
Slovaks love children and indulge them
of 1968 was discredited as an attempt to dis-
Orava TV factory in Nižná runs a day-
Slovakia's oldest ironworks, located in Pod-
shamelessly. Tara was often invited to the
care center (facing page) staffed by
brezová in central Slovakia. He considers
rupt the very foundation of socialist order.
kitchen to watch the chef prepare monu-
professionals and catering to several
himself lucky. "Automation! My successors
Disgraced, Dubček was forced to resign.
mental desserts of fruit, nuts, and
hundred children. In spite of excellent
will take it for granted. They won't see, as I
One day we found Dubček's signature in a
zmrzlina-ice cream.
standards in widespread state nurseries,
did, the change it created in work psycholo-
hotel scrapbook. "Did Dubček come here of-
some parents prefer the family touch.
On the road, away from petty annoy-
gy. People took it hard at first. About 15
ten?" I asked the receptionist. No, she said,
Retired grandparents provide willing
ances, we traveled freely. Women in smocks
years ago, nearly all they knew had become
only once, with friends.
help: Mária Námesná (above), from
and gum boots wielded scythes with fluid
obsolete. They had to adapt, and I was priv-
I looked at her. Was there nothing to say
Ziar nad Hronom, mirrors her five-
grace, trimming roadside ditches. Vacation-
ileged to witness this change."
about that springtime of hope? Her eyes
month-old granddaughter's winning
ing Slovaks searched for mushrooms and
flashed a message: "This topic is off-limits."
smile. Working mothers may retire early
Hard hats firmly on, we walked under red
berries. Children splashed in warm streams,
Yet Slovaks remember only too well.
based on how many children they have.
smoke from open-hearth furnaces, which
naked, light-headed from laughter.
They are careful in their personal contacts.
134
National Geographic, January 1987
Slovakia's Spirit of Survival
135
Prayers but not politics are permitted
in Slovak churches, where state-licensed
priests receive government paychecks.
Morning mass at the baroque church in
Spišská Stará Ves (right) draws a large
congregation. Policemen, teachers, and
party members tend to worship far from
home, to avoid recognition and potential
harassment. At Levoča's School for the
Blind, a kindergarten pupil (left) will be
guaranteed a full education and, later,
specialized vocational training.
half the fruit and vegetables in the republic.
The average new house rises three stories
above a full basement. Often the pastel stuc-
CO walls are adorned with small mirror
chips. Such houses contain some 3,000
square feet and cost about 350,000 crowns,
or $60,000. Proud owners frequently reside
in the basement, venturing upstairs only for
ceremonial occasions. Do-it-yourself build-
ing abounds, and since mortgage rates are
1.5 to 2.7 percent, a house is an excellent tan-
gible investment.
These giant saltboxes are alien to the tra-
"It saddens me that most of us who used to
ditional Slovak design that once graced ev-
press for political reforms no longer see one
wall
erything from decorated beehives to some of
www!
another," a retired schoolteacher told us in
the world's finest Gothic wooden altars.
Levoča, a small history-rich town in the cen-
"After the war cultural values changed,"
tral part of Slovakia. "We withdrew into our
declared Pavol Repka, an architect from
shells, as if fearful of guilt by association.
Tatranská Lomnica. "Cosmopolitan styles,
We pursue only tangible goals: a new car, a
such as Tirolean villas and Italian neoclassic
new house."
facades, were discredited as bourgeois. Our
Indeed, boxlike houses were going up ev-
indigenous wooden architecture was de-
erywhere. "How many families live in each
nounced as primitive. Villages were to catch
one of these?" wondered John, pointing to
up with towns. We tore down what we could
huge concrete villas. We asked around.
and moved into stone and brick boxes. Con-
"Just one," a woman, busily washing her
tractors encourage uniformity. It costs less.
windows, informed us. "Families build for
So we drown in mediocrity."
themselves. Grown children stay with them
Pavol looked toward cloudy peaks: "Once
PRAVICE
for a while, till they can afford their own."
I spent five days alone, snowed in on Mont
"But can they?"
Blanc in the French Alps. I decided that if I
"Sure they can. They work for it too. They
survived I'd search our past for what makes
want that third bathroom, a large TV set. I
us tick, and build an honest Slovak house."
ask my daughter: 'Do you have to get every-
His new house, an honest Slovak one, was
thing in such a hurry?' and she says, 'Ma-
rising just beside us.
minka, everybody does.'
Factory work often ends at 2 p.m., leav-
N WEEKENDS Slovaks flock to the
ing plenty of time for moonlighting. Enter-
prising Slovaks make souvenirs, rent rooms
O
country to swim, shoot rapids,
fish, ski, windsurf, hike, even
to holidaymakers, and cultivate záhrady,
fly. We rode with a hang-gliding
small plots allocated outside villages and
club into the hills above Banská Bystrica,
towns. The lush gardens produce more than
capital of the Central Slovak Region. The
136
National Geographic, January 1987
valley below us simmered in dusty heat; up
on the ridge strong updrafts cooled the skin.
Wedding guests dance the night away in
Out came picnic baskets. Men unfolded
the village of Lendak (below), where the
homemade gliders. Mike Harger, an Ameri-
revelry will last several days. The bride
and groom (facing page), in traditional
can who is now a legend, brought one to Slo-
embroidered costumes, take turns bidding
vakia nine years ago, and they copied it.
their parents a moving farewell before
Carefully checking the wind, the glider
going to church. Old-time customs and
pilots joked with a 55-year-old grandfather
crafts, now encouraged by the state, still
and helped fasten his harness. Then they
survive in pockets of Slovakia, which
were off with a rustle of wings, soaring sus-
sponsors many folklore festivals.
pended under fragile cano-
pies of Dacron.
"After my first flight I
couldn't sleep," Jozef Ci-
liak, a truck driver, told us
later over mugs of beer.
"But up in the air it's all
beauty and peace. Birds
follow you, you join them.
Man has wings at last."
OUNDED IN I255,
F
Banská Bystrica,
"pearl on the Hron
River," was re-
nowned in medieval Eu-
rope for copper and silver
mines. Wealth created ex-
quisite Gothic and Renais-
sance houses; power built
the massive castle; faith
erected lofty church spires.
Today in Red Army Square private gar-
In August, preparations for the 40th anni-
deners dispense free medical advice to fruit
versary of SNP swept the country. All shop-
buyers: "Black currants, good for your kid-
keepers were ordered to display SNP
neys.
Other entrepreneurs sell embroi-
emblems. In Banská Bystrica houses were
dered Slovak blouses, woodcrafts, and
painted, flowers planted, new monuments
Western imports: T-shirts, jeans.
erected, pineapples and bananas from Cuba
Banská Bystrica spills upward from its
delivered to grocery stores.
crowded historical center into hilly satellite
The big day came. Streets blossomed with
suburbs. Rows of high-rise buildings or
summer dresses. Old peasant women cried
paneláky, as Slovaks call this prefabricated
out "Sweetheart! Beloved!" as they waved to
sameness, absorb a population that since
small, white-haired Gustáv Husák. The
1945 has increased sixfold, to 76,000 people.
president of the Czechoslovak Socialist Re-
Banská Bystrica is a political town.
public (C.S.S.R.) and general secretary of
Throughout the year busloads of delega-
the Communist Party, himself a Slovak,
tions and tourists come to pay homage to
waved back with a grandfatherly smile. He
SNP, the Slovak National Uprising In the
walked arm in arm with a Soviet marshal.
monument museum, trained guides relate
Under huge portraits of Marx, Engels,
how in the bleak days of August 1944 the
and Lenin, 100,000 Slovaks gathered.
people, led by Slovak Communists, fought
Speakers recalled the martyrdom of fallen
the Nazis to defeat; how the partisans joined
partisans, praised the country's socialist
the victorious Red Army and helped to es-
order, and called for peaceful coexistence.
tablish a Communist regime after the war.
Yet the applause was lukewarm, the
Slovakia's Spirit of Survival
139
March of the matriarchs: Shouldering the bride's belongings,
matchmakers keep energetic vigil, believing no young woman
married women of Lendak proceed to the groom's house. Village
should remain single lest she "turn to vinegar."
141
Architects of the future, on loan from a
university in Bratislava, travel 200 miles
to join the September potato campaign
(right) on a cooperative farm near the
Dunajec River. For two weeks a year the
state recruits high-school and college
students as well as factory and office
workers to help harvest this important
crop, providing board, lodging, and
minimal wages in return. Some students
enjoy the break; others attempt to opt
out with a doctor's note. Co-op members
(above) distribute hefty 220-pound sacks
to fellow workers, pausing at every house
for a shot or two of vodka and a chat.
Each Slovak family consumes some 700
pounds of potatoes annually, carefully
storing supplies in cool cellars or in
grass-covered shelters in the hills.
boredom evident: People had heard all this
brilliant in the sun, now sooty in a storm.
poisoned by exhaust fumes. We limit access
everything from peaches to children's toys.
before. For the majority, attendance was
Gold-seekers, hunters, naturalists dis-
to certain areas and by 1990 hope to intro-
Among Eastern European countries,
compulsory. "Unless I present a doctor's
covered the beauty of the Tatras in the 16th
duce electric trolleys, banning all cars."
Czechoslovakia boasts one of the highest
statement that my boys are sick, I have to be
century. Today six million visitors a year
Around the park, hotels, campgrounds,
standards of living. Availability of goods,
here," a mother of two small children ex-
come to hike, climb, and ski in the most
and private rooms are filled. In the once iso-
however, does not guarantee quality. Years
plained. She waited until the ceremonies
spectacular alpine range in the 900-mile bow
lated village of Zdiar, now called the "larg-
ago Skoda cars sold well in international
ended and quickly walked áway.
of the Carpathians.
est hotel in C.S.S.R.," villagers offer up to
markets; today even the government Prago-
Juraj Turošík has been director of Tatra
4,000 beds, mainly to East Germans. Hav-
car rental agency considers Skodas unreli-
AGER TO ESCAPE the heat and the bus-
National Park since 1961. "In the past 20
ing lost direct access to the Alps, they visit
able. Western imports are few and usually
E
tle of Banská Bystrica, we headed
years," he told us, "the number of visitors
the Tatras in astonishing numbers.
can be purchased only for hard currency-
north to Tatra National Park. Wild
has increased six times, an incredible strain.
The visitors also come to shop. In addi-
dollars, marks, francs-through special
mountain peaks soared suddenly
People dig out our alpine flowers and chase
tion to the East Germans, Russians and
government-owned stores. Here a bottle
above the surrounding flatness, peaks now
our marmots and chamois. The forests wilt,
Hungarians throng the local stores, buying
of good Scotch costs only $3.50. And Ford
142
143
National Geographic, January 1987
Slovakia's Spirit of Survival
Clearly an optimist, Mária Chlebovcová
(right) weaves a runner for her 18-year-
old son's dowry, undeterred by his lack
of a girlfriend. Her sister-in-law, at left,
lends a hand; in mourning for her father,
she will wear black for at least a year.
In sickness and in health, family and
neighbors look after each other, with
state nursing homes used as a last
resort. Everyone pitches in (left) at
a christening party. Frequent family
celebrations ritually call for vast
quantities of food, free-flowing wine,
and spirited singing.
Two of them got stuck in the door. Too
many skirts or dumplings, who could tell?
They dressed the girl in silence. In her
hand-pleated skirt, richly embroidered cor-
set, and pearl-studded maiden crown she
seemed a painted doll. Women slipped
hundred-crown notes into her shoes as to-
kens of prosperity, a sprig of myrtle inside
her blouse as a charm against sinister forces.
After the wedding, at the feast, the sight
of sausage sent the maids of honor into gig-
gles. Men ladled beer from tin buckets hour
after hour. Matrons carried the bride's bed-
ding to the groom's house (pages 140-41).
They tossed a child onto the marriage bed as
a symbol of procreation.
Escort cars from West Germany, priced at
Night came. Surrounded by her maiden
$6,000, sell readily.
friends, the bride danced slowly, embracing
The hard currency comes from relatives
them for the last time. In a dim corner a fid-
abroad, but demand exceeds supply. Few
dle, clarinet, bass, and accordion played on.
foreign tourists escape whispered inquiries:
"A doláry máte?-Do you have dollars?"
LOVAKS BELIEVE that music and
In spite of the crush of tourists in Tatra
S
mountains restore their spirit. To
National Park, folk traditions have sur-
cure their ailing bodies, they visit the
vived the longest in the villages surrounding
province's famous spas. We traveled
it. In the old, wooden village of Lendak we
from Lendak to the modern health complex
saw rituals preserved and folk costumes
of Piešťany, an ancient spa still using na-
worn daily. Artificial flowers and holy pic-
ture's gifts to heal the sick.
tures decorated TV sets, making them look
This grandest of Slovakia's spas once
like miniature altars.
tended the rheumatic pains of European
To help assure the marital bliss of their
monarchs. Now it treats nearly 40,000 pa-
children, Lendak families may spend as
tients a year, including Americans, Arabs,
much as 100,000 crowns. A dowry may in-
and West Europeans.
clude a car, furniture, rugs, money.
I love mud, its sticky, oozing texture, and
One morning our phone rang. "Get up!
in Piešťany I got my wish: a pack of thermal,
We're going to a wedding," ordered Dr. Ján
sulfurous goo filtered from the bottom of the
Olejník, the park's ethnographer.
Váh River. The heat slowly penetrated my
To the bride's house came married wom-
body. Repeated applications promote grad-
en resplendent in voluminous costumes.
ual absorption of the sulfur into cartilage
144
National Geographic, January 1987
same pharmacy we had tried earlier. In
Slovakia it helps to know the right people.
0 CONNECTIONS are needed to
N
On
find Veronika Goliánova, a
Assignment
grand old woman who for 30
years ran the village of Detva's
famous singing-and-dancing folk ensemble.
Villagers readily point out her whitewashed
house, with its traditional flower designs.
Inside, Veronika served halušky S brynd-
zou, tiny dumplings sprinkled with sheep
cheese. By the window her granddaughter
nursed a newborn son.
As a barefoot child Veronika, youngest of
six, had to shine the shoes of the landlady.
After the war, impressed by socialist ideals
of equality, she embraced the new order.
Convinced that Detva's heritage must be
preserved from the onslaught of moderniza-
tion, she organized cultural events and an
artisans cooperative. Her embroidery deco-
rated a lavish velvet tablecloth, given to
President Husák for his 70th birthday.
Later she opened chests full of embroi-
dered costumes she had rescued when peo-
ple threw them out in favor of factory-made
fashions. She carefully unfolded a blouse
that was a hundred years old.
We have a saying: From anything old a
]
CE BECAME a slippery subject last year
he joined the GEOGRAPHIC in 1951. His 16
for Senior Assistant Editor Samuel W.
new sapling must grow.' That's what hap-
magazine articles include a volcanic erup-
Matthews when Alaska's Hubbard Gla-
Crowned heads of state, maharajas, and
pened after the war. Fascism rotted away,
tion, ocean research, plate tectonics, earth's
cier advanced to turn Russell Fiord into a
sheikhs have all basked in the sulfurous
and on its ruins we built socialism, such as it
climate, and his abiding love, Antarctica.
waters of Slovakia's famed Piešťany
freshwater Russell Lake. At work on an
"It's absolutely spectacular, both in the sun
is It could be better if people were better.
Spa. Workers can receive free treatment
article about how ice affects the earth,
and in blizzards," he says-"assuming
Bad often tries to destroy the good.
for ailments such as rheumatism or
Sam (above, in bow) paddled the lake last
you've got a place to crawl into."
"Are you a Communist?' I asked.
nervous disorders. This patient combines
August with Alaska natu-
spinal traction with a thermal bath.
"Yes. But I go to church too. I argue with
ralist Karen Jettmar. Mean-
the priest. I also tell party officials what I
while, glaciologists were
think is wrong. I have hope. Because of the
keeping a close eye on the
and heal troubled joints, explained Dr. OI-
mistakes we've made, something new and
huge dam of ice, rock, and
dřich Bláha, the spa's chief physician.
better must be born one day."
mud. Would it hold, and for
Foreigners pay about $50 a day; this in-
Veronika gently stroked the upturned
how long? In a thunderous
cludes necessary medical care and even
face of her great-grandson. "Who knows?
outburst that lasted for
tickets to cultural events. For C.S.S.R. pa-
Don't ask me what. I'm just an old woman
hours, it gave way early on
tients spas, hospitals, and prescription
with eight grades of village school."
October 8 (pages 112-13).
drugs are free.
We drove away slowly. Autumn was ad-
Earth, air, fire, and wa-
But some drugs are hard to find. When
vancing steadily, wrapping river valleys in
ter-especially water-are
John became ill, we spent a day trying to fill
fog and turning beech trees copper. We re-
all vital elements for Sam,
his prescription, to no avail.
flected on the future of the Slovaks, who are
examining a model of an ice
A Slovak friend ridiculed our naïveté.
historically so well versed in the art of sur-
crystal's molecular struc-
"What do you expect, miracles? This is an
vival. They seem to believe that change for
ture (right). After serving in
imported drug. If a pharmacy has it, it is
the better must come slowly, from within
the Pacific with the U.S.
most likely put aside for friends and rela-
the system. The times of Juraj Jánošík, the
Navy and reporting science
tives. Let me try." He procured it from the
times of lonely battles, are over for now.
news in Washington, D. C.,
CHRIS JOHNS (TOP); NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER JOSEPH H. BAILEY
146
National Geographic, January 1987
THE TURNING POINTS
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Applying extraordinary
measures could
bring
the most unpredictable
consequences.
"
-LADISLAV ADAMEC
Then Czechoslovak prime minister
Police Riot Sticks
Spawn a Revolution
PRAGUE, November 1989
BY RICH LIPSKI-THE WASHINGTON POST
zechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution,
which sent messages through Czechoslovak
A POLITICAL EXILE RETURNS: Alexander Dubcek, the reformist Communist leader ousted after 1968 invasion,
C
as it came to be called, began with
diplomatic and military channels that it
gestures as if to embrace the crowd gathered in Wenceslas Square on eighth straight day of protests in November.
the crack of riot sticks against stu-
would not tolerate violence, according to
dent heads.
senior Communist Party officials.
On Nov. 16, the party's ideology chief, Jan
On Nov. 21, with 200,000 people in the
private that Jakes didn't understand "the
On Friday night, Nov. 17, more than
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, con-
Fojtik, was summoned to Moscow and told
streets, the Prague Communist Party com-
global significance of perestroika," spoke up.
3,000 young people stood in the cold and
cerned that violence would mar his Malta
that the Soviet Union would repudiate the
mittee condemned the demonstrations as
"Applying extraordinary measures could
faced down a line of riot police. As the stu-
summit with President Bush and weary of
1968 invasion. The step had already been
the work of "anti-socialist" forces. The next
bring peace to the streets for a while, but it
dents chanted for elections and entry into
having his hints for reform ignored, was
taken by new governments in Poland and
day, Jakes signed an order secretly calling
can result in further aggravation of the sit-
nearby Wenceslas Square, hundreds more
ready to help pull the plug on Czechoslova-
Hungary. Coming from Moscow, it would
to Prague several thousand members of the
uation and bring the most unpredictable
Police Riot Sticks
Spawn a Revolution
VELVET REVOLUTION
PRAGUE, November 1989
BY RICH LIPSKI-THE WASHINGTON POST
zechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution,
which sent messages through Czechoslovak
A POLITICAL EXILE RETURNS: Alexander Dubcek, the reformist Communist leader ousted after 1968 invasion,
C
as it came to be called, began with
diplomatic and military channels that it
gestures as if to embrace the crowd gathered in Wenceslas Square on eighth straight day of protests in November.
the crack of riot sticks against stu-
would not tolerate violence, according to
dent heads.
senior Communist Party officials.
On Nov. 16, the party's ideology chief, Jan
On Nov. 21, with 200,000 people in the
private that Jakes didn't understand "the
On Friday night, Nov. 17, more than
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, con-
Fojtik, was summoned to Moscow and told
streets, the Prague Communist Party com-
global significance of perestroika," spoke up.
3,000 young people stood in the cold and
cerned that violence would mar his Malta
that the Soviet Union would repudiate the
mittee condemned the demonstrations as
"Applying extraordinary measures could
faced down a line of riot police. As the stu-
summit with President Bush and weary of
1968 invasion. The step had already been
the work of "anti-socialist" forces. The next
bring peace to the streets for a while, but it
dents chanted for elections and entry into
having his hints for reform ignored, was
taken by new governments in Poland and
day, Jakes signed an order secretly calling
can result in further aggravation of the sit-
nearby Wenceslas Square, hundreds more
ready to help pull the plug on Czechoslova-
Hungary. Coming from Moscow, it would
kia's stubborn leaders.
to Prague several thousand members of the
uation and bring the most unpredictable
police moved in behind them, sealing off con-
deprive Jakes of the last shred of legitimacy.
party's private army, the People's Militia.
consequences," Adamec said.
necting streets and forming a human cage.
State television showed a shaken Fojtik
Jakes and the entire Presidium submitted
At about 10 p.m., the police attacked.
A Summons to Moscow
returning to Prague in the late afternoon on
More Soviet Pressure
their resignations at 7 p.m. People danced
With help from the Red Berets, an anti-ter-
The pressure had begun in midsummer,
Nov. 17. Before he could brief the Central
rorist squad, they bashed, bludgeoned and
when Gorbachev summoned Jakes and
Committee, events overtook him.
Only a fraction of that force ever arrived,
in the streets. By the next morning, it be-
kicked with methodical fury, continuing
Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec to the Cri-
Operation Student, as the Interior Min-
and even they turned around and went
came clear that the resignations had not
even as unarmed students fell bleeding to
home the following morning, having done
gone far enough.
mea. In recent months, Adamec hadi
istry called it, proved to be the worst inci-
little more than rip down posters of the Civ-
Stepan, the man said to have been re-
the ground.
emerged as a reformer, irritating Jakes
dent of government violence against citi-
with calls for genuine economic and even
zens in 20 years. The next day, protesters
ic Forum, a new mass democratic move-
sponsible for the violence, had been reap-
The violence, which police later testified
was ordered by Prague Communist Party
crept back toward Wenceslas Square, to
ment headed by dissident playwright Vaclav
pointed to the Presidium, along with hard-
political liberalization. Gorbachev called the
liners Miroslav Zavadil and Jozef Lenart.
boss Miroslav Stepan and approved by the
two men together hoping to make allies of.
light candles and sing anthems where the
Havel. In the interim, the Soviet ambassa-
Jakes, according to one senior Communist
country's top Communist, Milos Jakes, was
them and push Jakes into action.
students had fallen. By Sunday, the crowd
dor in Prague, Viktor Lomakin, met with
official, was still hoping to name himself
a fatal error of a leadership on which the
It didn't work. "When they returned to
had grown to several thousand and the rul-
Jakes and with Foreign Minister Jaromir
walls were closing in.
Prague, they were bigger enemies than be-
ing Presidium met to consider its options.
Johanes. The message was the same: Mos-
president and have Stepan replace him as
the party's general secretary.
The blood that stained Narodni Street
fore," said Jaromir Sedlak, an adviser in the
Some Presidium members believed the an-
COW expected peaceful change.
prime minister's office.
swer was more force. "The idea was circu-
The Soviets also used their close ties
By failing to make a clean sweep that Fri-
that night, and the rumor that a student had
day night, the party lost what little oredi-
been killed, worked like a red flag before
Czechoslovakia's hard-line leadership,
lating inside the Central Committee," said
with the military. "There were diplomatic
bility it had left. At a meeting the next day
the Czechoslovak people. But instead of vi-
installed by Leonid Brezhnev to crush re-
one senior Communist official. "The atmos-
messages and oral hints from the Soviet
of 3,000 Prague party officials, Stepan was
olence, the nation responded with defiant
form after the Soviet-led invasion of 1968,
phere was, 'We must, comrades, do some-
army here that if our army moved toward
greeted with jeers and whistles.
peacefulness. In 10 days of key-jangling and
had for two decades treated independent
thing.'
Prague, it might be blocked," said one sen-
When the Central Committee met again
singing, chanting and furious organizing,
thought as treason. Gorbachev presented
Martin Palous, a dissident who was to be-
ior party official.
on Sunday, Nov. 26, Stepan and Zavadil
they elbowed the Communists from power.
them with an unsolvable problem. If they
come an adviser to the new democratic gov-
On Friday, Nov. 24, with 300,000 people
were dumped. The party's new leader,
But the Velvet Revolution nearly took a
allówed democratic reform, they faced cer-,
ernment, said that sometime during that
in the streets, Jakes was forced to convene
Karel Urbanek, issued an "unequivocal"
different course. As thousands of Prague
tain extinction, If they didn't, they in
week the Presidium voted on whether to use
a meeting of the Central Committee. "Of
condemnation of violence.
citizens flooded Wenceslas Square on Sun-
creased Czechoslovakia's isolation.
force to end the demonstrations. Violence
course, some party leaders considered vi-
On Monday, 10 days after the police at-
day, Nov. 19, the Communist Party's ruling
"They knew there was no way they could
lost by two votes, he said.
olent steps. It's certain that some played
tack on the students, the Soviet Communist
Presidium held a series of meetings in
survive perestroika," Hegenbart said.
The hermetic Presidium, a body so secre-
with this idea," said Viktor Pazler, then an
Party newspaper Pravda condemned the
which 'the leadership [first] adopted a po-
Instead, the Presidium's hard-liners kept
tive that even the number of its members
official of the Prague party committee and
former leaders, accusing them of promoting
sition supporting [armed] intervention,"
hoping Gorbachev would not last. By Novem-
was often debated by outsiders, has never
now its acting leader. "There was heated
"stagnation." Not to be outdone, Prague's
said Rudolf Hegenbart, a senior party offi-
ber, three major demonstrations in Prague
made public its deliberations in those days.
discussion about it from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m."
Communist daily, Rude Pravo, referred: to
cial then in charge of state security.
ended in police violence. But opposition
Several senior party officials said they did not
By then, however, the longtime divisions
the ousted leaders as "political mummies."
That there was no further bloodshed was
groups were mushrooming, and demand for
know if an actual vote occurred, but they said
in the party had widened to chasms. Prime
in large part due to pressure from Moscow,
change was also building inside the party.
it was clear that Jakes was digging in.
Minister Adamec, who often had fumed in
- Mary Battiata
The Am. Spec
Oct.
1990
SPECTATOR'S JOURNAL
GOOD SOLDIERS
by Cathy Young
Prague
N
early a year after the "Velvet Rev-
when local residents in telltale clothes
Mikhail Gorbachev is neither a hero
ing nowhere because Gorbachev did
olution," Prague offers a remark-
and shoes clear out for the countryside
nor a liberator but an impediment to
not really want genuine democratic
able mix of lingering Soviet-style
and leave the streets to tourists. Mis-
real liberation. Curiously enough,
change. "I am sorry I was in the ap-
socialism and nascent Western-style
leading because you almost expect
some Soviet media did attend: a group
parat," concluded Khatzenkov, "but on
democracy. Election posters are every-
something European when you enter a
of independent television producers
the other hand I am not, because if it
where (though the ubiquitous smiling
store. If, on the other hand, you go by
who do a monthly four-hour video
hadn't been for people like myself, Mr.
likeness of Vaclav Havel begins, after
Moscow standards, you'll be pleasantly
magazine for official Soviet TV. They
Gudava would not be here at this con-
a while, to smack of a new personality
surprised. The display window of an
said they had a great deal of leeway in
ference but in a very different place."
cult), and street vendors sell not only
electronics shop features a nice selec-
choosing the contents, but they still
Josef Zissels, a Jewish activist from the
folk art but also ti-Communist but-
tion of Walkman radios, cassette
could not be sure that their interview
Ukraine, leaned over to me and sighed,
tons, including a cute one with a skull
players, and other things which in the
with veteran dissident Vladimir Bukov-
"It's very sad when the leadership of
and a red hammer and sickle instead
sky, one of the stars of the conference,
a democratic party is made up of ex-
of crossbones. Such signs of bourgeois
would get on the air, or that their
Communists. It shows how few true
decadence as posters for Emmanuelle
studio would not be penalized by loss
democrats we have in our country."
are also in evidence. Syndicated colum-
of access to the equipment they still
The ex-apparatchiks and the ex-
nist Don Feder-in Prague like myself
have to lease from state-run TV.
political prisoners were unanimous in
for the "Peaceful Road to Democracy"
their dislike of Gorbachev, their cham-
conference organized by Soviet dissi-
pionship of radical free-market reform,
dents and American anti-Communists
T
he underlying idea of the confer-
and their opposition to any Western
-noted that East bloc societies seemed
ence seemed to be that the demo-
economic aid to the present regime.
eager to emulate those features of
cratic forces of the Soviet Union should
The "Prague Appeal" issued by the
modern Western societies he could have
be united in preparation for the down-
conference, and presumably endorsed
done without. They are not quite as
USSR are traded only on the black
fall of the Communist regime, and be
by all the participants, bluntly called
good yet at emulating such bourgeois
market, at mind-boggling prices. In
ready to govern. A little overconfident,
for the immediate dissolution of the
frivolities as courteous customer serv-
Czechoslovakia, a stereo system sells
perhaps, but looking more realistic
Soviet Union. The prevailing view was
ice. Waiters, with few exceptions, are
for just over the average monthly
every day. One goal was to break the
that the ethnic bloodshed of recent
sullen and boorish in a uniquely social-
salary. When the Soviets come here,
ice between groups of people who rare-
months had been instigated by the
ist way-a nuisance mitigated some-
they think they're in consumer para-
ly get to talk to each other: Armenians
Kremlin-a view belied by the antago-
what by the fact that a full dinner at
dise, and many wonder what more
and Azerbaijanis, for example, as well
nism between some of the conference
some of Prague's best restaurants costs
those damn East Europeans could
as traditional dissidents and those will-
panelists, particularly the Armenians
the equivalent of twelve dollars.
want.
ing to work within the half-freedom of
and the Azerbaijanis on the predictable
Black-market currency trading is still
All the signs in airports, train sta-
glasnost. Former political prisoners
Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Both sides,
carried on by cab drivers and hotel
tions, and many other public places are
were rubbing elbows with former advi-
however, seemed sincerely committed
porters, but, interestingly, the gap be-
in Czech and Russian (sometimes also
sers to the Central Committee of the
to reconciliation in the face of a com-
tween the black-market rate and the of-
in German and English)-reminders of
CPSU.
mon oppressor. The two Azeri dele-
ficial one is not that great: the latter is
recent colonial rule. But Russian is not
Not that occasional sparks didn't fly.
gates, the dark, smooth, pipe-smoking
25 crowns to a dollar, the former only
of much use in getting around (nor is
After one of the panels, Georgian in-
Araz Ali-Zadeh and the silver-haired
about 30. In the USSR, by contrast, the
English, for that matter; German
dependence activist Tengiz Gudava re-
and dashing Tofik Gasymov, had the
official rate is six to one and the black-
helps). A nineteen-year-old college stu-
marked that he was reminded of the
particularly tough job of trying to con-
market rate can be as high as twenty to
dent who spoke rather good English ex-
prophecy of the lamb lying down with
vince everyone that they were not fun-
one. And, quite unlike Moscow, Prague
plained to me that although Russian
the lion. He went on to badger Georgiy
damentalist Moslem barbarians. Ali-
has no network of establishments cater-
had been mandatory in school, many
Khatzenkov, currently general director
Zadeh was emphatic about his coun-
ing exclusively to patrons with dollars
kids were blocking it out; often, even
of the new Democratic Russia party
try's basic secularism-How can there
or deutschemarks, with the exception
those fluent in Russian were pretending
and formerly an adviser to the Central
be a Moslem fundamentalist movement
of a few hotel shops selling ridiculously
not to be.
Committee, asking him to explain his
in a republic where the Koran is not
overpriced jewelry, souvenirs, and li-
Meanwhile, Soviet democrats of dif-
transition from lion to lamb (or is it
available in the vernacular?"-and the
queurs. Any Czech willing to spend the
ferent stripes gathered at Prague's
vice versa?). Khatzenkov, a sharp-eyed,
democratic, pro-Western orientation of
money can dine at the same restaurant
mammoth steel-and-chrome Palace of
not unpleasant-looking fortyish fellow,
the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. Be-
as the American tourist.
Culture July 4-6 to discuss how the
said that he had once been expelled
hind the scenes, some of the Russians,
This exquisite city often manages to
Soviet Union could follow the example
from the University of Moscow for
who do not score high on ethnic sen-
achieve a misleading look of European
of Czechoslovakia's gentle revolution.
political heresy, and had joined the
sitivity, remained wary.
elegance, particularly on weekends,
If the major U.S. media had not, with
Central Committee staff in 1968,
Major grievances were addressed to
the exception of the Wall Street Jour-
"when we all had illusions about Gor-
the West, for wallowing and propping
Cathy Young is a writer living in New
nal, utterly ignored this event, they
bachev." He said he wanted to change
up the crumbling corrupt regime.
Jersey.
would have discovered a universe where
things but realized his efforts were go-
World chess champion Gary Kasparov,
a leader of the Democratic Russia par-
bigshots. "Now," she solemnly de-
headstone was undefiled, the grave
tered with the movement's leaflets.
ty, marveled at the shocked reaction of
clared, "it is a hotel for Americans."
well-tended with geraniums planted on
The cab driver who took me to the
American campus audiences to his
There were chuckles. In the old section
it-what more could the spirit of Com-
airport spoke broken Russian and
coolness toward Gorbachev, and sneered
of the city, on the way from the Loreto
rade Belyakov ask for? Not included in
broken English. He pitied Gorbachev
at the universal willingness to fall for
monastery to the St. Vitus Cathedral,
the tour was the Prague monument to
for his problems; as for Czechoslova-
the Gorbachev-vs.-the hardliners scen-
we were led without stopping past a
Soviet liberators. A statue of a Russian
kia, he confidently predicted that it
ario, which he (and most other partici-
modest gray marble headstone; I lin-
soldier locked in an embrace with a
would become "a normal country" in
pants) saw as a staged good commie-
gered to read the Russian inscription
Czech civilian, it has become, I was
five or six years. To him, the benefits
bad commie show.
commemorating one Comrade Belya-
told, a gathering place and an ironic
of the new regime were already ob-
Among those gathered at the Palace
kov, a Soviet soldier fallen in the libera-
symbol for the country's budding gay
vious. "Now," he told me proudly, "I
of Culture, the only difference of opin-
tion of Prague from the Nazis. The
liberation movement, its pedestal plas-
am my own director."
ion was between those who believed
Gorbachev had been a positive force
for change at the start, and those
who-like Alexander Podrabinek, the
quietly energetic publisher of the news-
weekly Express-Chronicle, one of the
Soviet Union's first and largest inde-
RED COCAINE
pendent newspapers-refuse to give
him any credit whatsoever, attributing
the changes solely to pressure from
dissidents. It is only fair to note,
however, that the dissident movement
"I was ordered to load up the
had been around for twenty years be-
fore Gorbachev, and was at its lowest
point when he took power.
United States with drugs."
-Mario Estevez Gonzalez, Cuban intelligence agent, 1981
T
he Czechs I spoke to, from college
students to middle-aged working
Here's the bone-chilling
men and women, were far less harsh on
answer why the "War on
Gorby. "If it hadn't been for him, we
wouldn't have had our democratic rev-
Drugs" is getting nowhere:
olution" this was repeated to me time
and time again, almost word for word.
T
here is a conspiracy of silence to
"Deception and drugs are
"Red Cocaine at last blows
This gratitude was apparently unswayed
protect the guilty! Red Cocaine
our first two strategic
by a report, issued a few months ago
contains facts that U.S. officials
the lid off the most
ecbelons in the war with
explosive aspect of drug
by a Czech government commission,
would prefer to ignore. In this frighten-
capitalism."
trafficking, the Soviet
that the events that led to the revolu-
ing, fully documented account, you will
-Nikita Khrushchev, 1963
connection. Here is the
tion-beginning with a brutal police at-
learn about Chinese and Soviet drug
"Drugs are considered to be
sbocking story of the drug-
tack on student demonstrators-were
trafficking operations
communist
the best way to destroy the
ging of America by inter-
skillfully engineered by the Czech
links into terrorist groups and organized
national communism."
United States. By under-
secret service and the KGB, in a joint
crime
how our "partners in
mining the will of American
-Robin Moore, author of
plot to replace the country's Brezh-
perestroika" are using drugs to weaken
youth, the enemy is
The French Connection
nevite regime with a pro-Moscow, "lib-
us and enrich themselves.
destroyed without firing
eral Communist" one. Then things got
one bullet."
"This eye-opening book
out of hand and the intended palace
Yes, it is war. And we are losing,
-Major Juan Rodriguez,
proves the insidious
coup became a genuine popular revolt.
because our own leaders refuse to name
Cuban intelligence officer, 1988
involvement of the Soviet
These findings, the subject of a BBC
the enemy. We must demand that our
"Drugs were used as
intelligence services in
documentary, were deep-sixed by the
government level with us about Soviet-
political weapons. The
the deliberate spread of
American news media.
bloc involvement in the drug trade.
target was the youth of the
the drug menace in the
I was left to ponder these great ques-
You must read Red Cocaine.
United States."
United States."
tions after the conference, when the im-
-Antonio Farach, high-level
-Chapman Pincher, author of
patient Russians had gone home. With
Nicaraguan official, 1984
Secret Offensive
two days left, I decided to take a bus
tour of the city, most ineptly organized
YES!
I want to know the shocking truth about
by the official tourist agency Cedok.
Two minutes to departure time, no one
communist involvement in the drugging
of America. Send me
at the Cedok office knew where the bus
copies of Red Cocaine
or the guide was. When the guide, a
The Drugging
at $19.95 per copy, plus $2.25 postage and handling.
harried, middle-aged woman in an ill-
Name
of America
fitting trenchcoat finally showed up,
Address
she was collared by the Washington
City
State
Zip
Times's irrepressible Arnold Beichman,
who gave her an energetic lecture on
Telephone
Or call toll-free:
how Cedok should conduct its business
Payment Enclosed for $
1-800-272-1996
to thrive in a new, market-oriented en-
Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.
Charge My:
MasterCard
Visa
vironment. She looked bewildered.
AS-1
Ray S. Cline
Card No.
The bus took us past the elegant
Forum hotel, which, the guide ex-
Signature
Exp.
CLARION
plained, was once reserved solely for
HOUSE
P.O. Box 1878
Ft. Collins, CO 80522
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On 21 December 1918, in his first message to the
Czechoslovak National Assembly (after returning from America),
Thomas Masaryk quoted Comenius:
"I trust the Lord that after the storms of wrath [] the rule
over your own affairs will return to you, my people.' - adding:
"The prophecy and prayer of Comenius has been fulfilled. "
On 1 January 1989 President Havel in his New Year's message
paraphrased the same words of Comenius, saying: "Your government,
my people, has returned to you."
How are we going to survive as an independent nation? Our
history as well as current developments are forcing us to come to a
clear understanding of this question: how can a small nation survive
and remain independent?
This question tormented our awakeners. It disturbed Dobrovský.
All of Kollár's labor was directed toward finding the means of over-
coming our inherent smallness. Palacký transposed Kollár's solutions
from the realm of culture to that of politics. And of course Palacký
could answer the question of how a small nation can survive no more
satisfactorily than Kollár; after all, politics, like all practical sciences,
depends upon theoretical principles. But if humanism is the ultimate
aim of all our thought, it must also be the ultimate goal of our
political activity. We will achieve humanism only through humanistic
means - enlightened heads and warm hearts.
Reminders of our numerous historical battles for existence - the
uprising ending with the defeat on the White Mountain, our decline,
our revival during the French Revolution and eighteenth-century
enlightenment, the revolution of 1848, the Polish uprising - all this
impels the thoughtful Czech to ponder: violence or nonviolence, the
sword or the plough, blood or sweat, death OI life?
Not with violence but with love, not with the sword but with the
plough, not with blood but with work, not with death but with life
- that is the answer of our Czech genius, the meaning of our history
and the heritage of our great ancestors.
That is our great task. We are on the right path. Palacký was still
preoccupied by the past, and this gave his politics a conservative
character. But Havlíček had already admonished us to turn to the
living present and to derive our national strength from a firm grasp
Quote farm Thomas 6. Masary k: The Czech Question
(1895)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Prague, Czechoslovakia)
For Immediate Release
November 17, 1990
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT WENCESLAS SQUARE
Wenceslas Square
Prague, Czechoslovakia
4:13 P.M. (L)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you,
my Czech and Slovak friends. It is a tremendous honor to me to be
the first sitting American President to visit this proud and
beautiful country -- and to be able to join you on the first
anniversary of the extraordinary Velvet Revolution. What a
powerfully moving sight it is.
There are no leaves on the trees -- and yet it is Prague
Spring. There are no flowers in bloom -- and yet it is Prague
Spring. The calendar says November 17th -- and yet it is Prague
Spring.
Your Declaration of Independence proclaims: "The forces
of darkness have served the victory of light. The longed-for age of
humanity is dawning." Today, the freedom-loving people of the world
can bear witness that this age of humanity has now finally and truly
dawned on this splendid nation.
Seven decades ago, an unprecedented partnership began
between two presidents -- the philosopher, Tomas Masaryk -- and the
idealistic scholar -- Woodrow Wilson. It was a partnership as well
among Czechs and Slovaks to join together in federation. And yes, it
was a long, hard road from their work on your Declaration of
Independence to this magnificent celebration today.
I am proud to walk these last steps with you as one
shared journey ends and another begins.
Our countries share a history. We share a vision. And
we share a friendship. A friendship Masaryk described to
Czech-American soldiers 70 years ago. He said, "Do not forget that
the same ideals, the same principles ever unite us. Do not forget us
as we shall never forget you."
That is why I'm here today. We have not forgotten.
(Applause.)
The world will never forget what happened here in this
square where the history of freedom was written. The days of
anguish. The days of hope. So many times, you came here bearing
candles against the dark night, answering the call of Comenius to
follow "the way of light." These brave flames came to symbolize your
fiercely burning national pride.
A year ago, the world saw you face down totalitarianism.
We saw the peaceful crowds swell day by day in numbers and in
resolve. We saw the few candles grow into a blaze. We saw this
square become a beacon of hope for an entire nation as it gave birth
to your new era of freedom.
This victory owes its heart to two great heroes.
Alexander Dubcek. Twenty-two years ago, he led this nation in its
first sweet taste of liberty. His are the will and compassion that
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2 -
are the living Czechoslovakia.
And then President Havel. A man of wisdom. A man of
tremendous moral courage. In the dark years, on one side stood the
state. On the other side, Havel. On one side, tyranny. On the
other, this man of vision and truth. Among the first was Havel. And
now there are millions. Today, a Europe whole and free is within our
reach. We've seen a new world of freedom born amid shouts of joy.
Born full of hope, barreling with confidence toward a new century. A
new world born of a revolution that linked this square with others --
Gdansk, Budapest, Berlin -- a revolution that joined together people
fueled by courage and by humanity's essential quest for freedom.
For four decades, our two nations waited across the
divide between East and West. Two peoples united in spirit in vision
-- and yet separated by conflict. Today, the United States and
Czechoslovakia stand together, united once more in our devotion to
the democratic ideal. (Applause.)
Now, with the division of Europe ending and democracy
ascending in the East, the challenge is to move forward.
In Czechoslovakia: from revolution to renaissance,
across this continent toward a new Europe in which each nation and
every culture can flourish and breathe free.
On both sides of the Atlantic: toward a commonwealth
based on our shared principles and our hopes for the whole world. A
commonwealth inspired by the words of your great Comenius written
three centuries ago: "Let us have but one end in view -- the welfare
of humanity."
A thousand miles to the south, this new commonwealth of
freedom now faces a terrible test. Czechoslovakia was one of the
first nations to condemn the outrage in the Persian Gulf. One of the
first to measure the magnitude of the wrong committed in the name of
territorial ambition. It is no coincidence that appeasement's lonely
victim half a century ago should be among the first to understand
that there is right -- and there is wrong. There is good -- and
there is evil. And there are sacrifices worth making.
There is no question about what binds our nations -- and
so many others -- in common cause. There is no question that ours is
a just cause. And that good will prevail. The darkness in the
desert sky cannot stand against the way of light. I salute your
courageous President when he joins us in saying that Saddam Hussein's
aggression must not be rewarded. (Applause.)
Earlier today, I told your parliament we know this is a
difficult time for you, but also a time of extraordinary optimism.
As you undertake political and economic reform know one thing:
America will not fail you in this decisive moment. America will
stand with you. (Applause.) We will continue along the road mapped
out by our presidents more than 70 years ago. A road whose goal was
described by Woodrow Wilson, "To bring peace and safety to all
nations and make the world itself at last free."
For the past 70 years, your Declaration of Independence
has been preserved and cherished in our Library of Congress. I say,
it is time for Masaryk's words to come home. And as humanity and
liberty return to Czechoslovakia, so, too, will this treasured
document.
On behalf of the people of the United States, I am proud
to be able to tell the people of Czechoslovakia: 1989 was the year
that freedom came home to Czechoslovakia -- 1990 will be the year
your Declaration of Independence came home to the Golden City of
Prague. (Applause.) May it be for future generations a reminder of
the ties that bind our nations, and the principles that bind all
humanity.
In 1776, when our Declaration of Independence was first
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- 3 -
read in public, a bell tolled to proclaim the defiant thrill of that
moment. That bell -- we call it, at home, the Liberty Bell -- has
for 200 years symbolized our nation's deepest dedication to freedom.
Dedication like your own. Inscribed on this bell are the words,
"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land." We want to help you
proclaim your new liberty throughout all this proud and beautiful
land; and so today we give to you our last replica of the Liberty
Bell. (Applause.) You know, one of our patriotic songs proclaims,
"Sweet land of liberty - -- from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And so when bells ring in Wenceslas Square, or in
Bratislava, or in -- anywhere in this glorious country, think of this
bell, and know that all bells are tolling for your precious liberty
-- now and forever. And so now I am proud to ring this bell three
times. Once, for your courage; once, for your freedom; and once for
your children.
(The bell is rung.)
May God bless Czechoslovakia. Thank you all very much.
(Applause.)
END
4:32 P.M. (L)
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
=D
and Idea
FACSIMILE TRANSMITTAL SHEET
NUMBER OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER
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DATE 11-19-90
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JeNNifer Grossman
OFFICE NUMBER 456 - 7750
MASARYK
&
AMERICA
TESTIMONY OF A RELATIONSHIP
"
of
»
K
-
MASARYK
&
AMERICA
TESTIMONY OF A
RELATIONSHIP
By George J. Kovtun
EUROPEAN DIVISION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Washington 1988
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kovtun, George J.
Masaryk & America.
Bibliography: p.
Supt. of Docs. no.: LC 43.2:M37
1. Masaryk, T.G. (Tomás Garrigue), 1850-1937-
Knowledge-United States-Sources. 2. United States-
Relations-Czechoslovakia-Sources. 3. Czechoslovakia-
Relations-United States-Sources. I. Title. II. Title:
Masaryk and America.
DB2191.M38K67 1987 303.4'82437'073 87-600498
ISBN 0-8444-0585-X
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. 20402
CONTENTS
PREFACE
V
INTRODUCTION
vii
CHAPTER ONE
BEFORE 1914
1
CHAPTER TWO
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
11
CHAPTER THREE
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
29
CHAPTER FOUR
MASARYK AND AMERICAN IDEALS
47
CHAPTER FIVE
MASARYK AND WILSON
55
CHAPTER SIX
THE NEW EUROPE
71
NOTES
80
BIBLIOGRAPHY
81
PREFACE
T
homas G. Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, died
fifty years ago, on September 14, 1937. Commemorating Ma-
saryk means acknowledging the zenith of the ties between the
peoples of Czechoslovakia and America. Masaryk stands in history
as the best embodiment of these ties. He knew America from
firsthand experience, and left many traces of his activities in the
United States. An important part of this evidence is recorded in
the present volume.
In this selective documentation Masaryk's relationship with
America is illustrated by his writings and speeches, by magazine
articles, newspaper editorials and interviews, by letters written by,
or addressed to, Masaryk, and by personal notes and reminis-
cences. The materials quoted here were found in American ar-
chives, most of them in the Library of Congress, and in printed
sources published both in Czechoslovakia and in the United States.
The items are quoted in the original English or in English trans-
lation made by the compiler.
The documents of this publication speak for themselves. The
introduction supplies the necessary historical background but
does not attempt to evaluate the documents. The main criterion
for selection was the intent to show Masaryk's personal relations
with America and the Americans. For the most part, memoranda
written by Masaryk as the head of the Czechoslovak liberation
movement have been omitted. The borderline between personal
and official matters is, admittedly, sometimes difficult to discern.
The compiler tried in any case to focus on those documents where
Masaryk's personal thinking can be felt behind the written word.
V
vi
MASARYK & AMERICA
As all these limitations suggest, the publication does not in-
tend to be a full account of Masaryk's contacts with America. Nei-
ther does it attempt an analysis of the facts that are here presented.
The work is meant to be a sourcebook for further thinking and
study. It is hoped that it can serve both as a reference work and
as a contribution to Masaryk's political portrayal.
During the preparation of this volume invaluable assistance
was given by David H. Kraus, whose help covered many aspects
of the project, from the basic arrangement to historical and lin-
guistic details. Ruth Freitag gave, not for the first time, expert
advice in matters of bibliography. Janie Ricks worked patiently
and efficiently with the text, starting with the early stages of gath-
ering and storing the documents and ending with the final prep-
aration for publication.
George J. Kovtun
September 1987
INTRODUCTION
T
homas G. Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, had
a lifelong intellectual relationship with America which must
be called unique even today, fifty years after his death. His practical
contacts with the American people spread over four decades and
consisted of four visits paid to the United States in the years 1878,
1902, 1907, and 1918. The crowning achievement of this relation-
ship was American recognition of Czechoslovak independence on
September 3, 1918, formally granted to Masaryk while he was in
Washington.
Several prominent Czechs came to America before Masaryk,
such as Vojta Naprstek, the activist liberal and propagator of Amer-
ican efficiency, Josef V. Sládek, the poet and translator of Long-
fellow, and Antonín Dvořák, the composer of the New World
Symphony. They enhanced the mutual understanding of the cul-
tural values between America and the Czech lands; but it was left
to Masaryk, who became a representative of political aspirations,
to work towards the first real alliance between the Czech and the
American people in a decisive moment of history.
Masaryk's most personal link with America was, of course, his
wife, Charlotte Garrigue, whose last name he later adopted as his
own middle name. Born in Brooklyn in 1850 she was, on her
father's side, a descendant of Huguenots who left France in the
first part of the seventeenth century and settled in Germany and
Denmark. Her mother traced her ancestry back to the Pilgrim
Fathers. Masaryk met Charlotte in Leipzig in 1877 and after a brief
courtship proposed to her. He came to New York to marry her in
March 1878. His first visit to the United States was thus mainly a
vii
viii
MASARYK & AMERICA
private affair. It lasted only about two weeks, and most of his time
was spent with the Garrigue family. Charlotte returned to Europe
with Masaryk and stayed at his side until the outbreak of the First
World War.
In 1902 Masaryk traveled to America at the invitation of the
philantropic industrialist Charles R. Crane, who had established
a foundation for Slavic lectures at the University of Chicago. By a
happy coincidence Crane turned out to be a friend of Woodrow
Wilson's, a fact that was to serve Masaryk well in 1918. Twenty-
four years elapsed between Masaryk's first and second journeys to
America. In this period Masaryk became a well-known figure in
Czech public life. He was assigned to the new Czech university
in Prague as a philosophy professor and founded a periodical,
Athenaeum, in which he practiced what he called "scientific crit-
icism." He organized campaigns against bigotry, chauvinism, lit-
erary forgeries, and racial prejudice, epitomized by the case of the
Jew Leopold Hilsner, unjustly accused of a ritual murder. He pub-
lished several books on the problems of Czech history and politics,
and on social and philosophical questions. And he entered the
arena of politics. In the years 1891-93 he represented the Young
Czech Party in the Austrian parliament in Vienna.
Masaryk's lectures in Chicago in 1902 were delivered from
notes and for several decades the subject of this unpublished uni-
versity course had been a matter of speculation. In the 1970s the
Czech-American author Draga B. Shillinglaw undertook the re-
construction of the lectures from rediscovered stenographic notes
published in the old issues of the Czech-language newspaper Sla-
vie. It became evident that Masaryk spoke mainly on Czech history
(the lecture series was entitled "The Philosophy of the History
of a Small Nation") but he also discussed general Slavic questions
in several lectures. His course at the University of Chicago was
the first systematic exposition of the Czech question in America.
During his second visit, which lasted three months, Masaryk
made an extended tour of the Czech immigrant centers, visiting
New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cedar Rapids,
and other cities. He had not yet presented a political program of
INTRODUCTION
ix
independence but, speaking on a variety of subjects (religion,
socialism, Czech literature and history) he clearly contributed to
the dissemination of knowledge of basic Czech national
aspirations.
On his third visit, in 1907, Masaryk came to America as a Czech
intellectual whose political role had received fresh impetus. He
started on his journey shortly after having been elected a member
of the Vienna parliament for a second term, representing the small
Progressive Party which he helped create in 1900. On July 17,
1907, he was present at the opening of the Parliament session, on
July 20 he delivered a speech in the budget debate, and a week
later he sailed from Bremerhaven. He arrived in New York on
August 7 and stayed in America for two months. He participated
in the Congress of the Religious Liberals in Boston and again
visited the Czech immigrants who had overwhelmed him with
invitations from eleven states in all. His appearances before the
Czech-Americans culminated in a series of speeches delivered at
the Association of Czech Freethinkers in Chicago. His last prewar
visit to the United States strengthened his conviction that Czech-
Americans were an important part of the Czech nation and that
America could be a source of inspiration for Czech political life.
It was Masaryk's fourth and last visit to America that made
history. He came at the beginning of May 1918, as the leader of
the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and left in November, al-
ready the first elected President of Czechoslovakia. For the Amer-
ican and world public his six-and-a-half month stay in the United
States appeared as a meteoric rise from near-obscurity to the lead-
ership of one of the new states in Central Europe.
Masaryk, the organizer of a political action and finally of vol-
unteer armies fighting for the independence of the Czechs and
Slovaks, was a reluctant revolutionary. By temperament and po-
litical philosophy he was a reformist who abhorred violence and
bloodshed. At the same time his advocacy of progress by demo-
cratic means made him a natural adherent of the democratic West-
ern powers in their conflict with monarchic Germany and Austria-
Hungary. He feared that victory by the Central Powers would
MASARYK & AMERICA
strengthen the supremacy of the German element and worsen the
unequal status of the Czechs, Slovaks, and other small Slav nations
in the Habsburg Empire. The inescapable logic of this conviction
led him to the camp of the Allies.
Masaryk had left Austria-Hungary in December 1914, traveling
to the then neutral Italy. From there he moved to Switzerland and
to France, and in October 1915 settled down in Great Britain. With
inexhaustible energy he worked for the cause of a free Czecho-
slovakia in the West European Allied capitals. When the Tsarist
autocracy was replaced by a provisional republican government
in Petrograd in March 1917, Masaryk went from England to Russia
where he hoped to witness a development toward democracy and
to recruit thousands of volunteers from the ranks of the Czech and
Slovak prisoners of war for his army. In Russia he did, indeed,
succeed in organizing the largest Czechoslovak volunteer army
(other Czechoslovak armies were built in France and Italy) but
his expectations of a Russian democratization were thwarted by
the Bolshevik revolution in November 1917. Masaryk and his rep-
resentatives concluded several agreements concerning the neu-
trality of the Czechoslovak army in the Russian domestic conflicts,
and its transfer to France, where reinforcements were sorely
needed against the last German onslaught.
Recognizing the growing importance of the United States,
which finally declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917,
Masaryk traveled to America. He crossed European Russia and
Siberia in a train whose passengers sometimes left their cars to
chop wood for the locomotive. After a brief stay in Japan, he sailed
from Yokohama to Vancouver, and arrived in Chicago on May 5,
1918. His itinerary as a revolutionary was actually a trip around
the world, lasting four years and covering three continents.
His task in America was far from easy. Not only did the war
have to be won (and victory seemed quite distant in the spring
of 1918) but also a diplomatic breakthtough had to be achieved
for the program of T.G. Masaryk and other Central European lead-
ers. This program called for dismembering the Habsburg Empire
and establishing independent states, free to opt either for com-
INTRODUCTION
xi
plete independence or for some form of voluntary association or
federation. Although important pioneering work had been done
by the American Czechs and Slovaks, who constituted an agile
pressure group with influential connections in the press and in
government circles, much remained to be accomplished when
Masaryk came to America.
The West European allies, France and England, preceded the
United States in recognizing Masaryk's organization, the Czecho-
slovak National Council, as the de facto government of the future
state of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk's able representatives, Edvard
Beneš and Milan R. Stefánik, secured recognition of the Czecho-
slovak state in the summer of 1918 in Paris and London, where
the pressures of desperate German offensives and the need to
weaken the Central Powers both militarily and politically were
felt much more strongly than in Washington. American recogni-
tion, although coming last, was more than a formal seal at the end
of an inevitable process. From Masaryk's statements in 1918 in
America it can be clearly understood that he accorded American
recognition a special importance in view of the moral prestige of
American ideals, represented by Wilson, in both the Allied camp
and among the adversaries.
Masaryk's success in America, viewed in retrospect, may seem
a part of a historical trend rather than the result of exceptional
personal efforts. The developments at the battlefields gathered
momentum and, after the failure of the behind-the-scenes peace
discussions, the idea of defeating Germany by destroying her ally,
Austria-Hungary, provided further support for the aspirations of
the small oppressed nations. Added to the circumstances that fa-
vored Masaryk may be the popularity of the Czechoslovak soldiers
who, on their way from Russia to France, occupied the Siberian
railway, considered strategically important by the Allies. But with
all these advantages the cause of the Czechs and Slovaks still had
to be explained in America in 1918, and here Masaryk showed his
undeniable qualities as a spokesman of his people. He gained the
quick attention and respect of the journalists and, gradually, con-
vinced the diplomats and statesmen that there was a basic com-
xii
MASARYK & AMERICA
patibility between the American political tradition and the goals
of the Czechs and Slovaks.
The reconstruction of Central and Eastern Europe after the
First World War has been both praised and criticized, and Masa-
ryk's role in this reconstruction has been judged in different ways
by historians and politicians. Just twenty years after the end of the
First World War came the shock of the destruction of Czechoslo-
vakia, Poland, and other states by the Nazi Germany. After a new
world war, Czechoslovakia was restored in a divided Europe, but
in a form quite different from Masaryk's expectations. Fifty years
after Masaryk's death and almost seven decades after his greatest
successes, achieved on American soil, many of the past events
have become blurred and superseded by new momentous devel-
opments. But the fact that, at the end of the First World War, a
new emerging country in Central Europe found its inspiration and
strength in American ideals remains one of the remarkable phe-
nomena of recent European history. For an examination of this
phenomenon, Masaryk affords the best example.
The testimonies of Masaryk's relationship with America, se-
lected for this volume, are arranged in five sections. In the first
section ("Before 1914") Masaryk's visits in the United States prior
to the First World War are illustrated by documents with seemingly
little political relevance. Masaryk is shown as a freshly arrived
European bridegroom, and as a lecturer with overriding interest
in religious, cultural, and social questions. His political aims be-
come visible in the second section ("Lobbying) for an Independent
State"), consisting mainly of documents which show the American
Czechs and Slovaks campaigning for a program of self-determi-
nation and independence, and Masaryk's own explanation of his
goals. In the third section ("Masaryk in the Spotlight") Masaryk,
now on his fourth and most important visit in America, is clearly
in focus. Newspaper reports and diplomatic memoranda remind
us how he was viewed by contemporary witnesses and how he
acted on the political scene. In the next two sections ("Masaryk
and American Ideals" and "Masaryk and Wilson") we see from
Masaryk's declarations, statements, and letters how he valued the
INTRODUCTION
xiii
American democratic tradition, and Woodrow Wilson as the in-
terpreter of this tradition. The sixth and last section is a brief
documentary narrative. It tells the story of the longest document
written in Masaryk's hand and preserved outside Czechoslovakia,
the manuscript of his book The New Europe. This story, too, has
an American aspect: the manuscript was finished in Washington.
Clearly, the first president of Czechoslovakia had a special
relationship with the United States. Was the role which America
played in Masaryk's life only a concatenation of incidental causes,
or was it an expression of a deeper, meaningful affinity? The fol-
lowing testimony should help answer this question.
CHAPTER
ONE
BEFORE 1914
M
asaryk's first appearance in America may be illustrated by a
truè anecdote:
The bridegroom had a foreign accent and his formal European man-
ners entertained the Garrigue sisters greatly. He seemed to be either
impatient or an early riser, or both. On the morning of the wedding day
he appeared very early at the bride's home, clad in a formal dress suit,
carrying a high silk hat. His explanation was that he did not want to "lose
time." He was promptly sent back to the hotel.
This little story, told by Masaryk's wife Chartlotte Garrigue to
her daughter Alice¹, catches at least a glimpse of the mixture of
delight and amazement that Masaryk, the son of peasants and a
young doctor of philosophy, had caused in the well-to-do Amer-
ican family.
A good description of the house in the Morrisania section of
the Bronx, where the Garrigue family welcomed Masaryk, is con-
tained in a letter written by one of Charlotte's sisters on August
10, 1938, and preserved in the Thomas Capek Collection in the
Library of Congress.
Eleanor Garrigue Ferguson to Anna V. Capek, who had inquired
about the life of the Garrigue family in Morrisania:
The Garrigue home on Boston Road was between 166th and 167th
Streets. It was the second house from the corner of 167th Street on the
west side of the Road. The home was not red brick, it was a frame house,
three stories and basement with cellar, containing a specially made re-
frigerator, (almost as large as the "Empire State Building," to hold food
enough for eleven children). Charlotte was married in the same room as
her three sisters: Emily, Augusta, Isabella; which was adjoining the music
room-not in the music room.
1
2
MASARYK & AMERICA
The home, a simple rather small structure, was bought by our father,
when we moved from Brooklyn to Morrisania, as the town was then
called. Our father added considerably to the size, by building other sleep-
ing rooms, a large laundry, extra kitchen space, and eventually the very
large music room, over which was the billiard room and one single bed-
room. The billiard room was of great importance, as it afforded very
pleasurable relaxations for my father evenings and Sundays when he was
fatigued from his very concentrated work in the Germania Fire Insurance
business.
The two original "living-rooms" where the marriage ceremonies took
place, we used to call: "Front- and back-parlors" and they continued ever
to be the home and "cozy rooms" where Thomas Masaryk and Charlotte
sat and chatted together, and put each other to the test, as to who could
repeat the names of the states of our "United States" most accurately and
most quickly. Their "courting" always had an intellectual side connected
with it. The "music room" was more formal-used for our study 8 or 9
hours a day-we had our regular periods of study-one came in, the
other went out, almost with military precision. An important feature of
the bomestead was a grand old oak-tree, which stood between our
grounds and our neighbors. As children we all adored that tree - its
dignity, strength and beauty of form - that has gone to make room for
buildings - but it remained long after we left Morrisania.
Masaryk owed his invitation to lecture at Chicago University
in 1902 to the recommendation of the French Slavist Louis Leger
and to his knowledge of English. Before his second trip to the
United States he was visited by one of the founders of Slavic studies
in America, Leo Wiener, who wrote the first report about Masaryk
for the American press.
From Leo Wiener's article "The New Bobemia", published in the
Nation of August 15, 1901:
There are streets whose names are as old as their murky jumble of
buildings, and others broad and airy, graced by the names of beloved
poets, like Neruda, philologists like Dobrovsky, historians like Palacky.
Protestant churches, especially of the Hussite persuasion, may be found
among the many Catholic, while the Greek Catholic faith, the earliest
established here (namely, in the ninth century), finds its expression
through the propaganda of various societies of Cyril and Methodius, its
oldest missionaries among the Slavs. Nor has the quaint Jewish Ghetto
disappeared, while one of the most pretentious religious monuments on
the large bridge that connects the two parts of the city, bears the legend
that it was built some two hundred years ago from the fine a Jew paid
for railing at Christ.
BEFORE 1914
3
This bridge leads into the "Small Town," where, at the turn of the
road, a sign in five languages tells that the steep street leads to a castle
on top of the hill that overlooks the whole city. Only a short distance
below the outer parapet of the eerie palace is the house in which Professor
Masaryk lives. It was not yet past breakfast-time when I knocked at his
door, and was admitted. The rooms bore evidence of the approaching
vacation, when the Professor and his family pass the sultry months in the
Slovak parts of northern Hungary, of which he is a native. Professor Ma-
saryk has the appearance of an American, and this impression is height-
ened by his reserved manner and composure. His wife (née Garrigue) is
an American lady, and he has adopted her name, writing his own as
Thomas Garrigue Masaryk. He is a political economist trained in the most
critical school of his profession. He has looked without prejudice into
the history of his country, and has found that the vicissitudes of Bohemia
have been due more to the indolence of his own race than the avarice of
the Germans, that self-restraint is productive of better results than in-
discriminate abuse of everything foreign. He loves Bohemia fervently, and
would like to see it occupy an honorable position in Europe, but he
thinks that this can be acquired only by a close study of matters political,
social, and intellectual; that far from blindly hating the Germans, the
Bohemians ought to compete with them fairly for political supremacy;
that all the heterogeneous elements of the country, the Jews included,
are to be won over by love and not by hatred. In a momentary fit of
righteous enthusiasm, his people elected him to the Austrian Parliament,
where he represented Bohemia with honor and moderation. No one would
have done more for his country than Masaryk, but he soon got weary of
the platitudes and vile accusations of the Young Bohemians, and returned
to his university position to carry on his studies in academic peace. It
was a good idea of Mr. Crane of Chicago to invite him to deliver a series
of lectures at the University of Chicago. The date has not yet been set,
but within two or three years America will have an opportunity to hear
about Bohemia from the mouth of one of its most prominent sons. Pro-
fessor Masaryk speaks English fluently.
It has long been assumed that, with the exception of limited
academic and religious circles, Masaryk was virtually unknown to
the American public before the First World War had brought the
Czech and Slovak aspiration into focus. However, a recent search
in American newspapers revealed that Masaryk had gained some
publicity in American dailies during his visit in 1902, attracting
the attention of American journalists not by his political opinion,
but by his comments on a social problem, the plight of immigrant
children in the American cities.
4
MASARYK & AMERICA
From the article "Sees Danger Abead," published in the Baltimore
Sun on May 19, 1902:
Prof. Thomas Garigue [sic] Masaryk, a member of the Austrian Reichs-
rath and doctor of philosophy at the University of Prague, was the guest
yesterday of the Bohemian Gymnastic Society. He arrived in this city late
Saturday afternoon in response to an invitation from the society and de-
livered a lecture at Bohemia Hall on the life of Karl [sic] Havlicek, the
Bohemian patriot who was exiled from that country on account of his
opposition to the Austrian Government. He will go to Washington today.
Professor Masaryk appears to be a man of great refinement and cul-
ture. Beneath a high, classical forehead is a pair of piercing dark-grey
eyes, which peer through large, steel-rimmed eyeglasses. Aquiline nose
and firm mouth are probably the most impressive facial features. The
visitor wears a Vandyke beard and mustache slightly tinted with grey.
When questioned with reference to his impression of the American
people, their habits and customs, Professor Masaryk said he had not had
sufficient opportunity to study Americans to form a fixed opinion. Almost
equally evasive was he when asked for his opinion concerning the great
American industrial combinations which have recently sprung into
existence.
"The theories of most learned men are divided as to the benefits of
these immense syndicates," said Professor Masaryk. "Of the system I have
nothing to say except that if the ends are good the means are justified by
the ends. Trusts mean the centralization of wealth and power, and cen-
tralization is always bad unless checked by individual and autonomic
power."
Without solicitation the Professor then entered upon the discussion
of another problem of great interest.
"During my short time in this country," he said, "I have observed
one very important and vital question that concerns you Americans - a
question beside which the race problem, in my opinion, falls into insig-
nificance - namely, the immigration problem. From my observations in
the immigration quarters of New York I have been led to believe the
situation is really alarming. Here you have on an average of a half million
immigrants coming to your shores annually, for the most part uneducated,
among them great numbers of Italians, Syrians, Turks and Greeks. You
cannot imagine what it means to have these people suddenly liberated
from the political, religious and social bonds under which they have lived
for centuries. Comparatively few seem to see the danger that lurks behind
this condition. Look at the children! A half million immigrants means
about 5,000,000 children in five years. Who takes care of them?"
"Go to New York and you find them fairly swarming about the streets
of the East Side from early morn until late in the evening. Then go to the
other section of the city and you notice the contrast. In the one place
thousands of ignorant children playing in the filth of the smaller streets
BEFORE 1914
5
and alleys and in the other neatly clad children with schoolbooks in their
arms."
"It is quite safe to say that the condition of the former case, under
the present circumstances, when no care is manifested for the welfare of
the offspring of the foreigners, will not naturally become alleviated in
less than the third to the fifth generation."
"There is only one remedy that I can think of, and that is to organize
a movement to take care of these children, educate them and by so doing
elevate their moral condition."
Professor Masaryk stated that he expected in the near future to return
to this country and attempt to treat the question practically, and especially
to labor for the intellectual elevation and advancement of his own people.
This plan, he asserted, if carried out, would undoubtedly be of inestim-
able benefit to the United States.
From the editorial "Is It a Peril?" published in the Washington Post
on May 21, 1902:
Occasionally a foreign visitor does this country good service by call-
ing attention to ugly facts. Mr. Thomas Garigne [sic] Masaryk, president
of the University of Prague [sic], and member of the Austrian Reichsrath,
has favored us in that way in an interview printed in Baltimore on the
18th instant. Mr. Masaryk discusses the immigration question, which, he
thinks, should concern Americans more than any or all other problems.
He thinks it "a peril to the American republic," and we have no doubt
it will prove so if we continue to neglect the children of the immigrants.
It is vain to point with pride to the billions that we expend on our
free schools and to the other billions devoted to the intellectual, moral,
and physical improvement of children. All that is well so far as it goes,
but the fact remains that it does not go far enough. Instead of a reduction,
we have an increase year by year of the number of children who get their
education in the streets. Great as is our outlay for new school buildings,
teachers, and other features of the public school system, we are contin-
ually falling farther and farther behind the demand. We plume ourselves
on what we are doing when, in fact, we should blush for what we are
leaving undone.
From the editorial "Immigration That Menaces", published in the
Philadelphia Public Ledger on May 21, 1902:
Professor Masaryk, of the University of Prague and member of the
Austrian Reichsrath, who is traveling in this country, records his convic-
tion that foreign immigration, or rather a considerable part of it, is a
menace to the American Republic. His attention has been particularly
attracted to the situation in New York, which annually receives and at-
tempts to assimilate within its own borders thousands of foreigners alien
6
MASARYK & AMERICA
in every sense. They come from the South and East of Europe, from the
Mediterranean, from Asia and Africa. They labor for a pittance, inhabit
the squalid tenements, disregard personal cleanliness, neglect their chil-
dren's schooling and reproduce here in degree the deplorable conditions
that exist in the countries of their nativity. The Austrian critic is partic-
ularly concerned about the morals and schooling of the children of these
immigrants, and the only remedy that suggests itself to him is a movement
to take their education in hand.
Professor Masaryk's comments upon the social conditions of our chief
seaport afford food for thought for all Americans who cherish their native
land. They should be an incentive to Congress to supply a remedy for
the perils arising from imperfectly regulated immigration.
In the observations published after his return from his second
visit, Masaryk stressed the religious problems of the immigrants,
and showed a distinctive appreciation of the risks and potential-
ities of free spiritual life.
From Masaryk's article in the Prague monthly Naše doba of October,
1902:
I devoted this year's visit of mine to the United States (in fact only
a part of the United States, from New York to Cedar Rapids in the West,
and to Washington, D.C. and St. Louis in the South) mainly to observing
the situation of religion and churches. That was the intent of my journey
and, of course, I had the general American situation in mind. Soon I had
to turn my attention also to the religious life of the Czechs; and I have
to confess being surprised by their situation, which unexpectedly forced
me to think more about the subject. How little we know at home about
the life of our colonies abroad!
Already in New York, and likewise in other cities, I came to realize
that no other question is as important to the American Czechs as the
religious question. In any serious discussion among the Czechs whom I
saw the question of religion and churches became the main topic. Even
among the Socialists. Everywhere I was asked questions about religion
and requested to give my opinion on the attitudes of [American] Czechs
with respect to religion and churches.
From the conversations and from the press (some of the [Czech-
American] newspapers are not allowed in Bohemia, which makes it dif-
ficult for us to follow Czech life in America) one can easily see that our
American colony is sharply divided into two hostile and steadily warring
camps: the freethinkers and the believers or, better, church people. As
there are many more Catholics than Protestants, we can say that we have
a camp of freethinkers and a Catholic camp.
The nature of the Czech freethinking can be understood without
difficulty. It is the Free Thought that had been transferred from Bohemia
BEFORE 1914
7
to the soil of American liberty. It is, however, the more radical Free
Thought of the 1850s and 1860s. It is the freethinking of men who had
experienced the Revolution of 1848, freethinking not only of Havlíček,
but also of Dr. Rieger of that period and of the younger men such as
Sabina, Sladkovsky and Barák. It is, to a large extent, the consistent early
Young-Czech thinking. In America the Czech freethinkers had the chance
to be more consistent without fear, and they were. They saw that in
America any religious conviction could be consistently pursued, and this
is how they acted in pursuing their conviction. Whereas in Bohemia Free
Thought was soon being replaced by liberal phraseology, the freethinkers
in America were more consistent in practicing their conviction, and gave
up Catholicism.
I need not emphasize that the difference between the American and
Czech freethinking is only a difference in degree. Our freethinkers do
not dare to be more consistent. In all respects the whole life of the
American Czechs is our Czech life; if America puzzles [a visitor from
Bohemia] with its Czech-American life, it is, in fact, only showing him a
copy of his own life under the magnifying glass
I do not know if the American Czechs are strong enough to replace
the old religions by a new, genuinely new religion. Most freethinkers
know only Catholicism. They threw away Catholicism (I could not say
they overcame it) and now they think they have overcome religion in
general. But religion is not overcome and, consequently, there is a crisis
among the freethinkers. Many are returning to Catholicism, others accept
Protestantism, some cling to the new American sects.
All these dif-
ficulties are augmented by their own appreciation that freethinking is
outmoded today, that its negativism is no longer sufficient. The lively
religious interest that animates America could not fail to stimulate the
open-minded freethinkers to revise their liberalistic philosophy.
It is certain that the American Czechs have to be awakened spiritually
and that they have to participate in American cultural life. It is under-
standable that the immigrants, seeking bread in their new country, were
looking for employment in the first place and were guided by their ma-
terial interest. But man does not live by bread alone as is evident once
again in the development of the life of the American Czechs. Obviously,
even in the material sphere our Czech people have contented themselves
with purely physical work of low order. In this respect, too, they are
increasingly aware of how useful education and interest in spiritual life
are for the Czech worker and laborer.
During his last visit in the United States before the First World
War, in 1907, Masaryk earned the special attention of a group of
American citizens who recognized his merits as a fighter against
racial discrimination. The Association of Galician and Bukovinian
Jews held a public gathering in his honor.
8
MASARYK & AMERICA
The editorial "Distinguisbed Visitor," published in the Jewish Ex-
ponent on August 30, 1907:
At the coming International Congress of Liberals Professor Thomas
Mazark [sic], who did such valiant service in combating the anti-Semites
of his country, will be one of the delegates. The distinguished visitor is
properly described by one of the foremost American papers as "a Slavic
hero." He is certainly entitled to the honor thus bestowed upon him, for
at the risk of his own position as a university professor he defended the
Jews of his native land when the charge of ritual murder was fabricated
against them in the closing years of the nineteenth century. He was threat-
ened with ostracism and other penalties of a more exacting nature, but
nonetheless he persisted in doing his duty. The anti-Semites of the Aus-
trian Empire have good cause to fear him, for he has been one of the
ablest and most determined of their opponents. There are few Christians
of his eminence in the country of which he is a subject who have had
the manhood, the courage and the ability to work effectively to defend
their Jewish neighbors as he has shown on many an occasion. We are glad
to note that his Jewish fellow countrymen now living in New York propose
to honor him by a public reception. He certainly deserves it.
In his speech in the General Session of the Congress of the
Religious Liberals in Boston Masaryk discussed the religious sit-
uation in Austria. He also addressed one of the committees of the
congress in a brief speech about the Slavic immigrants. This brief
address, almost forgotten and never translated or published in
Czechoslovakia, documents his concern for religious and social
questions as the two inseparable parts of one basic human
problem.
Masaryk's speech in a meeting of the Department of New Americans
at the Congress of the Religious Liberals in Boston on September 24,
1907:
I am to speak of the Slavonians, of whom there are about 4,000,000
living in your country. I am to speak more especially of the Bohemians.
I have no right to speak in their name. I will communicate some obser-
vations I made in this country recently, and twice before when I was
here. I would not dare to discuss the whole problem of immigration. I
will give you just a few of my own observations.
I remember that, when I first came to America, on the boat I saw a
little girl. She had her address checked on her breast. She could not speak
with anybody - not English, of course. I had the impression of a living
box or trunk being checked and sent to America. That is the first impres-
sion I had of the immigration problem. And afterwards, when I came
BEFORE 1914
9
here, for instance, to Pittsburg or Allegheny, and observed the life of the
miners, I saw again living trunks and boxes which are used for the industry
of your great country. A man cannot speak with his fellow-citizens; he
cannot speak with his own children. It is touching to see how among
our Slavonians and Bohemians very often the family is broken up simply
because nobody is left to take care of the children. The father and mother
are in the mines: the children live on the street, pick up the English
language, forget their own. The father and mother cannot speak English,
and so they cannot converse, father and child. I saw this very often, not
only in Pittsburg, but in New York, Chicago, everywhere. And so I see
that the problem is, of course, that the people coming here should as
soon as possible learn English. But that is not enough, to know English,
even if they speak it very well. It is not a question of language only, but
of citizenship communion, of spiritual communion. For these people
learn English as they can - they learn it in the public schools, they pick
it up on the streets, and so on; but they are not citizens, they are not
Americans, and they cannot be, because they are out of spiritual and civic
communion with you. They do not communicate, and they cannot. I often
am told by Americans, "There is a kind of clan instinct among these
Slavonians: they gather where they will not be assimilated with us." Of
course, if you would say assimilation only by language, that is not difficult.
What I mean is the assimilation of culture and of spiritual life, and that
is wanting. I often hear from clergymen and men who care for religion,
"Your Bohemians are free thinkers; they are hostile to religion; they are
atheists." It is true that very many of them are free thinkers, and perhaps
atheists - I cannot tell - but I know these free thinkers and atheists
long for spiritual life. They have nobody to give it to them excepting the
Roman Church. Catholicism is spreading, of course, here the United
States; and it soon will be, and I suppose it is already, a great problem
of this country. The Roman Church meets these people. A Bohemian and
a Slavonian will be more carefully cared for than he is in his own country.
But there is a minority of the people, perhaps half of them, who dislike
every sort of ecclesiastical and religious life, simply because in Austria,
where they come from, they know only the Roman Catholic Church, the
Church of the State, and they hate the State Church. If you would meet
them on their own ground and of course in their own language, you will
see that these "atheists" will be very good - I won't say Christians, but
religious men; and I am sure, if Jesus were to come again, he would go
to these atheists, to these people who do not care anything for religion
because they are cast out of spiritual communion, and because they have
no opportunity of hearing and seeing what true religion is.
And so I wish that they could meet you, and that you would meet
them. I think they are ripe for this meeting. I came here Sunday, and was
engaged for the meetings here, but was invited by my countrymen to
speak. Before I came, they wrote me to speak on the political and social
situation of Bohemia and of Austria. When I came to speak to them, I saw
CHAPTER
TWO
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
A
postcard, preserved in the Woodrow Wilson Papers in the Li-
brary of Congress, marks the beginning of a new phase in
Masaryk's life. The postcard was mailed from Rome to New York
shortly before the end of 1914.
Masaryk to Emanuel V. Voska, December 27, 1914:
Again I am beyond frontiers in a neutral country. A harder regime is
commencing at home: In Moravia two men were executed for keeping
and distributing the Russian manifesto. In Prague our editor Dušek from
Cas was arrested; it is not permitted to publish it and hence it is not
known in public. The first case where an editor was imprisoned by mil-
itary authorities who now have the upper hand over the civilian. I do
not know how it all will come out, most probably badly. I also do not
know if I shall be able to go back. I shall stay here till Jan. 6th (Hotel
Flora) then shall go to Geneva; Hotel d'Angleterre. Greetings from
Masaryk.
Although it is not known how and when this postcard came
to be deposited in the President's archives, it is certain that it is
one of the first documents related to the establishment of contacts
between Masaryk and the Czech-Americans in the early stages of
the First World War. Emanuel V. Voska, a Czech immigrant who
came to America at the age of 19 in 1894, was active in various
Czech-American organizations. As an American citizen he traveled
in Europe in the summer of 1914 when the war broke out. Before
returning to the United States in September 1914, Voska offered
himself to Masaryk as a courier for his contacts with the Western
countries.
The strongest group in America to support Masaryk's program
were the Czech immigrants who entered into close cooperation
11
12
MASARYK & AMERICA
with the Slovak-Americans. More than a million people of Czech
and Slovak origin lived in America in the period of the First World
War. After the outbreak of the hostilities the advantages of Ma-
saryk's reputation among his compatriots in the United States be-
came evident. The American Czechs and Slovaks provided him
with an initial base for his revolutionary activity and were un-
swerving in their support of his aims. Their lobbying for the in-
dependence of their country was, however, a gradually evolving
process. In the first years of the war they had to organize their
forces and cope with the fact of American neutrality.
In March 1915 most of the scattered Czech groups were united
in the Bohemian National Alliance (BNA); in October of that same
year, the BNA formally entered into an agreement with the Slovak
organization, the Slovak League of America, to pursue jointly the
aim of political independence. The Czech Catholic immigrants
formed the National Alliance of Bohemian Catholics in February
1917, and allied themselves with the BNA. Finally, in February
1918, the three groups, the BNA, the Czech Catholics, and the
Slovak League agreed that together they would consider them-
selves to be the American branch of Masaryk's movement, the
Czechoslovak National Council.
Before the Czech and Slovak immigrants could develop their
anti-Habsburg propaganda effectively, Masaryk sought assistance
from individual American sympathizers, among whom Charles R.
Crane was the key person. Masaryk informed Crane in a letter
written on February 3, 1915, from Geneva that the Czechoslovak
revolutionaries "prepare the extreme steps a nation can and must
do to get her independence," and asked for financial help.3 Crane
furnished material assistance and arranged for the first interview
by an American correspondent with Masaryk during the war. Ma-
saryk was visited in London by a Christian Science Monitor re-
porter who then wrote a lengthy article based on his conversation
with the Czech leader.
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
13
T.S. masank.
Masaryk's portrait, drawn and signed for the Christian Science Monitor from a
photograph, published on December 1, 1915. Newspaper and Current Periodical
Reading Room, Library of Congress.
14
MASARYK & AMERICA
From the article "Slav Issue As Basis for the Great Conflict,' pub-
lished by the Christian Science Monitor on December 1, 1915:
"An exile from Bohemia with a price set upon his head by the Austrian
government", were the words in which Prof. T. G. Masaryk was described
quite recently by one who knows him well. The professor is at present
in London, and accorded a representative of the Christian Science Monitor
a more than cordial reception in his study at Hampstead, looking out
over the hills away beyond the Heath. Professor Masaryk has been de-
scribed as one of the greatest figures in the Slavonic world, and it is not
necessary to have more than a few moments conversation with him to
recognize that the cause he has so much at heart occupies his entire time
and all his thoughts.
The London University has now founded a new school of Slavonic
studies, and Professor Masaryk has been appointed lecturer in Slavonic
literature and sociology. Interesting as is this work he has undertaken,
the Professor recognized that it is far less important than the other work
he has in hand. Professor Masaryk is a Bohemian, and was professor of
philosophy in the Czech University of Prague. He has also taken an active
part during many years, not only in the internal politics of Bohemia, but
in the larger field of Austro-Hungarian affairs, as a member of the Austrian
Parliament.
In December last, he explained, I was compelled to leave Prague,
owing to the persecution of Bohemian politicians by the Austrian gov-
ernment. My friends, he continued, are in prison, but I departed before
being arrested being convinced that I could better accomplish the great
objective I have in view, if I were free, than if confined in a prison cell.
I would have been arrested had I stayed, he explained, because I was,
and always have been, in opposition to the Austrian government.
It is, then, your desire to enlighten the public as to the real facts
regarding Austria's recent political doings?
Yes, replied the Professor, it is exactly for that purpose that I am
here in London. I realize full well that Austria is guilty, and that she is
determined to keep my country, Bohemia, in subjection. I am conse-
quently working here in London, as I have in Rome, Paris, and Geneva,
to rouse politicians to recognize what Austria is doing, and so to
strengthen their sympathy with Bohemia
The Professor then turned to the great Slav question. We have, as you
know, he said, practically seven Slav nations, that is we have the Bohe-
mians and Slovaks, the Poles, the Serbo-Croats, the Slovenes, the Bulgar-
ians, and Russians, whilst in Germany also there is what may best be
described as a splinter of a Slav nation who are called Serbs, but they are
very different to the Serbians themselves. Of these nations I have men-
tioned, only the Russians, Bulgarians, and a part of the Serbians are really
independent, that is, have their own states. The great point is that at one
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
15
time or another, almost all of these Slav nations have been free. This
means, therefore, that at some time they were subjugated, and are con-
sequently striving to regain the liberty they formerly possessed. You may
sum up the Slav question by saying that it is the struggle of those Slav
nations which were formerly free to regain their freedom. Russia, of
course, being the greatest Slav nation, can help the smaller Slav nations,
and these nations expect this help from Russia. Even the Poles, the Pro-
fessor continued, are now obviously opposed to Germany and her policy,
as has been so clearly shown during the present war. They expect far
more from Russia than they ever expected to obtain from Germany or
Austria.
Pausing for a moment, and then pointing to a map of Europe, the
Professor said: You will see from a glance at this map that the present
war is based mainly, if not entirely, on the Slav question; the Slav question
is the so-called eastern question. When Austria attacked Serbia, Russia
was compelled to come to her rescue. Russia could not stand by and see
the Slavs in Serbia annihilated. And it is for the same reason that the Slavs
in Austria, and especially the Bohemians, are in sympathy with Serbia and
Russia. Still pointing to the map, the Professor explained how the Slav
peoples stretched really from the Gulf of Danzig on the Baltic down as
far as the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic, constituting in Central Europe a
peculiar Slav zone, but remember, he added, they are not free Slavs, and
the fact that they are not in possession of the freedom which would be
theirs is what gives rise to the perpetual unrest in Europe. Do not forget
that the Slavs are ever striving for liberty and will continue to strive.
You asked me just now what would be the effect of the event of the
Slav question being solved. Of course, the Professor went on, no one who
is at all familiar with the question will ever think that the Slavs will
immediately endeavor to form themselves into one nation. The first step
to be accomplished is for them to obtain their independence. Imagine,
if you can, the Slavs free in Bohemia, in Poland, with the South-Slavs.
There is no question that this would develop into a mutual understanding
which would end in definite treaties, military and otherwise
When the solution of the Slav question is reached, the Professor said
in conclusion, the different Slav nationalities will certainly maintain their
individuality. The Polish Slavs, he said, with real enthusiasm, will be free,
as will the Slavs in other countries. Thus they would constitute a number
of small states, but they would unite when a question of common interest
was involved and in that way prove and exert their strength.
Not all the people who were willing to recommend Masaryk
to Wilson's attention believed in the feasibility and success of
Masaryk's aim. The American journalist Norman Hapgood, a friend
of Wilson's, sent a copy of one of Masaryk's memoranda from
London to the White House on January 29, 1917, but said in his
16
MASARYK & AMERICA
accompanying letter: "I myself am not for an independent Bohe-
mia, but I think Professor Masaryk deserves a hearing."⁴
Most of the American Czechs did not doubt that Masaryk's
goal was attainable, or at least desirable. It would have been pre-
mature to propagate the novel idea of an independent Czecho-
slovak state before the United States had entered the war. But the
Bohemian National Alliance, bound by the rules of American neu-
trality, looked for an opportunity to declare their sympathies with
the Allies in their fight against the Central Powers. The oppor-
tunity was found in May 1916. Responding to what he regarded
as pro-German propaganda, the leader of the BNA, Ludvík Fisher,
explained the position of the Czech-Americans in sharp criticism
of the so called American Embargo Conference. The anti-German
and anti-Austrian statement was written in the form of a letter
addressed to all members of Congress. A copy of the letter, dated
May 5, 1916, from Chicago, was sent to President Wilson.
Letter of the Bobemian National Alliance criticizing the pro-Ger-
man tendencies of the American Embargo conference, dated May 5,
1916, from Chicago:
Within the last few days members of the Congress of the United States
of America have been deluged with appeals and letters prepared by the
American Embargo Conference and designed to create an impression that
the American people are not in sympathy with the President in the stand
he has taken with regard to the relations of this country with the so-
called Central Powers, and more particularly with Germany.
There is little doubt in the minds of all well informed people that
the concentrated action resulting from the deliberations of the American
Embargo Conference represents a minority of the American people, and
indeed does represent only American citizens and residents of German
origin; it cannot even be said that this action is undertaken in behalf of
any citizens of Austrian origin, because it is a well known fact that most
former Austrian subjects are bitterly opposed to the Austrian government
in the present world crisis.
American citizens in sympathy with Germany, and whose sympathies
apparently lead them so far as to induce them to give preference to the
welfare of Germany, rather than that of America, certainly have the right
to express their opinions no matter what these may be, and it is not our
intention to deny them such rights, but we cannot help remarking that
if they were anxious to help maintain peace they should have addressed
their appeals to Berlin and Vienna in the fateful days of July and August,
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
17
1914. It is the height of irony to address appeals for maintenance of peace
to the American Government, the government of the one country that
has always gone so far as was consistent with national honor to uphold
the peace of the world.
There is certainly little doubt that those opposed to the action of
the American Embargo Conference form an overwhelming majority of the
citizenship of this country. Were American citizens of Slavonic, English,
French, Italian and Belgian extraction less loyal to the country of the
adoption they certainly could organize a demonstration in comparison
with which the action of this conference would appear puny indeed. But
such demonstration has not been organized, nor do we belive [sic] it will
or should be prepared.
Nevertheless, we deem it our duty to call your attention to the fact
that we are unalterably opposed to the aims of the American Embargo
Conference, and the appeals it has engineered.
The foreign policies of this country certainly should not and cannot
be dictated by the interests of any of the belligerent powers; but our aim
must be the protection of the rights of American citizens under inter-
national law, and the maintenance of national honor. Properly understood,
we are of the opinion that national honor and the maintenance of the
rights of American citizens are perfectly consistent with the interests of
humanity as a whole, and when the President of the United States takes
this position, we believe he should be upheld by all loyal American
citizens.
If the Central Powers have come into collision with all our accepted
notions of liberty and freedom; of the rights of men; with all our con-
ceptions of the interest of this nation, as well as humanity, they have only
themselves to blame and the brutal methods of warfare beginning with
the violation of Belgium and ending with the sinking of the Sussex.
In closing we may say that the Bohemian National Alliance is entitled
to speak in behalf of five hundred forty thousand American citizens of
Czech extraction, and we have little doubt that in calling your attention
to the matters hereinbefore referred to we are speaking in behalf of a
vast majority of American citizens of non-German origin.
Our aim has simply been to call attention to the fact that the recent
appeals to members of Congress are biased, to say the least, and that at
best they represent a small portion of American citizenship.⁵
Buoyed by the declaration of the Allies, in January 1917, that
"the liberation of the Czechoslovaks from foreign domination"
was one of their war aims, the Czech and Slovak immigrants con-
vened a big meeting in New York and sent a message to President
Wilson.
18
MASARYK & AMERICA
Telegram of a Czech-American committee to Woodrow Wilson, Jan-
uary 15, 1917:
Undersigned appointed as a committee on behalf of United States
citizens gathered tonight in a mass meeting at Bohemian National Hall,
New York, earnestly beseech the President and Congress to support the
liberation of Czechs, Slovaks and other Slavs proposed by Allied
Governments.
L. C. Frank, B. G. Gregr, A. B. Kuokol [sic], M. Getting⁶
When this message was being sent, the American entry into
the war was still several months away. And Woodrow Wilson was
still the President of a non-belligerent nation when he received
a letter from the Slovak League of America congratulating him on
his second inauguration. This letter, preserved in the Woodrow
Wilson Papers in the Library of Congress, indicates clearly that
even before the American declaration of war (on Germany in April
1917, and on Austria-Hungary in December 1917) Wilson was re-
garded by the representatives of small Central European nations
as the advocate of their rights.
Slovak League of America to Woodrow Wilson, March 6, 1917:
The American citizens of Slovak descent cannot on this memorable
occasion refrain from joining their voices in congratulating and thanking
you not only for the very efficient work which you have performed as
their Chief Executive and leader, during the trying four years that have
elapsed since your first inauguration, but also for becoming a champion
of the cause of their oppressed brethren in their distant home-land.
Prophets are men endowed with the power of reading human hearts
rather than musty tomes; you have shown yourself to be a true prophet
when to the Senate you declared that the small nations of Europe have
an equal right with the powerful ones to governments established on the
American basis, their consent. You then voiced the yearnings of the mil-
lions now forcibly gathered under governments to which they not only
never did consent but from which they always have, for vital reasons,
dissented.
As every individual has the inalienable, natural right to shape his
own destiny, so have nations; as it is a high crime against nature's God
to trample under foot this right of the individual, so it is an immeasurably
greater crime to crush the collective right of individuals bound together
with sacred ties into a nation.
Your welcome words are to the oppressed nations of the world as a
shining star of hope breaking through the lowering clouds that have
darkened their skies for centuries, and the American citizens of Slovak
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
19
origin would consider themselves lacking in patriotism and in loyalty to
their adopted country, if they did not, on this occasion, express their
heartfelt thanks to you for the stand you took on behalf of their brethren,
and if they would not, in these days of crisis, solemnly reaffirm their oath
of allegiance to the United States of America and pledge their undivided
support of their Chief Executive.
God grant that four years hence, when you will lay down the burdens
of your exalted office, your ideals will be materialized and that you will
be followed into your private life not only by the esteem of your fellow
citizens, but also by the blessings of those millions across the seas who
will have survived the present struggle and who will be forever grateful
to you for materially aiding them in realizing their just and centuries-old
desires.
In the summer of 1917 the military situation of the Allies was
far from excellent and Russia went through a period of political
turmoil, but the Czechoslovak soldiers fought well on the Eastern
front. The good fighting spirit of Masaryk's army in Russia was
brought to the attention of Woodrow Wilson.
Letter of Ludvík Fisher, president of the Bobemian National Alli-
ance, to Woodrow Wilson, July 5, 1917:
May I be permitted to call your attention to the fact that in the recent
successful Russian offensive the most signal services were rendered by
the Czecho-Slovak soldiers fighting alongside of the Russians?
The Russian official war bulletin of July 3 states that the Czecho-
Slovak brigade captured 62 officers and 3,150 soldiers, fifteen guns and
many machine guns, and that many of the captured guns were turned
against the enemy.
The brigade referred to is the first brigade of the Czecho-Slovak army
formed in Russia principally out of Bohemian and Slovak prisoners of
war. During the old regime these volunteers formed merely Bohemian
units of the Russian army, but Minister of War Gutchkoff sanctioned the
formation of them into a separate Bohemian army which swore fidelity
to the provisional Bohemian government in Paris, and Minister Kerensky
apparently had full confidence in them, because he placed them in the
very forefront of the offensive which meant so much to the future of
Russia and to the entire cause of the Allies.
I beg to assure that soldiers of our race in the United States army
will render as good an account of themselves as their brothers in Russia.⁷
In the spring of 1918, Masaryk's compatriots in America re-
ceived good news from Prague. At a manifestation in the Czech
capital, the citizens openly expressed their aspirations for freedom
and even cheered Wilson as their champion. Ludvik Fisher, Ma-
20
MASARYK & AMERICA
saryk's indefatigable lobbyist, speaking for Czech-American or-
ganizations, again reminded Wilson of the existence of the
Czechoslovak independence movement.
Telegram of Czech-American organizations to Woodrow Wilson,
April 19, 1918:
A deep feeling of devotion to you who have given the world so much
moral strength to fight against the barbarous violence of the Austro-
German autocracy has always swayed the Bohemian people of the United
States and led them to stand by you and their new country and in the
present moment when the forces of light are in a death struggle with the
enemy of democracy on the Western battlefields of Europe, when the
democratic world is sacrificing everything to stem the flood of oppression
that threatens to engulf all free nations there comes the joyous news that
our brothers in Bohemia, our mother land, raised their voices at a man-
ifestation in Prague and in the name of the ten millions of Czecho-Slovaks
cheered Woodrow Wilson, the great President of this Republic, in the
firm hope that the ideals of freedom and self-determination of nations as
he expressed them will surely be the outcome of this terrible struggle.
Stirred to the very depths of our souls we too, the Bohemians of the
United States organized into the Bohemian National Alliance raise our
voices which we join to the voices of the Bohemian nation of the old
country to cheer for you and to say to you again we love and respect you,
your ideals which are also our ideals, even as to our brothers in Bohemia,
President Wilson is to us a bright star of hope of better days, a hope that
independence and freedom shall be the lot of our people united into the
Czecho-Slovak state.⁸
Attached to this telegram was a list of 13 Czech-American
organizations whose representatives signed the enthusiastic mes-
sage to the President. Wilson instructed his Secretary of State,
Robert Lansing, to convey his thanks to Ludvík Fisher and his
associates.
Telegram of Robert Lansing to Ludvík Fisher, April 12, 1918:
The President directs me to say that he is deeply touched by your
message of the nineteenth in which you voice the appreciation of your
fellow Czecho-Slovaks in the United States for the stand the President has
taken in advocacy of the rights of the human race to undominated control
of their own destinies. The presence among us of many thousands of your
fellow countrymen, who have made their home with us and become
assimilated with our national life, is proof not only of the welcome which
our commonwealth extends to such worthy elements, but of the sympathy
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
21
of the newcomers with the broad principles of democratic union upon
which this country builds up its national faith and of their desire to
become a helpful part of the enduring civic organization we have framed.
To all such the people of the United States hold out the hand of earnest
sympathy and gladly share in the aspirations which animate them and
their kindred in their old country.9
When Masaryk came to America he discussed his program in
a meeting with Czechs and Slovaks in Chicago on May 28, 1918.
In an unprepared, spirited speech he described his personal ex-
periences during the last years and presented an overview of his
revolutionary activities.
Masaryk's speech to Czechs and Slovaks in Chicago, reported by the
Czech-language newspaper Slavie on May 31, 1918:
I was in Germany when the war broke out. I wanted to go to Paris
and London to reconcile the Serbs and the Bulgarians and to win the
agreement of the English and French government for this reconciliation.
Suddenly the war started. I had not believed that the war was really
approaching; I expected a conflict, but much later. The war, in my re-
alization, would be terrible and therefore I was reluctant to believe that
it was coming. As the trains in Germany were reserved for the army, I
could not return promptly. I saw the German preparedness which made
me anticipate a terrible war.
Finally I returned. There was no political life in Bohemia. The par-
liament had been adjourned a long time ago, the government suppressed
all political activity after the outbreak of the war. Political parties existed
only nominally, not even their executive committees were allowed to
meet. Police spying was so pervasive that it sowed distrust among brothers
and created an atmosphere of general suspicion. The journals had to
publish whatever the police had forced upon them. Opposing journals
were persecuted.
I saw our soldiers when they were sent to the front. The population
of Prague accompanied them [to the trains] and in the countryside the
civilians rioted at the railway stations together with the soldiers. The
soldiers carried Czech emblems and flags, and soon we were to learn that
they were punished for that.
Then followed cruel persecution of the press, of people and asso-
ciations, especially the Sokols. The first victim fell in Moravia. The young
Sokol Kratochvil was condemned to death by shooting for carrying on
him the manifesto of the Russian commander Nicolai. He was followed
by a second and third victim, then by others. Our soldiers were punished
by death. They refused to fight and surrendered. The Czech regiments
were ordered decimated, the persecution of the people was intensified.
Many journals were banned, people were imprisoned, and we came into
22
MASARYK & AMERICA
possession of a list of persons earmarked for jail at any greater political
stirring.
We, the Representatives, could not meet and arrange a plan, to say
nothing of conducting resistance activity. All weapons were confiscated.
Resistance was unthinkable, revolution was out of the question because
the military machine was working relentlessly and made an organized
resistance movement impossible. Having no arms whatsoever, who could
make a revolution?
And yet we started a revolution and our soldiers did it in the first
place. They realized that the hour of final decision had come. In this I
see the great discipline and strength of our people and an assurance for
the future. For years in the past we had sung the praises of the Slav
program as the basis of our politics. In 1912 we sent medical doctors
and money to Serbia, and now we were supposed all of a sudden to go
and shoot the Serbians. The Czech soldier said No and his resistance was
felt all over Bohemia. That was the revolution, and it continued. We do
not know how many of our soldiers have been executed, only after the
war will we know.
Seeing all this I said to myself: you yourself must decide, you cannot
do less than those soldiers. I almost felt reproach for not having made
an earlier start. All this led me abroad. At the beginning of December
1914 I left for Italy, but I still wanted to return to put my affairs in order.
In Switzerland I learned that my return was no longer possible.
After due consideration I decided to try to organize all our colonies.
In Switzerland the Czechs, mostly workers, promptly declared themselves
against Austria and for a Czech Republic, and wished to enlist in the
Allied armies as a Czech Legion. Czechs in France, England, and Russia
had the same plans. And the Legions were being formed.
Now it was a question of a unifying program that could be approved
by our people at home. Our actions abroad will be politically significant
only if our people at home act in the same way. Unity at home and abroad
impresses others and gives us strength and courage. I have tried to unify
all the separate efforts. That has required hard work if only for mechanical
reasons. It has been difficult to maintain contact with the distant colonies
during the war, but the contact with the homeland has been still more
difficult. Anyone can imagine how it has been done. But all has gone
well, every colony has been assigned its special task.
America has been entrusted with financing the movement. My first
contacts with America concerned finances, after all any sacrifice can be
expressed in dollars and I have always believed that a dollar given is the
symbol of the purest sacrifice and should be [regarded as such]. War and
revolution cost money, therefore it is necessary to make sacrifices without
which the independence of the Czechoslovak nation would not be
possible.
That was in 1915. The organizing effort succeeded and then I pre-
sented the declaration against the Austrian government. A terrible blow
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
23
against the Slav cause was Bulgaria's decision to join Germany but I over-
came that blow. The next step was the need to organize an army, at first
in Russia. The beginnings were bad, but the results were encouraging.
At my departure from Moscow on March 7th, 50,000 beautiful, strong
Czech boys were prepared, waiting for their chance to go to France which
was the yearned-for aim of us all after the conclusion of the [separate]
peace by Russia.
[The move to France] was considered before and we agreed with the
French government that the [Czechoslovak] army should be transported
across America. I led the way and I hope that before long our soldiers
will be in France. After the first 50,000 another 50,000, already regis-
tered, will follow. There are 20,000 [Czech and Slovak] prisoners of war
in Italy and a good half of them are already fighting alongside the Italian
army.
In the present circumstances all this is a very definite anti-Austrian
program. An armed revolution cannot be undertaken at home but [our
compatriots] are informed of the events [abroad] and approve our actions.
Our unity has been until now, and will be in the future, the guarantee
of our successes.
The first recognition was given to us, as always, by generous France
in the time of the premiership of Briand who promised assistance to the
Czech people. When President Wilson sent his inquiry to the Allies con-
cerning their program, their response included, among other things, the
independence of the Czechoslovak nation. That was solemnly promised
by the Allies and we have the right to ask them to keep their promise.
And they will keep it.
Later Wilson stated the American program several times; not in a
definite fashion but in main outline. He expressed the idea of American
democracy according to Lincoln: government of the people, by the peo-
ple, and for the people that shall not perish from the earth. Wilson ex-
pressed what we desire: that no people should be forced to live under a
government which it neither wants nor recognizes. On this democratic
basis we all will be Americans. The last hour of all monarchs has struck.
A government of the people shall not perish from the earth!.
I am certain that without a free Bohemia there will be no free Amer-
ica. This is not talking big. Bismarck said: A master of Bohemia is the
master of Europe. There is deep truth in this statement. Our significance
is that of a bastion against Germany. If we will be free, the Poles, Yu-
goslavs, and [the Austrian] Italians and Romanians will be free, too. The
Habsburg state must disappear. What is Austria? Nine nations and one
dynasty which, assisted by army, bureaucracy and nobility, exploits all,
even the Germans and Hungarians. America has a choice; it can opt for
nine free nations or for one degenerated dynasty. Today it is commonly
known what Austria is. The Habsburg idea implies lack of reverence for
everything, including religion that has been twisted to nefarious purpose.
We Czechs are the real opposite of Austrianism and we must be free. That
24
MASARYK & AMERICA
will mean freedom also for the big nations, as even England and America
are endangered by Germany.
I decidedly refuse to share the fear of those timid people who see
a bad omen in the present German [military] successes. Even if we fail
and Austria survives, the advance of our nation is better assured than
before. Austria has learnt what Czech resistance means and because of
this resistance the Czech nation has much improved its reputation.
Not to be afraid, that is the main issue. We Czechs seem not to know
how strong we are. We are nine to ten million. Let us clench our teeth
and let us say: We won't yield! - and that will be the end of pessimism.
The attachment of the Czech and Slovak immigrants to Ma-
saryk in 1918 was matched by their devotion to President Wilson.
It was a genuine reverence, clad, as was the fashion of the time,
in a somewhat ornamental style and in an emotional, but sincere,
rhetoric. On July 4, 1918, the American Czechs and Slovaks or-
ganized what probably were their most joyful and extensive cel-
ebrations of American independence and sent a "solemn
declaration" to the White House.
Declaration of Czech and Slovak immigrants, addressed to the
American people and President Wilson, July 4, 1918:
We, loyal Czechoslovaks of America, bowing in reverent respect be-
fore the majesty of your people, bending our heads before the memory
of your greatest sons, Washington and Lincoln, stand with all the might
we possess behind you and your President, greeting in him your great
new morning.
We came here from the land of suffering and oppression. It is on this
account that we hailed America like a rising sun after the dark night of
humiliation. And she received us - poor, unknown, insignificant. She
received us, and her sun warmed us from the first moment we set our
foot on her soil - the big sun of a freer, happier life than that we had
lived in our oppressed native land.
We learned to love America, for we are the sons of the land which
in the twilight of history was the first in the world to arise and fight the
battle of democracy and self-determination of her people. We are the
sons of the land which shone like a great beacon light of truth and faith
in the life of the XVth Century. When the whole world slept we were
awake. And the democratic legions under our great leader of peasant
soldiery, Jan Zizka of Trocnov and Jirí of Podebrad, fought a desperate
battle for freedom against the German and Magyar violence and brutal
law of might.
We love this land - for the ideals of July 4, 1776, incorporated by
her great leaders into the law of life and written indelibly into the hearts
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
25
G
he Solemn
Declaration
of the Czechoslovak
People to the Republic
of the United States
of America and its
Great President,
Woodrow Wilson.
eloyal Gechoslovaksof
America, bowing in reverent
respect before the majesty of your
people. bending our heads before
the memory of your greatest sons,
Washington and Lincoln, stand
with all the might we possess be-
hind you and your President. greet-
ing in him your great new morning.
o
A declaration of the American Czechs and Slovaks addressed to Woodrow Wilson,
dated July 4, 1918. Woodrow Wilson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of
Congress.
26
MASARYK & AMERICA
of the nation by the blood and sacrifice of her sons; the ideals of de-
mocracy which Lincoln set before his united country cleansed of the stain
of slavery; those are the heritage of the glorious past and present of the
Czechoslovak people as well.
In our blood and in the beating of our hearts, we bore the sacred
law of freedom, democracy and brotherhood. It was on this account that
our hearts understood the soul of this Great Republic, and that our broth-
ers on the Labe, Vltava and Váh lifted to her their hands and tearful eyes
in the awful hour in which the bitter, tormenting fate wrote its threats
in their souls. And their appeals were not in vain, for over the vastness
of the oceans, over mountains and dark valleys of death there came to
the Czechoslovak land a voice like a bugle announcing victory, singing
a great Marseillaise of Life and Hope into their bitterness of disappoint-
ment and despair.
It was the voice of a man speaking the message of God's brightest
angel:
"The world must be made safe for Democracy! The nations
shall determine their own destinies. They shall rise from the
graves of centuries to do the work of God, which is the work
of man, in the language of their mothers and in the traditions
of their race."
Thus spoke the man - Woodrow Wilson. Thus, through him, spoke
the whole American Nation. Thus spoke God, who has His beginning in
the hearts of men and His end in the eternity of worlds and days.
Strengthened by the might of his glorious courage, our brothers in
the old country gave their death pledge, April 13, 1918, within the walls
of their ancient capital:
"And in firm, unshakable faith in the final victory of our most
sacred rights, in faith in the victory of justice, victory of right
over might, freedom over slavery, democracy over privilege,
and truth over falsehood, we raise our hands today, on the
threshold of New Era of world's history, and, by the dear mem-
ory of our fathers, before the eyes of the resurrected nation,
and at the graves of our fallen, in great harmony of our souls,
we promise for today and for all the future: we shall remain
where we have taken our stand. We will keep on till we win!"
Repeating this solemn pledge given by our brothers, having on our
lips the name of this country and her President, we too lift our hands
today, July 4, 1918, as we are gathered under the folds of the flag of this
Great Republic, and solemnly pledge ourselves to be loyal and true to
the government of the United States and its President.
This is our country. We are and will remain to be true to her in
laboring for her, true to her in her struggle, in her sufferings, true to the
grave.
LOBBYING FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE
27
Even as the forefathers of America followed Washington, we follow
you, our President. Let the millions of eyes of the children of America,
looking to you from all corners of this land with immeasurable love and
confidence, strengthen your soul and steel you to great deeds.
Millions of eyes of the suffering nations look to you over the oceans
- ten millions of our people in Europe, one million of sons and daugh-
ters of this land. And in their hearts rings the solemn pledge of faithful
allegiance to the country of our adoption, which, like a mother, took us
under her protecting roof. The farmers of green Texas, fertile Nebraska,
the miners of Pennsylvania and Colorado, the workers of Illinois and the
builders of great cities, people of Czechoslovak origin, Bohemian people
from forty eight states of the Starry Union, greet their new country in the
old glorious song of the Hussite Warriors for Democracy:
Ye Soldiers of our God and of His Law
Him ye shall pray to, Him adore
And He shall crown the fight with victory.
Tis He commands us, recking naught of death,
For love of neighbors to resign our breath
If need be, Courage, therefore, and be men!
Thus we stand here now. Simple, unblest with riches but strong in
the faith in our President, in the great American Nation, devoted to both
the very depths of our souls, today, on this eventful 4th of July, we let
our voices ring in thunder notes far east to the city over which rises the
cupola of the capitol, to Washington and its White House, sending our
hearts greetings:
Long live the American People!
Czechoslovaks in America
CHAPTER
THREE
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The perception of Masaryk as one of the most significant leaders
the Central European nations grew steadily stronger among
the American public in 1918. One important group of image mak-
ers, the journalists, sided with Masaryk from the beginning of his
visit to the United States, and their respect for the Central Euro-
pean visitor helped popularize not only Masaryk personally, but
also his political cause. The tone was set by an editorial on the
eve of Masaryk's arrival in Chicago.
The editorial "Welcome to Prof. Masaryk, published in the Chicago
Daily Tribune on May 4, 1918:
When the history of this war is written it will contain some inspiring
chapters devoted to the part played by Bohemia in the conquest of Prus-
sian imperialism. By Bohemia we mean the Bohemian people, a nation
which for centuries has maintained its moral and cultural integrity though
surrounded by perils and unfriendly pressures. Look at the map and realize
that the geographical location of Bohemia with Germany on the north,
Hungary on the east, Austria on the south, all neighbors ambitious for
power, tells the story of this unconquerable people at a glance.
Few realize how much the spirit of the Bohemians in America has
done to check enemy propaganda and stimulate loyalty to our cause
among the foreign born of our population. Few realize the courage it has
taken for Bohemians at home to oppose Austrian tyranny and keep up the
fight for Bohemian self-realization. And today Bohemian troops are fight-
ing with the Italians, while one of the most noteworthy conferences of
the year, just held at Rome, offers promise of an Italian-Slav rapproche-
ment which may do more to remove the Balkan threat to future peace
than anything yet hoped for.
It is, therefore, at a significant moment that America receives the
Bohemian patriot Masaryk. This learned and indomitable leader has es-
caped from Russia, whence the German influence has driven him. The
United States is honored in the presence of this statesman. He brings not
29
30
MASARYK & AMERICA
only the latest authoritative observation of the Russian situation but also
a knowledge of the Austro-Hungarian and Balkan complex which should
be of great value to our government and public in forming correct judge-
ment of events and right policies. Since the great war began he has been
an exile but a tireless worker in the allied cause. Americans do not realize
that the low blow struck from Russia at Germany, the Galician offensive
under Brussiloff in June, 1917 gained a considerable part of its force from
the Czechoslovak army organized from prisoners by Prof. Masaryk. Brus-
siloff said that these men, perfidiously abandoned by the Bolshevik-poi-
soned Russians, "fought in such a way that the world ought to fall on its
knees before them."
Bohemians to the number of 120,000 are prepared to fight again and
many already are fighting against Germany.
America welcomes this great leader of the staunch Bohemian people,
Thomas Garigue [sic] Masaryk. We feel sure he will feel at home among
Americans.
The sympathies of the academic world for Masaryk were ex-
pressed by the President of Chicago University, who welcomed
Masaryk on May 5, 1918.
Greetings of the President of Chicago University Harry Pratt Judson,
addressed to Masaryk, as recorded by the Chicago Daily Tribune, May
6, 1918, and by Slavie, May 7, 1918:
Professor Masaryk! On behalf of the universities of this country and
of American public I welcome you as the leader of a people that we know
and highly respect. I am happy to say, as I truthfully can, that there can
be no better citizens in America today than the Czecho-Slovaks. They are
loyal to the flag of these United States, and thousands of their sons and
brothers are fighting in France today for the common cause of justice and
humanity.
I believe that your work, Professor Masaryk, will be crowned with
the success it deserves. The ideals for which your people and mine are
contending are essentially the same. Those ideals are liberty and justice,
which the Bohemian people love above all things in the world. We wel-
come you most heartily and assure you that we, the Americans, will do
our utmost for the magnificent aim personified by you.
The scene of Masaryk's enthusiastic reception by an overjoyed
crowd in Chicago, vividly described by the press, was good proof
of Masaryk's popularity among his compatriots. The politicans in
Washington were reminded of his political stature. And Masaryk,
a man of action, but never a platform orator, was faced with the
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
31
need to speak at large public gatherings. He attempted to master
this new role with simple eloquence.
Masaryk's arrival in Chicago, as reported by Slavie on May 7, 1918:
Then came the most beautiful moment as the manly figure of our
heroic leader rose in the automobile. For a long while he was prevented
from speaking by an indescribable hurricane of enthusiastic and stormy
ovation which filled Michigan Avenue like the roar of the sea and was
carried to the distant streets of the inner city. Obviously moved by this
unexpected scene, Masaryk finally began speaking admist complete si-
lence while everyone present eagerly absorbed his every word.
Prof. Masaryk started in English, thanking Prof. Judson for his wel-
come. He recalled the past years when he had been invited by Chicago
University to deliver lectures on a subject which today fascinates the
whole educated world. "I should say," declared our leader, "that [your
invitation] was a clear case of political foresight on your part. You are a
constant reminder that real, sincere politics must be founded on science.
I endeavor always to put my political views on a sound, scientific basis,
on what science has taught me. Science is a truth, nothing more or less,
and political truth is democracy. That is what the nations of the world
are fighting for today - democracy.
Mr. President, you called us, the Czechoslovaks, good citizens of this
country and I assure you that we really are. We did not come here just
for a better existence, we came to seek freedom and democracy which
are expressed by the United States and its great President Woodrow
Wilson."
Prof. Masaryk then spoke in Czech to the tens of thousands of his
enthusiastic compatriots, saying:
"Brothers, Czechs and Slovaks, I do not know what to tell you as I
have already said much but I would like to mention one thing when we
are here among ourselves. It was said here that I came from the people
and went with the people, and I will tell you now how I got involved
in [the present] politics. You have been informed about the events at home
since the outbreak of the war. Parliament was suppressed to hinder us in
expressing our views, political parties and journals were likewise sup-
pressed, meetings were prohibited and we could not gather together to
discuss how to cope with the situation. At that time I was in Germany
and my intention was to travel to France and England. After the outbreak
of the war I returned to Prague and the first thing I saw was the opposition
of the Czech soldiers to military service. They resented going to war
against the Slavs, they protested. They did that of their own will, without
leaders, without any agitation, just by themselves. When I saw it I said
to myself: You, as a Representative, cannot do less! Therefore I went
abroad to do the same thing that the Czech soldiers had done: revolt
32
MASARYK & AMERICA
against Austria and the Habsburgs. That was the popular nature of my
politics.
The mendacious Czernin has declared that the Czechs do not support
the fight against Austria, that Czech mothers wish Austria's victory. I will
prove that Czernin is lying and that the opposite is the truth. I have
obtained letters of Czech mothers and I will quote from one of them
which is typical of the opinion in Bohemia. A Czech mother writes to
her son who became a prisoner of war in Russia: "Your father was buried
and so was your brother, and you are not yet in the Czech Army?" This
is how a Czech mother calls on her son to go and fight against the Habs-
burg Austria. This shows the strength of the Czech mothers, the signifi-
cance of our movement and the thinking of our people at home.
When I was departing from Russia I took leave of 50,000 Czech
soldiers who are to be dispatched to France as soon as possible. It is my
task to speed up their transport. Before long we will have another 50,000
Czechoslovak soldiers who will be transported to France. That will be
the best response to Czernin's lies!
Today we completely mistrust the Habsburgs, we do not want to have
anything to do with them, we do not want to hear a word about them.
We want our due: total freedom and an independent Czechoslovak state!"
Official Washington received Masaryk as an expert on Russia
who, it was hoped, would throw some new light on the enigmatic
developments in that huge, disorganized country. His idea of psy-
chological warfare that made use of the antagonism between the
Slavic peoples of Austria and the German-oriented government
was, however, not always understood by the diplomats.
Memorandum written by Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant Sec-
retary of State, on May 16, 1918:
I lunched to-day with Professor Masaryk, the Bohemian patriot, at
Dick Crane's.
His idea of Russia, whence he has just arrived, is far from encour-
aging. He says that there is no possibility of the Russian people assuming
any aggressive actions toward the Germans; that Germany is treating Rus-
sia in a very masterful way; that she is appropriating the Eukranian [sic]
and southern districts to her own uses and will arrange to get all of the
food and supplies now in those districts for herself. He does not know
to what extent the supplies exist. He feels that the Germans will not enter
either Petrograd or Moscow for two reasons: first, that being political
centers they would incur political opposition for having broken flagrantly
the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and, second, that if they were in possession of
either or both places they would immediately become responsible for
the feeding and supplying of the population there resident which they
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
33
would be unable to do. Their failure to do so, would be an immediate
cause of antagonism as the Bolshevik now are blamed by the people there
resident for the failure to provide food. Such provision is impossible alike
for Germany and the Bolshevik and Germany can only profit by the an-
tagonism to the Bolshevik on the part of the remainder of the population.
He feels that the spirits which are moving toward independence in
various parts of the old Russian Empire, are hopeful signs but says that
there is little hope that these independent separate movements will be
co-ordinated.
He says that the Red Guard are a source of great embarrassment to
the Bolshevik; that the people in other parts of Europe and in this country
do not contribute to the Bolshevik any true, logical property and contends
that in Bolshevism there is a real thought and a real idea; that the Red
Guard are simply violent anarchists who masquerade under the cloak of
Bolshevism and do the cause great harm. He says, further, that the only
thing on which the Russian people are united is in establishing inde-
pendent governments, but, that the objects and purposes of the estab-
lishment differ in each locality. He likened Russia to a great hospital in
which there were a number of sick patients - the patients, for the
purpose of the analogy being the independent movements for government
- in which hospital the directing genius would order the same kind of
medicine for all of the patients, prescribing quinine for each on Monday
and some other medicine for all of them on Tuesday.
Butler Wright, Joe Grew, Julius Lay and Basil Miles were there. Grew
recited the new Russian litany/in the words: "Glory to God on high, on
earth peace without annexation or indemnities!!"
Masaryk is particularly interested in spreading propaganda amongst
the Checko-Slavs and fomenting them to revolt against Austria. The
scheme seems to me impractical. There is little utility in propaganda
particularly under a strongly centralized government, where most of the
men are in the army, unless it is backed up by some strength and is given
some force in the way of military help. Propaganda in itself can do no
harm but it can lead to no tangible results.
Professor Masaryk feels that the situation is fraught with the greatest
danger to the Allies and expects an early offensive in great force on the
Italian front and fears the result of it. He says that Germany is conducting
a very dangerous propaganda in Switzerland with the object of discon-
necting Italy from the Allies and so estranging them that they will not
co-operate properly and then administer a severe defeat upon Italy so
that the central powers can turn their whole attention and their combined
strength against France. 10
In the press the main features of Masaryk's political portrait
were drawn quite clearly. A good characterization of Masaryk was
34
MASARYK & AMERICA
published on the occasion of his visit to New York at the end of
May.
From the article "Embers of Revolt in Austria-Hungary" published
in the New York Times on May 26, 1918:
Dr. Thomas G. Masaryk, President of the Czecho-Slovak National
Council, which is also a provisional republican Government for Bohemia,
recently arrived in Washington to lead the movement. His career reads
like that of some potent international figure in our own days of revolution.
He has risked his life many times for his principles. He began life as a
blacksmith's apprentice, but rose to be Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Prague before the war. He is now recognized as the foremost
living Slavonic scholar. He early became interested in the democratic
movement in Bohemia and soon became its leader. He was elected a
member of the Austrian Parliament, but gave it up to devote himself to
the political education of his nation. Dr. Masaryk opposed Austria-Hun-
gary, and at the outbreak of the war he was sentenced to death and all
his property was seized. He escaped to Paris, where he founded the
Czecho-Slovak National Council, which now has branches in all the allied
countries.
After Dr. Masaryk's escape his daughter was imprisoned in revenge;
she was formerly a settlement worker in this country, and her release was
finally brought about through the protest of American women's societies.
In Russia Dr. Masaryk organized the Czecho-Slovak prisoners into an
army of 50,000, which he expects to see transported to France. Some of
the men are already at Vladivostok. The main problem is shipping. Dr.
Masaryk has just come from Japan, where he entered into negotiations
for the transportation of the Czecho-Slovaks to this country and is en-
couraged at the prospect. As a demonstration to the people of this country
of the ardor of the men of Bohemia for the democratic cause, Dr. Masaryk
is desirous of seeing the army cross this country on its way to France.
The editorial "Dr. Masaryk," published in the New York Times on
May 27, 1918:
Eyewitness of the impressive parade of Czech, Slovak, Jugoslav, Pol-
ish, and Russian societies which passed in review on Saturday night before
the balcony where stood Thomas G. Masaryk, head of the Provisional
Government of the Czechoslovak revolution, might have perceived that
the distinguished statesman and scholar who is now visiting the men and
women of his race in this country was something more than the leader
of a single nationality. Those who from the galleries of Carnegie Hall
shouted "Long Live our first President!" expressed what is rather more
than a probability, if the defeat of the Central Powers is as sweeping as
is hoped; but in the demonstrations of half a dozen Slav races for the
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
35
leader of one it was possible to recognize Masaryk as the emblem of the
new Slav spirit.
The old Pan Slavism, which, despite the collaboration of many hon-
orable and sincere men of liberal tendencies, served in effect little but
the interests of the Romanoff dynasty and imperialistic Russia, died with
the passing of that dynasty and the collapse of that Russia. Yet these times
which see Russia fallen from her high estate have seen also the coming
together of the westernmost Slav nations, the Czechoslovaks, the Jugo-
slavs, and the Poles, who have found a basis for alliance not only in kindred
blood and kindred culture, but in their identical demands for national
unity and freedom from Hapsburg and Hohenzollern. The western Slav
nations, those who have been most affected by Latin culture, who have
had to maintain their national individuality by hard struggle against heavy
odds, have based their democracy in education and in the cultivation of
an intelligent patriotism. So while Russia, endowed suddenly with a com-
plete liberty for which her people were unprepared, stumbles and falls
in the clutch of the German, the western Slavs are only the more deter-
mined, the more bitterly opposed to alien domination, the more firmly
resolved to end German rule by complete victory in this war. And Russia,
trying hard to be democratic, is looking to the westward to get new
inspiration from the spirit of the Slav races who are fighting for freedom
and who know what to do with it.
It is this sort of Slavic consciousness, a Pan Slavism, if it be that,
which has no imperialistic ambitions, no desire to interfere with other
nations, that is represented by Masaryk; for Bohemia has led the other
nations in the fight against the Germans, and Masaryk is the leader of
Bohemia. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler compared him, not without reason,
to Mazzini and Venizelos, and the message which he gave to New York
might have been spoken by either of them. "Democracy is political truth"
- this is the utterance of a man whose faith is democracy and who is
seeing it work out in practice among his people. His demand for liberty
was not for the Czechoslovaks alone, but for all the multitude of peoples
in Eastern Europe who have been given over to the Germans by Russia's
downfall.
In the face of this position of the westernmost and most cultured
Slav nations, now taking the lead of their race from fallen Russia, what
becomes of the Slav peril which was such a terror to the Germans at the
beginning of the war? The only peril left, from the German point of view,
is this - that the Slavs may win the right to rule themselves instead of
being ruled by Germans.
On May 27, 1918, Masaryk, certainly remembering his lectures
of the summer of 1902, spoke at the University of Chicago. This
time he presented himself as a revolutionary leader with human-
36
MASARYK & AMERICA
istic goals. The only preserved record of his lecture was made by
a Czech-American reporter.
Masaryk's speech at Chicago University, reported by Slavie on May
31, 1918:
The program of the Allies is quite different from Germany's program.
The Allies are fighting not only for democracy but also for the rights of
all small nations. German imperialism aims at dominating all other na-
tions. This German idea of imperialism is identical to the imperialism of
the old Roman Empire. The Kaiser believes that his ancestors became
emperors by God's grace and that God installed him as their successor.
This idea is the medieval idea that there must be only one Emperor
and one nation in Europe and that this nation is Germany. This is the
German imperialism. For this reason the Hohenzollerns and the Habs-
burgs consider themselves representatives of the European people.
The Allies support the demands of small nations and this attitude is
quite correct. The task of the Allies is to organize the small nations and
Russia. One of these small nations is the Czechoslovak nation. The geo-
graphical situation of this nation in itself shows why it took the side of
the Allies. It has been said that the master of Bohemia is the master of
Europe. We have defended ourselves against Germany for many centuries
and the Germans declare through their Mommsens that the only way of
dealing with us is by eliminating us, Germanizing us. They say they have
to crush the hard Czech skulls. Yes, we have hard skulls, we are not
willing to succumb.
Before opening its way to Baghdad, Germany must first solve the Slav
problem, and the Czechs are the first to be dealt with. If the Czechs can
withstand the German pressure, the Yugoslavs, Poles, and Italians can
withstand it too; we have united ourselves with these peoples to be able
to resist more forcefully. No one should think that Austria disagrees with
Germany and would be willing to turn against Germany in any way. In
this war Austria cooperates with Germany in complete harmony, Austria
is the German avantgarde.
America joined the Allies. The American idea is the democratic idea.
America recognizes the rights of all nations. This is manifested in its
constitution, in the speeches of President Wilson, and in the famous
statement of Lincoln: "Government of the people, by the people, and for
the people.
The Germans do not intend to rely on their own strength after the
war, they want to rule and exploit other nations. We Slavs are peaceful,
but at present we are for the war to the victorious end. I know the teaching
of Tolstoy and many times I have argued with him about the impossibility
of his principle of non-resistance against evil. And as I do not believe in
this principle, I am for the war.
On our part the aim of this war is the fight for humanity. The principle
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
37
of humanity must be applied; the principle of unity, compassion, and
love of neighbor must be realized. I came to the conclusion that the basic
question is: Jesus or Caesar. Caesar, as described by Mommsen, is a rude,
imperious, absolute dictator. I will always prefer Jesus and humanity.
These are the ideals of the Slavs and I believe that they will become the
ideals of the German people against whom we fight, after they have
recognized the true value of humanity. We must bring the German people
to this aim and we will do it.
How was Masaryk seen by his contemporaries in America in
1918? The impression he made in his personal appearances has
been recorded by American journalists.
From the article "Lighting the Slav Bomb in Austria" by H.F. Sher-
wood, published in the New York Tribune on June 2, 1918:
What was there about the man which had made him such a popular
hero? Was it his magnetic presence? The spare man who stood before
them was sixty-eight years old. A thin gray mustache and beard scarcely
hid the sensitive lips. The fine contour of his head was easily followed,
for his hair was a thin fringe. There he stood, in somber evening dress,
the color mounting to his cheeks occasionally as he glanced through his
glasses out over the tumultuous throng, a quiet, scholarly looking man.
Perhaps he possessed oratorical powers which would sway men as
an artist swings his brush.
He began slowly in a low tone of voice. It rose a little as he pro-
ceeded, but seldom did it take on the forceful tones of the trained and
confident orator. He was never at a loss, however, for a word. Occasionally
he stroked his face thoughtfully, passing his hand from his eyes downward
over his mouth to his chin. That seemed strange for a speaker in Carnegie
Hall, where it is difficult enough to be heard under any circumstances.
Evidently he was not striving for oratorical effect. In fact, what he said
smacked of the scholar in the study. He was not a great speechmaker such
as we expect in a democracy to be. Only once did he exhibit his power
over his audience. For a moment he addressed those before him in his
and their native tongue. He spoke with the same slow, careful choosing
of words. Suddenly raising his arm to a horizontal position, he pointed
straight out with the index finger. A single sentence accompanied this
gesture. It was as if a conductor had raised his baton and his chorus had
risen to its feet in front of him. The great audience before him rose as
one man and stood in serried ranks, obedient to his single word.
Was his message the key to his popularity? It seemed as if he delivered
a simply told tale. It was his idea of why the war could not be won for
the Allies unless Austria-Hungary was dismembered, and the different
small nations comprising it each had an opportunity for freedom such as
38
MASARYK & AMERICA
10 Mr. Cred in remombrance
T. S. Mastric
MAR, 16. Monamb
Masaryk among the volunteers in the Czechoslovak Army Camp in Stamford,
Conn., in September 1918. The dedication is to American journalist George Creel,
who was chairman of the Committee on Public Information. Photograph from
the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
39
common
40
MASARYK & AMERICA
America possesses, founded upon the principles of the Declaration of
Independence.
From the article "The New Masters of Siberia," published in the
New York Sun on July 14, 1918:
The head of the council and idol of all the Bohemians and Slovaks
is a slight, scholarly and rather frail appearing man of perhaps 60, with
remarkably alert and perceptive eyes. He speaks literally perfect English,
quietly and (from choice, not from difficulty) slowly. He has lectured in
this country at the University of Chicago and elsewhere; and Mrs. Masaryk
is American by birth.
It is said of him that in boyhood he was apprenticed to be a black-
smith, and that in 1877 he threw himself into a river at Leipsic to rescue
a woman from drowning. Nothing about his physical aspect suggests such
a history now. But he had an exciting and adventurous time of it in
escaping, first from Austria-Hungary to Allied territory at the beginning
of the war, and more recently from Russia to this country.
He had been proscribed by the Austrian Imperial Government, and
would have been executed if he had been caught. As it was, his property
was confiscated and his daughter, Miss Alice Masaryk, imprisoned. Her
release was procured through energetic action by American women's
societies, to which she was known for social service work she had done
in Chicago.
When Breckinridge Long wrote his second memorandum
dealing with Masaryk, the United States had already recognized
Masaryk's movement as the de facto government of Czechoslo-
vakia. The subjects of the conversation between Long and Masaryk
were economic assistance and the situation of the Czechoslovak
Legion in Russia. Masaryk used the opportunity to reemphasize
his concept of the independence of small nations as a necessary
and useful principle of international order.
Memorandum written by Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant Sec-
retary of State, on September 17, 1918:
Tonight Dr. Masaryk came to my home at 9:30 at my request for a
conference. My object was to direct his attention to McCormick instead
of confining his attention to Baruch. My conception of the President's
plan is that McCormick, Baruch and Hurley should co-operate. Baruch
seems to have gotten started first and to have, either intentionally or
accidentally, eliminated everyone else. I tried to steer Masaryk to Mc-
Cormick and told him that when he received his money from this Gov-
ernment it would be necessary for him to co-operate with McCormick in
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
41
spending it; and that Baruch could buy but that he, with McCormick's
approval, would have to pay for the purchases intended for the Czechs.
I tried to get the President's plan working a little better than it appears
to be working now.
After we had finished that he talked at length about his Czechs, their
distress in the Volga and Ekaterinberg districts, the preponderance there
of German and Austrian prisoners, the state of physical exhaustion of the
Czechs and their need for moral and physical support. It is all borne out
by our cables of to-day's and yesterday's receipts.
About the President's answer to the Peace Proposal of Austria, he was
enthusiastic. He characterized it as "mise en scene".
He then took up Germany, her 80,000,000 of population of German
stock and the 160,000,000 of other than German stock she ruled -
Austrians, Bohemians, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Rou-
manians and fragments of Italy and France. He likened the non-German
population to the negro of America, in that they were the slaves and
servants of the Germans. He argued that the dismemberment of Austria
and the isolation of Germany by the establishment around her of small
independent states - Poland, Bohemia, Roumania, etc., would remove
all cause of war from Europe by releasing those 160,000,000 of peoples
for independent and constructive work instead of keeping them repressed
and under hostile influences.
He said that the solution of the future peace of the world was now
possible and the scene of the real struggle lay between the Baltic and the
Bosporus because Germany would evacuate Belgium and give up Alsace-
Lorraine (not to France but as an independent state), and that if the
national inspirations and human rights of the peoples of the east and
south of Germany were realized there could be no more trouble.
He denied that the history of the world proved that small nations
could not exist and cited Europe with 27 nations (not including the
German states) only seven of which, Russia, Germany, Austria, France,
England, Italy and Spain, were large ones.¹¹
Masaryk's last speech in America, shortly before his return
home as the elected president of the new state, was delivered at
the Lawyers Club in New York. Masaryk spoke about his own feel-
ings, about the reconstruction of Europe and about American as-
sistance to the European nations. This little-known speech shows
Masaryk at his best as the champion of cooperation among
democracies.
Masaryk's speech at the Lawyers Club in New York on November
16, 1918:
My American friends, not only to-day but sometime since I have been
42
MASARYK & AMERICA
asked, "How do you feel, now that Germany and Austria are defeated;
how do you feel being the head of a new government and state? You must
feel very well. You must be happy."
I do not know whether I am happy, and I could not describe my
feelings. I have the feeling of responsibility. I should say I have not the
time to rejoice because I know I stand before a huge problem, and I am
conscious of the responsibility, not only for my people but for all our
nations with whom we will be in union and co-operation. Not one of us
must fail. That is what I feel, and I am sure that all our nations in the
East feel the same.
The task of this war, the aim of future peace, is to restore Eastern
Europe for those who know history. I can say in one word what is to be
done. The old Eastern question is to be solved. I mean by that, if we
speak of reconstruction in France, in England, in Italy and Belgium, there
is nothing to be reconstructed. There must be, of course, rebuilt what
has been annihilated and wasted - buildings, churches, villages - but
France has her own institutions, her own civilization, her government,
her state, her policy. Not so in Poland or in Czecho-Slovakia or with the
South Slavs. We have not only to rebuild but to create. We have to form
a state. We have to settle the boundaries. We have to establish new gov-
ernments; find the best form of government and administration, and we
must lay the foundation for future civilization. That is only in the East
of Europe where this reconstruction work is waiting for the workers of
foreign nations and for workers of Europe and the new nations who are
willing to help. The aim of this war is that these nations which have been
oppressed by Prussia, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and by old Russia - all
these nations must be liberated. You have a peculiar zone of smaller
nations going from Finland down to Greece - eighteen in all - and
all of these eighteen nations must be reconstructed, liberated and the
foundation of future peace must be laid here. That is the great task.
We must have a free Poland. That means not only like the Germans
wish to have it - the part of Russian Poland - but of course Austrian
Poland and German Poland too. Not only a free Poland; we must have a
free Czecho-Slovakia. We must have a free and united Rumania; we must
have a free and united Jugo-Slovakia [sic]. The Italians of Austria-Hungary
- excuse me if I speak of Austria-Hungary, that, is of the past - I say,
the Italians must be redeemed. And then the nations in Western Russia,
the Balkans - all these nations must be free. On what principle? The
principle of democracy. That means on the principle of nationality also.
The principle of nationality is not a kind of modern European Chauvinism.
No. Nationality means something quite different. It is the endeavor of
every nation — I say of every individual man - to unite with all mankind.
We don't strive only for the uniting of smaller nations, but at the same
time we are working for true internationalism. We do not like to have a
Chinese wall around these liberated nations, but we say - and that is
our first national platform - the nation is the natural order of mankind,
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
43
not the State of Europe - the European State. Take Prussia, Austria, the
old Czaristic regime, wherever you look it is a state of dynasties, and that
is the practical dynasty state — an autocracy. We wish to have a demo-
cratic state and such a state can only be founded on the nations. Not a
dynasty any more; the nations are the real aim of administrative work.
That is the new task in Europe. Mankind, as your President has declared,
must be liberated and President Wilson says that is an American principle.
Yes: but not only American, it is the principle of all nations and of all
mankind. We accept it and we will live according to this noble general
principle.
You speak, my dear friends, of helping us and, as my neighbor to the
left expressed it, you must help by cash. That is true in some sense, I say
to some extent. But it is not only money which governs and rules nations
and governments, which shapes the true relations of all mankind, it is
the heart which unites nations and all mankind. I am happy to say I found
this heart here in the United states, and I am happy to use this occasion
now to thank you American citizens for the sympathy you have shown
not only to my nation but to all the nations who have been oppressed
and who fought with you for liberty and freedom. Your government, your
President, and the whole nation of the United States helped us and with
cash. I can tell you that yesterday I signed a document giving us a loan.
It is therefore not only sympathy but practical sympathy which your
government and your people have shown to us. Of course, I know America
well enough to know that you like to help if a man helps himself too.
Be sure, American friends, we won't bother you in vain. What we can do
ourselves, we will do, and if we come and ask for help you can be sure
that we need it, and as I told you we will do our best to help ourselves
quickly.
I suppose I dare say our nation showed that we know how to help
ourselves. Under the most indescribable circumstances we have formed
an army. We have revolted against Austria-Hungary, and though I am hum-
ble enough, I dare say, my American friends, that it was our nation and
its revolution in Austria-Hungary which brought about this downfall of
Austria-Hungary. Be sure of it, we won't ask your help - I repeat it -
if we can help ourselves.
One of the speakers pointed to the fact that it is our duty - and I
presume it is the duty of the National Government - to destroy anarchy,
not to let anarchy grow. Yes, that is true. I know, and I am going home
now thinking all the while what to do. I have a plan. I feel my respon-
sibility that our country may show that freedom is not anarchy. I do not
say that I will manage by repression; no, gentlemen. I suppose the best
means to do away with some of the mistakes of freedom is to have more
freedom. Yes, freedom in every country, in every nation must develop.
No nation is free yet. We are growing. Democracy is in the very beginning.
I imagine democracy is not older than 200 years, whereas autocracy has
had thousands and thousands of years to develop and organize itself.
44
MASARYK & AMERICA
Democracies are in the beginning, and I know these nations in the East
are now in the beginning of their democratic era. We will be careful,
and I would say we will be sensible enough not to misuse liberty; and
so I see before me the great task of working in that way with our gov-
ernment, that our republic be a member of the European peoples and of
all mankind.
It is not any more a question of German Mittel-Europa as has been
pointed out. No: we all have now the problem of liberating mankind.
Mankind as a unit, as a whole, must be organized and the sense of this
war is what those people who provoked the war had no idea it would
be. We say too, unite the nations closer and unite all mankind. We in
Bohemia and Slovakia — I may point to this geographical fact, a kind of
a symbol if you like - we are the nearest to the United States. If you
come from the West to Europe you will find after your friends in France
and England and then Germany - the first nation which loves your nation
is Bohemia. Go a step farther and you will find the Poles; you will find
the Rumanians; you will find the South Slavs. All these nations look to
you as their friend. I feel like that. I feel that I am at home though not
a citizen of your noble nation. I may finish this my improvization - I
did not know that I would have to speak - I may finish with the assurance
that my nation as well as all other nations - the Poles, the Rumanians,
the South Slavs, and the Italians, now redeemed, are thankful to you, to
your Government and to your President.
You promised help. My American friends, I should say the aim we
have, and you can help us, is a very interesting task. With a fair knowledge
of Europe and of this European question you can make much. Your po-
sition is unique in this war. I take it from a practical, so to say, human
standpoint. You are not in Europe. You have no territorial aims and you
cannot have them. Every nation in Europe must know and does know that
it is the principle of democracy you have been fighting for and you are
standing for. It is a wonderful thing for a great nation to fight and work
for a great principle. If it has been said "Noblesse oblige," I would say
a democracy obliges, and democracy obliges you, my friends. You must
help us. I do not ask you to help us - you must! It is your duty because
you are and must be the best democrats and we will join you in
democracy.¹²
Masaryk left New York on November 20, 1918, never to return.
A newspaper report described his departure and recorded his fare-
well message.
The article "Dr. T.G. Masaryk Sails," published in the New York
Times on November 21, 1918:
Among the passengers who sailed for Europe yesterday was Dr.
MASARYK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
45
Thomas G. Masaryk, President of the Czechoslovak Republic, who was
accompanied by his daughter, Miss Olga Masaryk, and Jaroslav Cisar.
The President of the new republic wore a gray overcoat, soft hat to
match, and a pepper-and-salt suit. He said that, from the port at which
he arrived in Europe, he would start almost immediately for Paris, and
go from there to Switzerland. He expects to reach Prague, the Czecho-
slovak capital, in three weeks where he will go before the Assembly and
take the oath of office. Before the ship, on which he sailed, left her pier
at noon, Dr. Masaryk said:
"Before leaving this country I wish to say a word of special
acknowledgment and gratitude to the press of America. It is
the truly democratic spirit of the American press which I
learned to understand and appreciate. I am greatly indebted
to it for the help so generously given to me in my endeavor
to bring before the American people the political problem of
my own and the other small nations of mid-Europe."
"I do not feel entitled to address the whole American nation,
but I trust to be permitted to say through the press that our
nation will always be grateful to America for her warm and
sincere sympathy with our cause. Our new republic will for-
ever consider the great American commonwealth her elder
sister."
"May the friendship and the community of interest of the two
democracies, in co-operation with the other democracies of
the world, furnish a firm basis for the establishment of a new
order in a transformed world."
CHAPTER
FOUR
MASARYK AND AMERICAN IDEALS
A
merica meant more to Masaryk than the powerful, prosperous
country whose entry into the war turned the scales in favor
of the Allies. Masaryk regarded America as a spiritual force. The
year 1918 was the culmination of his personal experiences with
American political thinking. Working in close contact with Amer-
ican journalists, scholars, diplomats, and statesmen, he now saw
more clearly than before the basic similarities between American
traditions and the democratic aspirations of oppressed European
nations. The relevance of American ideals for the reconstruction
of Europe became one of the most frequent themes of his
speeches, interviews, articles, and official memoranda.
From Masaryk's speech at the American Unitarian Association in
Boston, reported by the Christian Science Monitor on May 21, 1918:
Now the democracy evolved by President Wilson, whereby the small
nations are recognized as forming part of one international democracy,
is the direct converse of the theory of the Central Empires. It embodies
the ideas of religious freedom and humanity. It aims to organize all man-
kind, and relies upon an agreement of all nations great and small; and
while Germany bases her whole policy upon force and militarism, the
democratic nations will not allow it, except as a defensive measure.
History tells us that while many small nations have arisen, only four
or five big ones have developed. History is not for the suppression of the
small nations. And under the newest theory of democracy that springs
from the American people, you must recognize the small nation just as
you recognize the individual. That is what President Wilson emphasizes
when he speaks of the equality of all nations.
It is the American idea of a liberated mankind, that nations should
not be forced to live under a sovereignty against their will. They should
be allowed to seek refuge in the equality of nations which is preached
47
48
MASARYK & AMERICA
by President Wilson, which was preached by President Lincoln and which
we regard as the real Kingdom of God.
Masaryk addressing the American public in an interview published
by the New York Times on May 26, 1918:
Think of your time of struggle, when Washington was hard-pressed.
Think what it meant to you when France came to your aid. That is what
we ask of you today, to come to our help, and at the same time to take
a step that will lead to the defeat of Germany.
Now is the greatest opportunity in the history of the world to make
a stroke for democracy and against imperialism by freeing the peoples
of Austria-Hungary and of Eastern Europe from domination by foreign
races. A peace aimed to give these peoples their long-sought rights is the
only one that can endure, because it will rest on justice. It is an oppor-
tunity to duplicate your own great Revolution and its benefits many times
over.
Masaryk was in Pittsburgh, meeting with compatriots and
other Slavic groups, when he received the news of an official
declaration by the American government which was the first step
toward the diplomatic recognition of his movement. In his re-
sponse he spoke of "Americanization" as a welcome and bene-
ficial process.
Masaryk's statement in Pittsburgh, reported by the Pittsburgh Daily
Dispatch on May 31, 1918:
I am happy to note the recognition of the United States Government
given by today's declaration of the Secretary of State telling that the Gov-
ernment of the United States has earnest sympathy with the national as-
pirations of the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs. Yes, we accept with
joy this declaration, the more so because, though being Czecho-Slovaks
or Jugo-Slavs by birth, we all, even I for my part, can say we are Americans
already. And if you speak of Americanization today, there is an Ameri-
canization going on all over the world, because all nations must accept
the principle of liberty proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence,
proclaimed by Washington, by Lincoln, by Wilson and by all Americans.
Yes, if we are here in the United States and rejoice in the principles
of the Government of this country, we hope that soon there will be not
only the United States of America, but a united mankind of all nations,
great and small.
Masaryk's formal request for recognition was submitted to the
State Department in a detailed memorandum at the end of August
MASARYK AND AMERICAN IDEALS
49
1918. A whole section of this memorandum was devoted to the
meaning of the American recognition which Masaryk, for specific
reasons, regarded as more significant than the earlier recognition
by France and England.
From Masaryk's memorandum "The Recognition of The Czechoslo-
vak National Council and of the Czechoslovak Army," dated August 31,
1918:
We desire the recognition by the United States for reasons of prin-
ciple: we consider the great American republic to be the mother of mod-
ern democracy, and therefore her recognition is of special value to us.
I would especially point to the fact that the development of American
democracy out of the church organization (the well-known works of
Borgeaud, Jellinek, etc.) to us Czechs must be sympathetical; the history
of Bohemia since John Huss and the Hussite movement up to the present
is permeated with a strong religious element, which brings us into a close
spiritual relationship not only with England (the relation of Huss to Wy-
cliff) but also with America. For a long time America has been to us the
practical ideal of freedom - more so, that more than a million of our
compatriots found their new homes in this country.
We invoked the principles of the Declaration of Independence for
our revolution: on their basis the United States have given their recog-
nition to different revolutionary movements - and we are convinced
that there is not and cannot be a more just case before the political forum
of the world than our case against the Hapsburgs. The United States simply
cannot accept Austrianism, for that is a denial and a contradiction of the
Declaration of Independence and of the American ideals as formulated
by the best men of America. President Wilson in his second Inaugural
Address (March 5th, 1917) declared that the American principles (the
principles "in which we have been bred") are the "principles of liberated
mankind" and that "the essential principle of peace is the actual equality
of nations" - that "governments derive all their just power from the
consent of the governed," and that "no other power should be supported
by the common thought, purpose or power of the family of nations." And
in his statement on Russia (June 9th, 1917) we read that "the people
must be forced under no sovereignty under which it does not wish to
live." America and Europe have to choose between the liberation of seven
oppressed nations and the degraded, medieval Hapsburg dynasty, cov-
ering its crimes with the sacrilegious pretention of being a chosen in-
strument of God.
13
After the recognition by the U.S. government had been
granted, Masaryk, speaking with a reporter, explained his situation
and the importance of the American decision.
50
MASARYK & AMERICA
Masaryk's statement on the American recognition, published in the
New York Times on September 8, 1918:
The recognition of the Czechoslovak nation by the United States we
appreciate very much
because of the position of the United States as
the oldest and greatest democracy. That is the emotional side. But the
recognition has also its practical meaning.
This war has brought forth quite new international and diplomatic
relations and situations. One of the peculiarities springing out of this
happens to concern myself. As a private man I would be Commander in
Chief of a big army, in fact of three big armies. I have to negotiate with
the Governments at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The United
States promises to send our boys help - the question arises to whom
shall the United States send it, to a private enterprise, and to me as head
of that enterprise or to a regular military force?
None of us Czechoslovaks thought of self-aggrandizement. From the
first our efforts were to fight the Germans and Austrians in their attempt
to occupy Russia. We made our resistance felt, and this practical reason
and the new international situation have been the inducements for the
countries at war with Germany to recognize us. Besides, America was
herself evolved out of revolution, so we could naturally expect America
would appreciate our struggle for freedom and liberty.
And now with the recognition, the help which the United States
promised us becomes direct - is legalized. Furthermore, as all the Allies
depend to a great extent on America, the recognition of the United States
is of the highest practical value. The great effect on our plans is not in
any change in them, for I do not see any notable ones, but in the firmness
that is given them, the promise that our national purpose is to be realized.
The American Declaration of Independence, mentioned in the
memorandum of August 31, 1918, was considered by Masaryk to
be increasingly meaningful toward the end of the war for its sym-
bolic value and as a practical appeal to resist oppression. In Oc-
tober 1918, Masaryk prepared the Czechoslovak Declaration of
Independence, which was clearly inspired by the American dec-
laration of 1776. The Czechoslovak declaration (whose official
version is in English) was drafted by Masaryk, edited with the
assistance of several American friends, and released by Masaryk
on October 18, 1918, as the final solemn act of his revolutionary
movement. The acceptance of American ideals, expressed by Ma-
saryk in his draft, was slightly amended, but remained substantially
unchanged, in the preliminary text and in the final version of the
Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence.
MASARYK AND AMERICAN IDEALS
51
From Masaryk's Czech draft of the Czechoslovak Declaration of
Independence:
We accept the democratic principles of America and France; we ac-
cept the American principles as laid down by president Wilson: the prin-
ciples of liberated mankind - of the actual equality of nations - and
of governments deriving all their just powers from the consent of the
governed. These are the principles of Lincoln, of the Declaration of In-
dependence and of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. For
these principles the Czech nation shed its blood in the memorable Hussite
Wars at a time when America was still unknown; in this war our nation
is again shedding its blood for these principles on the side of America,
France, Belgium, Great Britain, Serbia, Russia, Italy and Japan.
From the preliminary text of the Czechoslovak Declaration of In-
dependence, sent to Secretary of State Lansing:
We accept the modern democratic principles of America and France;
we accept the American principles as laid down by President Wilson: the
principle of liberated mankind - of the actual equality of nations -
and of governments deriving all their just power from the consent of the
governed. We accept these principles of Lincoln, of the Declaration of
Independence, and of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen. For these principles the Czech nation shed its blood in the mem-
orable Hussite wars, at a time when America was still undiscovered; in
this war our nation, with the Allies, is again shedding its blood for these
principles.
From the final version of the Czechoslovak Declaration of Inde-
pendence, sent to President Wilson:
We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern democracy, as
they have been the ideals of our nation for centuries. We accept the
American principles as laid down by President Wilson: the principles of
liberated mankind — of the actual equality of nations — and of govern-
ments deriving all their just powers from the consent of the governed.
We, the nation of Comenius, cannot but accept these principles expressed
in the American Declaration of Independence, the principles of Lincoln,
and of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. For these
principles our nation shed its blood in the memorable Hussite Wars five
hundred years ago, for these same principles, beside her Allies in Russia,
Italy, and France, our nation is shedding its blood today.¹⁴
At a celebration of the Fourth of July in Prague in 1919, at-
tended by a group of Czech-American soldiers, Masaryk described
his leaning toward American democracy in a brief speech which
had a strong personal note.
52
MASARYK & AMERICA
Masaryk's speech on July 4, 1919, in Prague:
Mr. Minister, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ladies and Gentle-
men. Permit me at this auspicious moment to address a few words to our
Czech soldiers from America. Boys and friends, you have heard the Amer-
ican Declaration of Independence and you have heard Mr. Crane explain
this declaration, what it means too for our future relations between
Czechoslovakia and the United States. I could not say more and could
not express it better, but I will take the liberty of recalling my first visit
last year to the United States. It was in May that I came to Washington
and I was invited to stay in the house of my friend Mr. Crane's father.
With Mr. Crane and some friends I had the privilege of visiting the bat-
tlefield of Gettysburg and I think I can say I was never more deeply
impressed, and what impressed me most was this, that the battlefield is
one museum of memorials: every soldier, officer or man who fought and
fell there is commemorated either by a separate monument or by name
on a general monument. In this way was democracy honoured. Not only
the high general, but all who had lost their life for the liberty of the
United States are unforgotten. And then I came to the cemetery and read
the eternal message of Lincoln, I read of that true "government of the
people, by the people, for the people" that never shall perish from off
the earth. This message touched me deeply and I realized what American
democracy means — (I say American democracy, for there are as many
democracies as there are nations and states) and I accepted the principles
of American democracy. I can say that these principles have been and
ever will be the policy of my government and my life. They appeal to
our people, our people have adopted them as their own and through
them we shall for ever be united with the American people, united with
them in the spirit of liberty and democracy. You, boys, are returning to
your homes. We shall never forget what you have done for us. We have
been and are united in endeavor for liberty and I hope that one day I may
once more meet with you out there in your adopted country. Do not
forget that the same ideals, the same principles ever unite us. Do not
forget us, as we shall never forget you.¹⁵
And this is Masaryk's summary account of his relationship with
America, translated from his book of war reminiscences.
From Masaryk's book Světová revoluce (The Making of a State):
I have had close personal and family ties with America. Since 1878
I have visited the country repeatedly. From the very beginning of my
scientific and political career American democracy and the development
of American civilization have aroused lively interest in me.
There is democracy and democracy. It is clearly evident from the
latest historical studies of the development of the American Republic that
democracy in the United States was built on religious foundations. Toc-
MASARYK AND AMERICAN IDEALS
53
queville pointed rightly to the significance of the moral influence of
religion on the American Republic. The considerable fragmentation of
America into the most diversified sects weakened neither the Republic
nor the democracy. The sectarianism is, indeed, a proof of both religious
energy and modern individualization. Even the Catholics in America, as
in England, are more robust religiously than in the Catholic states of
Europe, due to the influence of a Protestant environment.
This religious factor was of special importance at the beginning of
the American Republic. Inadequate communication in a huge, sparsely
populated territory impeded the creation of an effective administrative
center. The various religious communities and Churches, as organized
bodies, became, therefore, very significant as unifying elements.
The American Republic is the work of pioneers. These energetic men
demonstrated their vigor by breaking away from familiar surroundings.
In America they were able to survive by still greater effort and hard work.
The pioneers sought freedom and prosperity. The American Republic,
even today, serves mainly an economic purpose and ideal, all the more
because it is not confronted with political and nationality problems like
those in Europe. The quests for independence and Puritanism were the
real religion of the pioneers. The Constitution, phrased in the spirit of
the rationalist philosophy of law then prevalent in France and England,
is the true code of pioneer economics. By emigration the American col-
onies were alienated from the English dynasty. Being without a dynasty
they had no aristocracy, no army, no militarism. The Republic was
founded on organized religious communities, and its founders were not
conquering soldiers but pioneers, mainly farmers, then traders and the
necessary lawyers.
Thus the American state is different from the European states, namely
from Prussia, Austria, and Russia; even the French Republic inherited the
institutions of the old regime (like aristocracy and the army) which never
existed in America. The American state developed and acquired a land
the size of a continent, yet in the process it strengthened its original
characteristics. During the gradual conquest of the West and the South
the pioneer spirit remained a constant moral and political factor.
On many occasions, and also in the cemetery on the Gettysburg
battlefields, I devoted much thinking to the idea that our [Czechoslovak]
state would resemble America in that we, too, have no dynasty of our
own and dislike a foreign dynasty; we have no aristocracy, no army and
no militaristic tradition. On the other hand, owing to the tradition of our
Reformation we do not have an intimate relationship with the Church -
a minus point unless we realize that a democracy and a republic must
be based on morality. Our restored state, our democratic republic must
be based on an idea, it must have its own reason for existence that will
be universally recognized.
The American constitution has some noteworthy peculiarities. Mainly
the presidency. The President is accorded great power by the constitution.
54
MASARYK & AMERICA
It is the President who selects the government, and from among the
members of the legislature. After the English fashion, the American Pres-
ident is de facto an elective constitutional king. The American example
could indicate the way of correcting the deficiencies of parliamentarism
against which protests are now raised everywhere, mainly its disunity
caused by the growth and the splitting up of parties. Another significant
principle is the subjecting of the constitutional validity of laws to the
judgment of the Supreme Court.
The federal character of the American Republic and its democracy
also gives us a good political lesson. It is the very opposite of European
centralism which has nowhere proved to be successful. Even the small
Swiss Republic shows the advantages of autonomy and federalism. But
American federalism and autonomy must defend themselves against the
centralization that is developing strongly to the detriment of autonomy.
The desired harmony between the state governments and federal govern-
ment has not yet been attained, nor have the technical shortcomings of
this lack of harmony, such as diversity in legislation, needless overlap-
pings, etc., been overcome.
In Europe, especially in Germany and Austria, "Americanism" is often
criticized as a one-sidedly mechanical and materialistic view of life. One
speaks about the almighty dollar, the lack of political sense, and the
inadequacy of science and education. This one-sided, exaggerated criti-
cism is especially unjustified coming from German quarters. As if public
life in Germany were not dominated by mechanistic views, by a militar-
istic state machine! In Germany, materialism has triumphed both in phi-
losophy and in practical life, and German science and philosophy have
subordinated themselves to Prussian and pan-German rule of force.
I like American culture and I think my sympathy is shared by our
immigrants who are a considerable part of our population. In America
we can and should learn not only about machines, but also about love
of freedom and the independence of a human being. Political freedom
in a republic is the mother of that typically American sincerity and open-
ness in human relations in the social, political, and economic spheres
The ideal of humanity is realized in practice in exemplary hospitals. A
philantropic and generous use of money has developed in America. In
many respects America is creating fine examples of a future culture. 16
CHAPTER
FIVE
MASARYK AND WILSON
T
he relationship between Masaryk and Wilson was based on
political and intellectual sympathy rather than personal
warmth. There was nothing private or intimate in their meetings.
Masaryk's visits to the White House were always official and formal,
leaving no room for purely personal conversations. Yet it seems
that if it were not for the extraordinary circumstances of war which
surrounded the two men with a hectic atmosphere, a true personal
friendship could have developed. In the deeper layers of their
correspondence, elements of warm interest, even mutual admi-
ration, can be detected. For the historical record, however, the
contact between Masaryk and Wilson remains a working relation-
ship. The two main tasks which both Wilson and Masaryk had on
their minds in 1918 were winning the war and laying foundations
for a lasting peace.
The first message, addressed by Masaryk directly to Wilson,
arrived in Washington on December 13, 1917. Masaryk sent a tel-
egram from Kiev after he had heard the United States declaration
of war on Austria-Hungary. He was convinced that America's full
participation in the war against the Central Powers was the logical
conclusion of a necessary development.
Masaryk's telegram to Wilson, undated, sent from Kiev and received
in Washington on December 13, 1917:
The declaration of war on Austria-Hungary will be welcomed by
European democracy. Quasi neutral position of the United States toward
Austria was missing link in logical chain of your exquisite explanation
of war. Austria is the typical medieval state being exploiting company of
dynasty, army and bureaucracy, aristocracy and clergy. Allies aim at re-
generation of Europe, liberation of small nations and strengthening of
55
56
MASARYK & AMERICA
democracy. Austria is the very negation of nationality and democracy.
Austria is organization of violence, minority of Germans and Magyars
oppressing Slav and Latin majority. Europe has to choose between de-
generated dynasty and freedom of nine nations, and ruling Germans and
Magyars will be taught to reason if forced to abstain from exploiting other
nations. Polish Deputy revealed in Reichsrat amazing fact that during the
war 30,600,000 [sic], all civilians, have been ordered to save the ram-
shackled empire. Even Pope obedient servant of Prussia and Austria re-
primanded late Francis Joseph as bloody sovereign. Austria is mean and
false. The dismemberment of her is sincerest object of war. In note of
the Allies to USA the liberation of Italians, Armenians [sic], Slavs and
Tchechoslovacs is demanded and that means the dismemberment of the
despotic empire. Application of principle of nationality which is essen-
tially
democratic and social - for a nation enslaved politically is
exploited economically - affects peculiar zone of small nations between
the West and East on territory from North Cape to Cape Matapan beginning
with Laps, Finns, etc. down to Greeks. There are 19 [nations] divided
among Russia, Austria-Hungary, Persia, Turkey. National antagonism rag-
ing exactly in this zone, and it is the organic affinity of central anti-
national and anti-democratic empires which united them to secure their
Central Europe and way from Berlin to Bagdad and Cairo. Allies must
prevent realization of pan-German Central Europe. Zone of small nations
and Russia must be organized on democratic principle of nationality.
Germany must liberate [its] non-German nations. The Balkans must be
reorganized. Russia is striving to become a federation of nations and states.
If East Europe be controlled by Germany the Germans will be victorious
and will rule world even if they temporary would yield in West demands
of allies. Germany has absorbed Austria-Hungary as you rightly said, and
by that Turkey. Germany is controlling Poland and adjoining countries
till now under Russia. Russia is to become the tool of Berlin. In name of
Tchechoslovac National Council - and I am entitled to speak in name
of our whole nation - we express our satisfaction that people of United
States has declared war on Austria-Hungary. There will be no liberation
of Europe from German militarism and imperialism [if] our nation pre-
serving her nationality against the German
push towards East
[throughout] centuries will not be free as she has been. Without liberation
of Bohemia and Slovakia Poland, South Slavs, Roumanians, Italians will
not be united and liberated for there is close interdependence between
these nations attacked by German aggressiveness. Austria-Hungary is
strong and weak point of Germany, dismemberment of Austria is real and
most effective weakening of Prussianized Germany. Dismemberment of
Austria-Hungary removes
Prussian bridges to Balkans, to Asia and
Africa. German nation must be forced renounce domination of non-Ger-
man nations. Professor T.G. Masaryk, President of the Tchechoslovak Na-
tional Council. Marsden.
NOTE: This cable is badly mutilated and obvious corrections made. 17
MASARYK AND WILSON
57
The first meeting between Masaryk and Wilson is described
in two documents. Shortly after his visit to the White House on
June 19, 1918, Masaryk wrote a hasty note in Czech, summarizing
the main points of the conversation. The note was published in
a Czech collection of documents in Prague in 1953. For his own
record and to inform his friends, Masaryk also wrote, or dictated,
an English note on his meeting with Wilson. One copy of the note
was handed to Richard Crane, the son of Charles R. Crane and
private secretary to Robert Lansing.
English translation of Masaryk's Czech note on bis meetng with
Wilson on June 19, 1918:
Wednesday, 6-19-1918, 5,-5,45 p.m.
Mr. President I thank you for the honor and opportunity to recom-
mend to your attention our nations.*
W. has a warm interest and is glad to be able to speak with me about
a serious matter: about Russia, how to help.
a) To discuss (in detail and carefully) plan with Japanese - and
what would that mean for Russia?
b) Could our soldiers be used for this purpose? I [told] him my view
= vagueness of small intervention (50,000 or 100,000). I only hear about
"nucleus" and nothing more.
Really - I never obtained more information."
I would be for a war by Japan against Germ[any]. But difficulties:
a) mainly: How to pay Japanese? "Allies would finance" - but (I
[said]) that is not enough, Japanese probably would wish territory.
b) whether they are prepared militarily.
Wilson knew that they had only 250,000 and the same in reserve -
they could hardly gather one million.
He considers himself bound by Allies: Foch is milit. commander,
therefore he is subordinate to him. 18
- .. These two sentences are written in English in the original Czech
note.
Masaryk's English note on bis meeting with Wilson on June 19, 1918:
I spoke with the President from five to five forty-five. The main
subject of the discussion has been the question of intervention in Russia,
whether the Japanese could intervene in Siberia and organize Siberia, and
whether our Bohemian troops could be used to that end. I explained my
view on the matter, that I am not in favor of a so-called intervention,
because I do not see what it would bring about. But I would be in favor
58
MASARYK & AMERICA
of renewing the war upon Germany by the whole Japanese army. The
President was very well informed about the number of Japanese troops
available, and we agreed that there are many difficulties, above all the
question of how to pay the Japanese. Then the President asked my opinion
about a propaganda work which the United States could easily start, to
send business men with goods, conducting a barter, because the Russians
would not accept money for their grain and the goods they have to ex-
change. The question of this barter has been studied for the President by
the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Redfield, and perhaps tomorrow the
President will hear his report. Then the Y.M.C.A. would be sent to Russia
and the Red Cross. It seems the President has already chosen a man not
a business man who would control this whole work. He did not give me
the name of the man.
I asked the President to help our men from Russia to be brought to
France. The political effect of our troops fighting in France is very great,
it being the most effective anti-Austrian propaganda among all non-Ger-
man and non-Magyar nations in Austria. On this occasion I emphasized
the necessity of dismembering Austria if the war should be won. The
President accepted this view and consented. I explained to him that there
is a great propaganda conducted from Rome, and finally I urged him to
help Italy: she deserves it for her loyalty and, militarily speaking, Italy,
strengthened by American troops, could invade Austria and that would
shorten the war. The President seemed to realize all this.
We parted. He was very friendly indeed, and asked me to come and
give my opinion on points which he will submit to me.¹⁹
After it had become obvious that the Czechoslovak soldiers
in Russia were entangled in a conflict with Bolshevik units, Ma-
saryk asked the American government for assistance. Wilson, while
maintaining his negative views of a military intervention, was fi-
nally impressed by the appeals of France and Britain and agreed
to dispatch several thousand American troops to the area of Vla-
divostok, not to intervene in Russian affairs, but to safeguard "the
country to the rear of the westward-moving Czecho-Slovaks." Ma-
saryk was thankful for the decision.
Masaryk's letter to Wilson, August 5, 1918:
Mr. President: With the deepest satisfaction I thank you for your
decision to help our Czechoslovak Army in Russia.
Mr. President, you have repeatedly announced the principles in
which American citizens have been bred, the principles of liberated man-
kind, of the actual equality of nations, and the principles according to
which governments derive all their just power from the consent of the
MASARYK AND WILSON
59
governed. The decision of the third of August to us constitutes a guarantee
that these American principles will be realized. It is for these principles
that our nation has been contending not only in this war, but already long
ago; it is for these principles that our boys are shedding their blood on
the endless plains of Russia and Siberia.
Your name, Mr. President, as you have no doubt read, is openly
cheered in the streets of Prague - our nation will forever be grateful
to you and to the people of the United States. And we know how to be
grateful.
Believe me, Mr. President, Yours very sincerely,
Th.G. Masaryk²⁰
Wilson's response to Masaryk, August 7, 1918:
My dear Mr. Masaryk: Your letter of August 5th is greatly appreciated.
I have felt no confidence in my personal judgment about the complicated
situation in Russia, and am reassured that you should approve of what I
have done.
Cordially and sincerely yours,
Woodrow Wilson²¹
Masaryk was, understandably, ebullient when the United
States government recognized his revolutionary movement as the
de facto belligerent government of Czechoslovakia. In his letter
of thanks to Wilson, he stressed the value of American political
principles.
Masaryk's letter to Wilson, September 7, 1918:
Mr. President: Allow me to express the feeling or profound gratitude
for the recognition of our Army, the National Council, and the nation.
After arriving in the United States I paid my first visit to the Gettysburg
Cemetery-after a year's sad experiences in Russia I wished to collect
my mind at this solemn place of America's great struggle for democracy
and unity; I read America's eternal message, cast in iron, that the gov-
ernment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall never perish
from this Earth. At an historical moment of great significance Lincoln
formulated these principles which were to rule the internal policies of
the United States-at an historical moment of world-wide significance
you, Mr. President, shaped these principles for the foreign policies of
this great Republic as well as those of the other nations: that the whole
mankind may be liberated — that between nations, great and small, actual
equality exists - that all just power of governments is derived from the
consent of the governed, these, you say, are the principles in which
Americans have been bred, and which are to constitute the foundation
of world-democracy.
60
MASARYK & AMERICA
In accordance with these principles of American democracy you, and
the Government of the United States, have recognized the justice of our
struggle for independence and national unity; I am entitled and greatly
honored to thank you, in the name of our whole nation, for this act of
political generosity, justice and political wisdom. America's recognition
will strengthen our armies and our whole nation in their unshakeable
decision to sacrifice everything for the liberation of Europe and of
mankind.
My best wishes to you, Mr. President, in your difficult and responsible
work for America and the world.
Believe me, Most sincerely and respectfully yours,
T. G. Masaryk²²
Wilson's response to Masaryk, September 10, 1918:
My dear Dr. Masaryk: Your letter of September 7th has given me a
great deal of gratification. It reassures me to know that you think that I
have followed the right course in my earnest endeavor to be of as much
service as possible to the Czecho-Slovak peoples, and I want you to know
how much the Secretary of State and I have valued the counsel and guid-
ance which you have given us. It will always be a matter of profound
gratitude to me if it should turn out that we have been able to render a
service which will redound to the permanent advantage and happiness
of the great group of peoples whom you represent.
Cordially and sincerely yours,
Woodrow Wilson²³
When Masaryk came to see Wilson on September 11, 1918,
the questions under discussion included: assistance for the Czech-
oslovak Army in Russia, the recent agreement between the
Czechoslovak National Council and the British government, and
the possibility of a Japanese supreme command over foreign
troops in Siberia. The fragmentary note, written by Masaryk in
Czech and published in Prague in 1953, shows that the under-
standing between Wilson and Masaryk had developed to the extent
of confidentiality in some questions.
English translation of Masaryk's Czech note on bis meeting with
Wilson on September 11, 1918:
With Wilson, Wednesday, 11 Sept 1918 (2-2,20 a.m.)
1. In addition to my [written] thanks also my personal thanks.
2. Apology that sending [of supplies] to Siberia is not fast enough but
they do their best.
MASARYK AND WILSON
61
3. Today [he received] cable about our agreement with Engl. gov-
ernment. He noticed that [it stipulated] clearly [English] command.
He fears, as he says between ourselves, that British always try to use
everything for themselves. There is a certain, not misunderstanding, but
a certain.
(I helped: tension) yes, tension, but that will be corrected.
Also about French that they do not respect sufficiently sentiments of Russ.
people.
About Jap. supreme command = he fears that Russians would not
want it, neither would Americans like it, and possibly neither your
soldiers?
I [said]: If Japanese give greatest number of soldiers it would be fair
that they [have] supreme command. The [Russian] people would not
grudge too much, not for long. There is Germ[an] intrigue exaggerating
tension between Japanese and America.
To that he remarked that if Jap. will have greatest number of soldiers,
they may have command. (He said "Greater than you.")
4. I [said to] him: French possibly somewhat nervous as they had
invested much money; but they will acquiesce.
He noticed that English, Japanese were not acclaimed in Vladivostok
after landing as Amer. (and Italians).
5. They will send me agreement with England so that I [could add]
some comment for him.
6. Germ[an] ethnographic map with some notes will be sent to him.
7. I agree with Wilson that one should first try [to settle things]
peacefully, shooting only last resort if absolutely necessary.
8. He said good-bye to me (I rose) thanking me for coming personally
to express my appreciation for what they [the Americans] were doing for
us [the Czechs and Slovaks] so willingly and with such pleasure.²⁴
In October 1918 Masaryk became the head of the Mid-Euro-
pean Union, a group of Central European representatives residing
in the United States. On October 26, 1918, the Mid-European
Union, convening in Philadelphia, issued a democratic manifesto
called the "Declaration of Common Aims." Masaryk used the op-
portunity of sending the declaration to Wilson to explain his con-
cept of European reconstruction.
Masaryk's letter to Wilson, November 1, 1918:
Mr. President,
On behalf of the Democratic Mid-European Union I have to thank
you for your kind message which, unhappily, was not delivered in time,
I take this opportunity to submit to you this copy of the Declaration
signed in Philadelphia.
Our union tried to replace the German plan of Mittel-Europa by a
62
MASARYK & AMERICA
positive plan of reorganization of the many smaller nations which are
located between the Germans (in Germany and Austria) and Russians;
there are about eighteen such nations, beginning with the Finns and
ending with the Greeks. The proverbial German push toward the East is
directed against this peculiar zone of smaller nations, and it will be
successful unless they are liberated and organized. The primary aim of
the war and the coming peace is the reorganization of the East including
now Russia, and the first condition of this reorganization of Eastern Eu-
rope and through it of Europe and mankind, is the dismemberment of
Austria-Hungary, composed of eight non-German nations, oppressed and
exploited by a degenerate dynasty and reckless feudal aristocracy sup-
ported by the Germans and Magyars.
The reconstruction and regeneration of Europe is a difficult task; but
every creative policy, not acquiescing in given political and social for-
mations, is difficult; it was difficult to defeat the German-Austrian au-
tocracy, it will be difficult to put a new form of life into its inheritance.
Mr. President, we see in you one of the greatest leaders of modern
democracy and constructive policy; it is in making a sincere attempt to
apply such a policy to our particular nations and to the whole of Europe
that we hope you will engage your interest in our Union's endeavors.
Most sincerely yours,
T. G. Masaryk²⁵
Wilson's response to Masaryk, November 5, 1918:
My dear Dr. Masaryk:
Allow me to acknowledge with sincere appreciation your letter of
November 1st with its important enclosure, the formal Declaration of
Common Aims of the Independent Mid-European Nations. The Declara-
tion seems to me to be admirable alike in substance and in temper, and
I need hardly assure you that the principles and ideals which it sets forth
are my own. I shall esteem it a privilege to cooperate in any way that is
possible in the realization of the aspirations which it embodies. I con-
gratulate you on the sobriety of counsel which it indicates.
Cordially and sincerely yours,
Woodrow Wilson²⁶
The last meeting between Masaryk and Wilson took place on
November 15, 1918. Masaryk, fearing a loss of prestige for the
American president, advised Wilson against being personally in-
volved in the detailed European questions at the peace confer-
ence. His apprehension is shown in a Czech note written in his
hand and published in facsimile in Jan Herben's biography T.G.
Masaryk.
MASARYK AND WILSON
63
English translation of Masaryk's Czech note on bis meeting with
Wilson on November 15, 1918:
Wilson, to say good-bye, Friday, 15 Nov. 1918, 2,15-2,45 p.m.
As always a very matter-of-fact discussion-he began at once.
1/. Poles. Danzig is not Polish and Germans in Prussia would be cut
off. Free access would be sufficient.
2. What about Russia? I [said] = perhaps without Finland (and Po-
land) unite all former [Russian territories] in feder. republic.
3. Should be go to [peace] congress and participate?
Yes, but not discuss special questions. From his declarations it can
be seen that his strength [is] in questions [of principle], it can be seen
that he does not know the details. (He accepted this criticism without
resentment.) America (he) unique position = not having territor. wishes,
and can defend principles. He [said]: can defend in details too; he is of
Scotch origin, "stubborn." I [said] that he did not know all the details,
could become entangled and weaken his position.
4. Germans were beaten on the battlefield.
I [said] that it would have been better if they had been beaten com-
pletely; they will blame their defeat on Austr[ians'] treason, starvation,
etc.²⁷
The last part of the correspondence between Masaryk and
Wilson, letters and telegrams from the years 1918-23, form an
epilog to the remarkable relationship. The epilog, although mostly
encouraging and optimistic, has melancholy undertones. Masa-
ryk's American wife died on May 13, 1923. Wilson, his health fail-
ing, was followed in office by a Republican president. Wilson's
idea of a peaceful reconstruction of the world with American par-
ticipation never materialized. He died on February 3, 1924.
Masaryk's first telegram from independent Czechoslovakia to
Wilson was an enthusiastic New Year's message.
Masaryk's telegram to Wilson, January 2, 1919:
In the first New Year in which after a long time of the darkness of
war light of freedom and peace is beginning to glimmer over Europe and
world, I beg to greet you, Mr. President, on my own and our people's
behalf from the free capital of the free Czechoslovak Republic. Our nation
shall never forget that it was you, Mr. President, who by his kind sense
of freedom and justice has brought about the disruption of the immoral
state combination called Austria-Hungary and it was you [who] by his
knowledge of our right in the most critical moment has made possible
the revolution which brought us our national independence. We greet
you [as] the spokesman of the political ideals of the great American Re-
64
MASARYK & AMERICA
public, of the ideals for which America in this war contested and con-
quered. These ideals are one with the ideals of our nation and will always
find an enthusiastic defender in the free Czechoslovak Republic.
President Masaryk²⁸
Wilson's response to Masaryk, January 10, 1919:
My dear Mr. President: Your telegram of the second of January which
was delayed in reaching me has given me the profoundest pleasure. It is
deeply gratifying to me that the Czecho-Slovak peoples should recognize
in me their friend and the champion of their rights and I beg you to
believe that I shall be always happy to serve the Nation in any way that
it is in my power to serve it. I hope that you will let me know from time
to time what services of counsel or action you think I could render it. I
rejoice in its establishment and hope for its permanent prosperity.
Woodrow Wilson²⁹
In the middle of March 1920 Masaryk cabled to Washington
his thanks for Wilson's greetings on his 70th birthday (March 7,
1920):
Masaryk's telegram to Wilson, March 15, 1920:
Mr. President: Thank you heartily for your kind message. In return
allow me to express my best wishes for your health. I can fully appreciate
the exhausting strain you had to undergo during the war and in Paris and
I know how sincerely and honestly you worked for the peace. I only wish
you and your country's great authority may remain the powerful recon-
structive action in the development of new Europe.
T.G. Masaryk³⁰
On the occasion of his 66th birthday (December 26, 1922)
Wilson was greeted by a telegram from Masaryk:
Masaryk's telegram to Wilson, December 27, 1922:
Ready it will prove that Czechoslovakia is the land of Wilson. With
warmest birthday greetings to you and to both you and Mrs. Wilson a
joyous Christmas and happy New Year.
Masaryk³¹
Wilson's response to Masaryk, December 28, 1922:
Your message is deeply appreciated. I hope that the stout young
republic over which you so worthily preside will itself have many pro-
pitious birthdays throughout a long period of peaceful prosperity and
happiness. I shall expect with greatest pleasure the Christmas gift you
so generously promised me.
Woodrow Wilson³²
MASARYK AND WILSON
65
Two compassionate letters were exchanged between Wilson
and Masaryk on the occasion of the death of Charlotte Garrigue
Masaryk.
Wilson's letter to Masaryk, May 19, 1923:
My dear Friend,
Will you not allow me to express to you the genuine grief and very
deep sympathy with which I learned of the death of Mrs. Masaryk. My
thoughts go out to you in profoundest sympathy, and I wish that there
were some touch of friendship by which I could assist in cheering and
steadying your spirit in the face of this tragedy.
I very often think of you and always, you may be sure, with the
deepest and most genuine interest in your own personal welfare as well
as in the welfare of your people.
Please accept assurances of my warm regard and always think of me
as
Your sincere friend,
[Woodrow Wilson]33
Masaryk's response to Wilson, dated June 15, 1923 in Marseille:
Dear Mr. Wilson,
My Dear Friend,
Thank you for your very kind letter; I am happy knowing that you
feel so friendly towards me & our people. My wife was a real American,
living up to the best & loftiest American ideals; I shared her views &
accepted her americanism [sic] & that brought me to you in 1918. I
bilieved [sic] in the American ideals as you expressed them.
With gratitude & in sincere friendship,
T.G. Masaryk³⁴
In November 1923, on behalf of Masaryk, officials of the
Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington presented Wilson two al-
bums with pictures of streets, squares, parks, bridges, and other
public objects named or renamed in honor of the American pres-
ident. Wilson sent a letter of thanks to Prague.
Wilson's letter to Masaryk, November 23, 1923:
My dear President Masaryk,
I yesterday received at the hands of the Charge of the Czechoslovak
legation here the really magnificient volumes in which you have so
thoughtfully had bound photographs of places and objects which citizens
of Czechoslovakia have been so gracious as to name for me. I feel highly
66
MASARYK & AMERICA
honoured at such evidences of their confidence and friendship, and shall
treasure the albums as among my most valuable possessions.
I hope that everything goes happily with yourself and the admirable
little republic over which you preside. It is a matter of intense pride with
me to have had some part in bringing it into the family of nations.
With very warm regards,
Cordially and Gratefully Yours,
[Woodrow Wilson]35
On December 28, 1923, in a brief telegram, Masaryk sent his
last New Year's greetings to Wilson. And a day later Wilson cabled
what turned out to be his last communication to Masaryk
Wilson's telegram to Masaryk, December 29, 1923:
My dear Mr. President,
Your radio message pleased me greatly. It is delightful to be reminded
of your friendship, and I hope that the New Year may bring to you and
to the gallant republic over which you preside the highest and happiest
fortunes. Pray accept my warm salutations and think of me always as
Your sincere Friend, [Woodrow Wilson]³⁶
These are Masaryk's comments on the personality of Woodrow
Wilson, translated from his book of war reminiscences.
From Masaryk's book Světová revoluce (The Making of a State):
My relations with President Wilson were purely matter-of-fact. In all
my actions I relied on our just cause and the weight of my arguments. I
believed then and I still believe that decent, educated people can be
enlightened and convinced by arguments. In my personal discussions with
Wilson and in my memoranda and notes I relied solely on arguments and
the strength of carefully stated facts. In all this I sought continuity with
the President's declarations and writings. Already before the war I had
known his writings about the state and the development of the American
Congress. I read his speeches carefully and was able to quote his state-
ments in support of my ideas
When the question was discussed in government circles and in the
press whether President Wilson personally should go to Europe to take
part in the peace negotiations I gave him my opinion that he should not
go or, at least, should not remain in Europe after the opening of the
conference. Knowing Wilson's character and his enthusiasm for the
League of Nations as the main point of the peace negotiations, and know-
ing the personalities of the European peacemakers, I feared that both
sides would be mutually disappointed. After a long war resulting in a
terrible strain on minds and nerves of the peace negotiators, it might
easily happen that mutual disillusionment would be aggravated by the
MASARYK AND WILSON
67
PRESIDENT
ćeskoslovenské
REPUBLIKY
Markille, 15/vi/23.
tear Mr. Wilson,
my tear Friend,
thank you for your
my Kind letter : J am happy Knoring
that you feel 10 friendly Towans mr α
our propr. My if 4as a real American,
living up to the bef lottiest American
ideals; 0 thart her views & accepted hel
anericanium α that brought mr to you in 1818.
I bilieved in the trrican ideals as you
expresed Them.
with statilude a in AIRCETE friendship
F.F. MasamM.
131972
Masaryk's letter to Wilson, dated June 15, 1923. Woodrow Wilson Papers, Man-
uscript Division, Library of Congress.
68
MASARYK & AMERICA
experience of personal weaknesses of the participants. I thought that
President Wilson might impair, even lose the high authority which he
had gradually won in Europe. But the President, aware of the great im-
portance of the peace conference, wished personally to defend his Amer-
ican ideals. He was convinced that it was America's mission to unify
mankind and that he could accomplish this task.
We also discussed the question why President Wilson had not formed
a coalition government, as the Allied states had done in Europe, but had
chosen his cabinet ministers only from the Democratic Party. I asked
specifically whether it would not be proper to take politicians of the
Republican Party with him to the Paris negotiations. President Wilson
thought that in Paris quarrels would arise between the two opposing
parties. But he also admitted that he had no talent for compromises and
coalitions. "I tell you frankly" - these were about his words - "I am
a descendant of Scottish Presbyterians and am therefore somewhat stub-
born." I had a different interpretation. One of the consequences of the
war, in America as elsewhere, was a sort of dictatorship. Individual states-
men gained decisive power. At the same time Wilson's contact with Con-
gress became closer. I watched this development the more keenly because
I knew Wilson's opinion of the centralization of Congress. This trend
toward centralization was in my view greatly assisted by the constitutional
position of the American President. The American constitution followed
too closely the English monarchical model in defining the position of
the President. I did not have the impression of partiality in Wilson's
choice of military and naval commanders; on the contrary, he appointed
many Republicans demonstrating his objectivity. But I admit that the
President was somewhat touchy and disliked being criticized.
I started my personal relations with President Wilson relatively late.
I arrived in Washington on May 9 [1918] and met Wilson for the first time
on June 19, the invitation being conveyed by Mr. Charles R. Crane. In
all my political campaigns abroad it has been my method to try to influ-
ence the statesmen by public declarations, articles and interviews. And
before I saw the President I spoke with people with whom he was in
contact and who had a certain influence on him. Discussion with men
who already know the facts is, naturally, more fruitful and can take less
time.
The significance of Wilson's decision against Austria was sponta-
neously recognized by our people at home; a visible proof of our gratitude
are the buildings, streets, squares and institutions named after Wilson. It
would not be difficult for me to portray his character both as a man and
as a statesman. I heard much about him from people who were quite
close to him. I read his speeches very carefully and occupied myself
intensely with his thinking. I observed the initial warm reception of
Wilson in allied countries which later became cool to him. The Germans,
too, accepted him, and later turned against him. From the beginning I
saw in Wilson a conscientious interpreter of Lincoln's democracy and
MASARYK AND WILSON
69
American political and cultural ideals in general. I have already men-
tioned his view of America's destiny. He would have described his ideals
in a more practical fashion had he known more of Europe and its diffi-
culties. He made a clear distinction between the "Allies" and America,
only an "associated" power in his terminology. The continental dimen-
sion of the United States accounts for his being too abstract in dealing
with European politics. His great notion of the self-determination of na-
tions was too general to provide a safe guiding principle for Europe. And
he can be at least partly blamed for the lack of understanding for his plan
of the League of Nations. It was a magnificent and just concept, mainly
the idea of making the League an essential part of the peace settlement.
Unlike other American thinkers Wilson impressed me as a theoreti-
cian rather than a practical man, his thinking was more deductive than
inductive. In this respect it was interesting to hear that he preferred to
correspond with his ministers (even typing his decisions and suggestions
with his own hands). He was probably a somewhat solitary man, a status
conducive to a calm and matter-of-fact judgment of political affairs. He
showed these qualities, I think, in his attitude toward Germany and in
his decision for war; he stayed cool, registering the individual acts, and
after enough of them had accumulated, he declared war in a resolute
way. The American people followed him. He was equally resolute in
conducting the war; this was why the Germans turned against him. Lu-
dendorff understood correctly the gravity of Wilson's replies to the Ger-
man proposals for an armistice and peace. Roosevelt and others were, in
my view, not fair in saying that Wilson ought to have declared war earlier.
Wilson was and remains one of the greatest pioneers of modern de-
mocracy. Already in his first political campaign for the governorship of
New Jersey he proclaimed the faith and confidence in the people as the
basis of democracy, in opposition to monarchism and aristocracy: nations
are regenerated from below, not from above; monarchism and aristocracy
always and everywhere lead to decline. This proved to be true on a grand
scale in the world war: three great monarchies with their aristocracies
perished in the clash with more democratic nations.³
70
MASARYK & AMERICA
Nora Evropa.
him
(Slovanské Memorisho .)
Report
PERFORMEN i.
alimyon
1918.
Title page of the Czech manuscript of Masaryk's The New Europe. T.G. Masaryk
Papers, MMC 3502, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
CHAPTER
SIX
THE NEW EUROPE
T
he most valuable Masarykanum in the Library of Congress,
and probably in any library or archive outside Czechoslovakia,
is the complete manuscript of Masaryk's book The New Europe
(Nová Evropa). The manuscript was donated to the Library of
Congress by Masaryk's secretary Jaroslav Císař, who had received
it as a present from the author for translating the work into English.
Washington is the proper place of custody; the final version of
The New Europe was prepared mainly in the U.S. capital in 1918.
But the book has a history of its own, as turbulent as the era in
which it was written.
Our main sources of information about the origin of The New
Europe are, first of all, Masaryk's three prefaces written at different
times; the first preface, dated January 15, 1918 in Kiev; a second
unpublished preface, dated July 1918, in Washington; and the pre-
face to the first English and French edition of the book, dated
October 1918, in Washington. Additional insights into the history
of the book were obtained from Josef Kudela's Profesor Masaryk
a československé vojsko na Rusi (Professor Masaryk and the
Czechoslovak Army in Russia) and from Masaryk's war memoirs,
Světová revoluce; a few interesting details were added in a private
letter written by Jaroslav Císar.
From all the known facts and dates it can be extrapolated that
Masaryk wrote the first basic version of The New Europe in one
brief creative period of several weeks during his second stay in
Petrograd, between September 8 and October 16, 1917. It was a
time of great tension in Russia, with a new revolution lurking
71
72
MASARYK & AMERICA
Predualive.
Tato sinks me 2 pryow kistoni. Byca regis vari u Pain. the
W williw revoluining VM Ilo muc a to, objusnit (Rusning resada
morning validy ) kw when univery
rystem the assim probate
overgal jour msks tirkime ale domniran A, so , leg a
Ruiha a Ru Ku myrd nemoble. Meritime minipem odject na
7/2/20 i na aslo Jibin a sprioral, law
carl ,reho m kopism of this Kniku, sterow
expride politicks verejnost sevin mukopism
WA "ui law mil Citeralary americke ale openlajn,
ze myne'slo 0 objetions resarish problemin rgúrensch valkow.
Medicipon, levelue, 1918.
T.,.M.
Vasalina Kniyouxu K jen jin
Preface of the Czech manuscript of Masaryk's The New Europe. T. G. Masaryk
Papers, MMC 3502, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
THE NEW EUROPE
73
around the corner. Masaryk visited southern Russia in the second
part of October, 1917, and after his return to Petrograd he intended
to correct and amend his manuscript. He sat down to work on a
day that quickly proved to be a bad choice for untroubled literary
activity. The date was November 7, 1917. The Bolshevik Party sent
its troops into the streets of Petrograd, seized the main points of
the city and established the Soviet regime. Three days later, on
November 10, Masaryk departed for Moscow hoping to leave the
revolutionary upheavals behind him. But the revolution traveled
with him, as it were. He arrived in Moscow in the midst of street
fighting and spent several dramatic and dangerous days in and
around the hotel Metropol. As a writer's haven Moscow was no
better place than Petrograd.
On November 22, 1917, Masaryk arrived in Kiev where he
spent most of his remaining time in Russia, organizing the Czech
Army and working, whenever possible, on his book. The date of
the first preface, January 15, 1918, indicates that about this time
Masaryk decided to publish his work. He did not consider the
manuscript as finished but, seeing the impossibility of completing
it before his departure to the United States, he concluded that the
book should be printed as it was, with a possible later revision.
His main purpose was to tell the Czech and Slovak soldiers his
views of the European future. In leaving the manuscript in Kiev
he hoped to provide his soldiers with a political legacy for a better
understanding of their efforts and sacrifices.
Again the revolutionary turmoil interfered with Masaryk's in-
tentions. One copy of the manuscript was handed to the Czech
printer and publisher in Kiev Věnceslav Svihovsky, but before the
book could be printed the Ukraine became the chessboard of
violent political and military moves. On February 8, 1918, Bol-
shevik troops entered Kiev while the Czech soldiers stationed in
the area maintained neutrality in the domestic Russian conflict.
On March 1, the Czechoslovak Army was withdrawn from Kiev,
one day before the city was occupied by the Germans. Masaryk's
manuscript, left in Kiev during the evacuation, was recovered by
the Czech soldier V. Svoboda, who crossed the German lines dis-
74
MASARYK & AMERICA
guised as a civilian, found the manuscript, and brought it back to
the safe custody of the Czechoslovak troops.
Owing to the chaotic situation, The New Europe could not be
published as a book in Russia. The Czechoslovak soldiers, never-
theless, had a chance to read Masaryk's text. The secured manu-
script was published in installments, beginning in April 1918, in
the Czechoslovak Army newspaper, Československý deník.
All this was unknown to Masaryk. Since March 7, 1918, he had
been on his way through Siberia and Japan to the United States.
He assumed that the manuscript copy left in Kiev was irretrievably
lost. During his long journey on the Trans-Siberian train he re-
sumed his work on The New Europe, reviewing and amending the
copy he carried from Russia to America. Working on the manu-
script was also one of his occupations on the ship in the Pacific
Ocean.
He now intended to publish the book in the United States. In
July 1918, in a new preface written in Washington, he presented
the work "to the American political public." But being too busy
as a statesman in the final stages of the war, Masaryk did not find
enough time for his literary pursuits. He worked on his manuscript
intermittently throughout his whole stay in America and wrote the
final version of the preface in October 1918. Several weeks before
his departure from the United States he turned the Czech man-
uscript over to Jaroslav Císar who dictated a preliminary translation
into English. The time was, however, too short for publication in
America and the manuscript, supplemented by an English version,
crossed another ocean with its author.
Masaryk took the text of The New Europe to London, where
the English translation was revised by Robert W. Seton-Watson.
The book was then quickly published in English and in French
for "private circulation," mainly for the use of the diplomats who
were gathering for the peace conference in Paris. The English text
of The New Europe, published at the end of 1918, was considered
by Masaryk to be the "original." A Czech version, almost identical
to the manuscript preserved in the Library of Congress, was pub-
lished in Prague in 1920.
THE NEW EUROPE
75
Hisbinky / Vgnam volky
31,
1. svelovow.
1. so one bye, umysis-lite o vake, jejs 'svetovost.
coly to tow -pel. wall take! in of nk
nap adeaim
in how invironment many
indon nemerks our
Celi suit restitoupil up nadra tabory - s Rakerskom a Komeckom
jde jew Turedo W Bucherro otalus daty per na
strane" nowtvalnimi regiersha Kurie)
The first page of the Czech manuscript of Masaryk's The New Europe. T. G.
Masaryk Papers, MMC 3502, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
76
MASARYK & AMERICA
Samerac
First
NOVÁ EVROPA:
STANOVISKO SLOVANSKE
NAPSAL
TGMASARYK:
1920.
NAKLADEM GUSTAVA DUBSKÉHO
V PRAZE
Title page of the first Czech edition of The New Europe, illustrated by Adolf
Kaspar. (D523.M2139)
THE NEW EUROPE
77
The New Europe, first written for the Czechoslovak soldiers
in Russia, then intended for the American public, and finally cir-
culated among the Allied diplomats, was a book for anybody in
its time. In this work Masaryk expressed his need to explain why
he had started his revolutionary activity in the first place, and what
he hoped for in the future. Read in today's changed world, The
New Europe is a reminder of Masaryk's vision rather than the
balance sheet of a project that awaited fulfillment. Somewhat in-
correctly, the book was regarded by some readers as Masaryk's
program for the immediate rearrangement of Europe after the First
World War. More properly, it was Masaryk's ideal picture of Eu-
rope's long-term objectives which would need much effort and
courage to be achieved.
At the heart of The New Europe lies Masaryk's demand to
create an independent Czechoslovak state. This, however, is not
an isolated goal. Masaryk also demands an independent Poland
and Yugoslavia, and a whole zone of independent nations between
Germany and Russia. The political reconstruction of Eastern Eu-
rope is considered by him "the principal problem of the war." He
invokes the principle of national self-determination, but he also
sees that in many territories with mixed population the border
lines between the states cannot be based on ethnographic factors.
The new states in which the small oppressed Slavic nations will
exercise their political freedom will be created within historical
and natural borders. Inevitably, these states will include national
minorities who will be guaranteed their civil rights by an inter-
national agreement, and possibly by an international arbitration
tribunal for national questions.
In Masaryk's eyes national independence was not an end in
itself but a necessary stage in a prolonged process. As the next
stage in a more distant European future he foresaw a federation
which would not be imposed by a central authority but would be
agreed upon by free partners. He wrote:
A real federation of nations will be accomplished
only when the nations are free to unite of their own
78
MASARYK & AMERICA
accord. The development of Europe points to that end.
The program of the Allies answers fully to this devel-
opment: free and liberated nations will organize them-
selves, as they find necessary, into greater units, and thus
the whole continent will be organized.³⁸
As a practical politician Masaryk saw that a free union of Eu-
ropean nations had several preconditions among which the most
important was the end of the German supremacy in Europe. Ma-
saryk demanded a complete end to. German hegemonial plans,
including the dissolution of the Habsburg empire as the willing
instrument of German imperialists. He hoped for a permanent
victory of the republican and democratic ideal over the antide-
mocratic, absolutist forces. He thought it could not be otherwise:
It is not possible that this gigantic sacrifice of lives,
health, and fortune should have been offered in vain; it
is not possible that the present organization of states and
nations from which the war has sprung should remain
unchanged, that the responsible statesmen, politicians,
leaders of parties, individuals, the nations, and all hu-
manity should not comprehend the necessity of radical
political reorganization. The war and its significance
have knitted mankind closer together; humanity is today
an organized unit
39
This dream did not come true and was shattered by another
world war. But it is difficult to find an alternative for Masaryk's
hope. In the words of the Czech-American historian Otakar Od-
ložilík: "The background against which the ideas of The New Eu-
rope have to be projected has changed profoundly. Details which
had their significance at the time of writing have withered in the
changing climate. But the beacon of light, Masaryk's unbounded
faith in democracy and humanity, has lost nothing of its brightness
and radiant energy."
The evaluation of American influences in Masaryk's life is
open to further study, but it is obvious that Masaryk, the optimist,
THE NEW EUROPE
79
drew a part. of his strength from the Anglo-Saxon cultural re-
sources. In The New Europe he paid this tribute to England and
America:
All my life I was an assiduous, passionate reader and
a conscious observer of contemporaneous world hap-
penings. If I had to say which culture I considered to
be the highest I would answer, the English and Amer-
ican; at any rate, my stay in England during the war, and
a very critical observation of English life convinced me
that the English, as a whole, come nearest to the ideals
of humanity. The same impression was made upon me
by American life.40
This personal confession of faith may be considered an ap-
propriate final statement of this documentation.
NOTES
1 Alice Garrigue Masaryk, 1879-
(V Praze, Cin a Orbis, 1925), p. 267-
1966: her life (Pittsburgh, University
270.
Center for International Studies, Uni-
17 U.S. Department of State rec-
versity of Pittsburgh, c1980), p. 14.
ords, File 763.72/8108. Marsden was
2 In International Association for
the pseudonym in Masaryk's British
Liberal Christianity and Religious Free-
passport.
dom, Freedom and Fellowship in Re-
18 Dokumenty 0 protilidové a
ligion (Boston, Mass., International
protinárodní politice T.G. Masaryka
Council [1908?]), p. 536-565.
(Praha, Orbis, 1953), p. 21.
3 Charles R. Crane Papers, Co-
19 Richard Crane Papers, George-
lumbia University Library.
town University Library.
4 Woodrow Wilson Papers, Li-
20 Woodrow Wilson Papers, Li-
brary of Congress.
brary of Congress.
5 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
6 New York Times, 16 Jan. 1917.
22 Ibid.
7 Woodrow Wilson Papers, Li-
23 Ibid.
brary of Congress.
24 Dokumenty 0 protilidové a
8 U.S. Department of State Rec-
protinárodní politice T.G. Masaryka
ords, File 763.72119/1614, National
(Praha, Orbis, 1953), p. 22.
Archives.
25 Woodrow Wilson Papers, Li-
9 Ibid., File 763.72119/1616.
brary of Congress.
10 Breckinridge Long Papers, Li-
26 Ibid.
brary of Congress.
27 Jan Herben, T.G. Masaryk, V. 3
11 Ibid.
(V Praze, Mánes, 1927), following p.
12 In Lawyers Club, Meeting of
728.
the Lawyers Club, New York City, Sat-
28 Woodrow Wilson Papers, Li-
urday, 16 November 1918 ([New York,
brary of Congress.
1918]), p. 8-12.
29 Ibid.
13 U.S. Department of State Rec-
30 Ibid.
ords, File 763.72/11172, National
31 Ibid.
Archives.
32 Ibid.
14 Various drafts and the final text
33 Ibid.
of the Declaration are in the custody
34 Ibid.
of the Manuscript Division of the Li-
35 Ibid.
brary of Congress. For the complete
36 Ibid.
history of the Declaration see George
37 Tomás G. Masaryk, Světová re-
J. Kovtun, The Czechoslovak Declara-
voluce: za války a ve válce, 1914-1918
tion of Independence: a history of the
(V Praze, Cin a Orbis, 1925), p. 366-
document (Washington, D.C., Library
375.
of Congress, 1985)
38 Tomás G. Masaryk, The New
15 U.S. Department of State Rec-
Europe (the Slav standpoint) (Lewis-
ords, File 860F.46211, National
burg, Bucknell University Press
Archives.
[1972]), p. 77.
16 Tomás G. Masaryk, Světová re-
39 Ibid., p. 25.
voluce: za války a ve válce, 1914-1918
40 Ibid., p. 126.
80
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
PUBLICATIONS
Dokumenty o protilidové a protinárodní politice T.G. Masaryka. 2. vyd.
Praha, Orbis, 1953. 269 p.
DB217.M3D64 1953
Herben, Jan. T.G. Masaryk. V Praze, Mánes, 1927-28. 3 V.
DB217.M3H522
Kovtun, George J. The Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence: a his-
tory of the document. Washington, D.C., Library of Congress, 1985.
viii, 59 p.
JN2212.K68 1985
Kudela, Josef. Profesor Masaryk a československé vojsko na Rusi. Praha,
Nakl. Památníku Odboje, 1923. 233 p.
DB217.M3K82
Lawyers Club, New York. Meeting of the Lawyers Club.
New York
City. Subject: Czecho-Slovako - Middle Europe; also presentation
of honorary life membership to Hon. Chauncey M. Depew. Addresses
by Professor Masaryk [and others] Saturday, November 16, 1918 [New
York, 1918] 28 p.
NN; NjP
Masaryk, Alice G. Alice Garrigue Masaryk, 1879-1966: her life as recorded
in her own words and by her friends. Compiled by Ruth Crawford
Mitchell, with special editing by Linda Vlasak, and an introd. by René
Wellek. Pittsburgh, University Center for International Studies, Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh, c1980. xxiv, 251 p.
DB2191.M37A32
Masaryk, Tomás G. Americké přednášky. 2. vyd. Praha, Cin, 1929. 146 p.
Masaryk, Tomas G. The lectures of Professor T.G. Masaryk at the University
of Chicago, summer 1902. [By] Draga B. Shillinglaw. Lewisburg,
Bucknell University Press [1978] 172 p.
DB2066.M37 1978
Part 1 (p. 19-37) provides background; part 2 (p. 41-163), gives
English translations of the Czech version of the lectures as published
in the Bohemian newspaper Slavie (Racine, Wis.)
Masaryk, Tomas G. The new Europe (The Slav standpoint.) [London,
Printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1td.] 1918. 74 p.
D523.M215
Rare Book Coll.
81
82
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Masaryk, Tomás G. The new Europe (The Slav standpoint.) New ed. edited
by W. Preston and William B. Weist. Introd. by Otakar Odložilik.
Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press [1972] 193;.
D523.M215 1972
Masaryk, Tomas G. [Slav immigrants in the United States] In International
Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom. Freedom
and fellowship in religion; proceedings and papers of the fourth
International Congress of Religious Liberals held at Boston, U.S.A.,
September 22-27, 1907. Boston, Mass., International Council [1908?]
p. 563-565.
BX6.1626 1907
Masaryk, Tomas G. Svetová revoluce: za války a ve válce, 1914-1918. V
Praze, Cin a Orbis, 1925. 650 p.
D521.M42
Masaryk, Tomás G. Svobodomyslní Cechové V Americe. Nase doba, č. 10,
Oct. 1902: 1-7.
Wiener, Leo. The new Bohemia. Nation, V. 73, Aug. 15, 1901: 128-129.
MANUSCRIPTS
Capek, Thomas. Papers.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Crane, Charles R. Papers.
Columbia University Library
Crane, Richard. Papers.
Georgetown University Library
Special Collections
Long, Breckinridge. Papers.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
U.S. Department of State. Records. Decimal Files, 1910-1944. Record
Group 59.
National Archives
Wilson, Woodrow. Papers.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
A microfilm (540 reels) of this collection with an accompanying
index (3 v.) has been published by the Library.
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