Thirty years ago, in July 1992, in Prague, the hammer fell from the hands of the Speaker of the Czechoslovak Parliament and the Law on the Dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic was passed. The law, which sentenced the country to the "death penalty," entered into force in January of the following year, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia peacefully disintegrated, ending 74 years of "reunification."
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the law, and looking back on history, the story of the disintegration of Czechoslovakia is still lamentable.
▲ Czech Republic and Slovakia
The Czech and Slovak ethnic groups are of the same origin and have similar cultures. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Czechoslovakia entered the international political arena as a unified state. In 1989, Czechoslovakia underwent regime change under the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
People waving the Czechoslovak flag
The national problem was one of the reasons for the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and other countries, and Yugoslavia even broke out into a tragic civil war. Czechoslovakia did not have fierce ethnic contradictions, and the number of people who supported the separation of families accounted for less than 20% of the Czech and Slovak populations, but the country still disintegrated in 1993.
How did the Czech Republic and Slovakia come together? Why did they "break up" when ethnic contradictions were not intense?
▲Separation under the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
First, difficult brothers and difficult brothers
Czechs and Slovaks belonged to the same West Slavs, and in the 5th century AD, the ancestors of the two tribes migrated to Central Europe, and with the increase in productivity and the introduction of Christianity, the two communities gradually diverged in the 7th century.
The Czech settlements bordered the Christian countries of Western Europe and were able to absorb advanced cultures and production methods, while the Slovaks living in the east of the Czechs were relatively backward in development.
At the beginning of the 9th century, the Slovaks briefly established the Principality of Nitra, but it was soon annexed by another West Slavic state that emerged at the same time, the Principality of Moravia, and the Slovaks and Czechs were united under one regime.
▲ Principality of Moravian
Soon after the establishment of the Moravian Principality, it was invaded by Hungary and Moravia eventually collapsed. Slovakia was annexed by Hungary, while the Czechs retained their independence with the protection of the mountains.
The Czechs established the Principality of Bohemia at the beginning of the 10th century, centered on Prague. In order to oppose Hungary, the Czechs moved closer to the powerful Holy Roman Empire and continued to forge closer ties with the German states.
▲ Joined the Bohemian kingdom of Shinra
In 1086 AD, the Grand Duke of Bohemia accepted the canonization of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the only major Slavic majority vassal state in the empire. In the 12th century, Bohemia was upgraded to a "kingdom". Due to the extinction of the Czech princes in Bohemia, the German nobles entered Bohemia by marriage.
With the continuous development of the municipal economy, the Czech region has become increasingly important. In 1356, the Holy Roman Empire issued the Edict of the Golden Seal, giving the king of Bohemia the status of "Elector" (the Holy Roman Empire practiced the electoral system, only the electoral prince had the right to vote, and the rest of the German nobility only had the right to be elected).
▲ Electors
The Czechs were integrated into economically and culturally developed Germany, but after the fall of the Moravian Principality, the Slovaks were unable to establish an independent regime, and they were conquered by Hungary, which was relatively backward in social development, and were economically and politically dependent on the Kingdom of Hungary.
In 1526, the Ottoman Empire, which had risen in West Asia, marched north after conquering the Balkan Peninsula, and Hungary, guarding the southern gate of Central Europe, became the target of the Ottoman army.
▲ Conquered Hungary
The two armies encountered the small Hungarian town of Mohač, the Hun army was greatly defeated, and the Hungarian king Lajos II was killed in battle. Large swaths of Hungarian territory were conquered by the Ottomans. Only the western part of the kingdom bordering Austria (a state of the Holy Roman Empire) and the Slovak ghetto in the north remained unoccupied. The Hungarian capital was forced to move to Presburg (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia) where the Slovaks were concentrated.
Lajos II's sister married Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria (from the Habsburg family), and by marriage Ferdinand I succeeded to the Hungarian throne. In the same year Ferdinand I also received the throne of Bohemia, and Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia were brought under the habsburg rule.
Ferdinand I and his wife
In the 15th century, the exploitation of the Catholic Church sparked revolts in Central Europe and other places, and the Czechs fired the first shots of the Reformation. Since then, many wars wrapped in the cloak of religion have broken out on Czech soil, the Czech people have suffered greatly, and religious enthusiasm has gradually faded. The Slovaks, on the other hand, saw themselves as pure Catholics, and the two communities gradually became religiously alienated.
In 1620, the Habsburg monarch reduced Bohemia to a province. For the next 300 years, Germans continued to emigrate to the Czech Republic, and German culture remained strong in the Czech Republic.
Slovakia was also under Habsburg rule, but its fate was even more tragic. At the end of the 17th century, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire was curbed, and Hungary further strengthened in the process of recovering the lost territory, becoming the "second nation" in habsburg territory after the Austrians (Germans). Slovakia was still controlled by the Hungarian nobility, and the serf-manor economy greatly limited Slovakia's development.
▲ The powerful Habsburg family
In 1866, the Austrian Empire was defeated by Prussia and lost german dominance. Rising national sentiment, the Hungarians revolted, trying to break away from Habsburg rule. Austria's national policy was forced to shift from the previous struggle for German hegemony to the Balkans, and to try to establish a large multi-ethnic empire.
Since the Austrians (Germans) made up only 24% of the total population, in order to expand the basis of their rule and eliminate the rebellious consciousness of the Hungarians (the second largest ethnic group, 20% of the total population). In 1867, the Habsburg monarch and the Hungarian nobility reached the Austro-Hungarian Compromise. The Kingdom of Hungary gained political equality with the Austrian Empire, and both monarchs were Held by Habsburg monarchs, forming a dual monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a political entity externally, but internally it had two political systems. The Habsburg monarchy practiced an "enlightened monarchy" in Austria, and the Czech Republic under its rule gained a relaxed environment for development, and the capitalist economy developed rapidly. Slovakia came under Hungarian rule and the agrarian economy remained dominant.
▲ Ethnic distribution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Czech Republic, with 13% of the empire's population, contributed more than 70% of the industrial capacity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 60% of Empire's steel, 75% of its chemical products, and 92% of its sugar come from the Czech Republic.
The emerging machine building industry was even more prominent, with electrical equipment produced in the Czech republic being exported throughout Europe. In addition to the capitals of Austria and Hungary, Prague and Brno in the Czech Republic were the 3rd and 4th largest cities of the Empire, respectively.
▲ Prague
Slovakia's population was only 4% of that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and although serfdom was abolished, Slovakia developed slowly under the suppression of the Hungarian nobility. While Czech language schools and newspapers were being established, the use of the Slovak language was severely restricted by the Hungarians.
In the millennium after the 9th century, the Czech and Slovaks were influenced by Germany and Hungary respectively due to their long-term political separation, and then embarked on different development paths, but the same ethnic origins made the psychological ties between the two communities still close. As the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart in World War I, the choice of the fate of the nation was left to the Czech and Slovak races. In the case of the great powers, the Czech and Sith tribes hugged each other tightly for self-preservation.
Pre-war situation in Europe
Second, the choice of vulnerable peoples
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by Serbian nationalists. A month later, austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and major European countries were involved, and World War I broke out.
The czech military factories provided a steady stream of weapons and ammunition for the Austrian army. The modern war had terrible consequences, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire losing millions of troops in four years and the country suffering a heavy blow. Czechoslovak politicians, represented by Masaryk, took the opportunity to lobby European and American countries for national independence.
▲ Austro-Hungarian army
After the United States declared war on Germany and Austria, in 1918, US President Wilson proposed the famous "Fourteen Points of Peace Principle", Article 10 of which is "national self-determination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire".
The American proposal provided legal support for the independence of the Czechs and Slovaks, after all, the Austrians and Hungarians in the empire were less than half the population, and they did not have an overwhelming advantage, and other minorities had the right to determine the future and destiny of the nation.
Wilson
"National self-determination" requires that the dominant ethnic group account for more than 60% of the total population of the region, and as of 1918, there were about 13 million people living in the geographical area of Czechoslovakia, of which Czechs (6.8 million) and Slovaks (1.9 million) together barely reached 65% of the total population, and for historical reasons, more than 3 million Germans lived in the western Part of the Czech Republic (20% of the total population).
If Slovakia could not be united, the numerical superiority of the Czechs would be diluted by the Germans. Slovakia's small population and weak economy made it difficult to protect itself by separating its families, which prompted the two Slavic peoples of Czechoslovakia and Slovakia to unite.
On October 28, 1918, with the support of Britain and the United States and other countries, the Czech and Slovak communities announced the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic. Subsequently, Hungary and other places also declared independence, and the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also expelled by the Austrians, and the empire fell.
The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Czech and Slovak politicians have signed agreements. After agreeing to independence, Slovakia was given autonomy and had independent parliaments and courts. The reality, however, was that the Czechs had taken control of power and imposed a unitary system, i.e., the central government had absolute sovereignty over the territory, did not recognize the existence of a second political entity within the territory, and Slovakia's right to self-government was no longer invoked.
Compared with the Slovaks, the Czechs not only have a demographic advantage, but also control the economic dominance of the country. After the Hungarians were driven out, the long-suppressed Slovaks lacked a national elite to fill the gaps in the administrative system left by the Hungarians. The Czechs took advantage of the situation and occupied various administrative departments in Slovakia, and the Slovak schools were also filled with Czech teachers.
Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia
With the help of infiltration into the education system, Czech politicians began to deny the national identity of Slovakia, and they promoted "Czechization" in Slovakia under the banner of "Czechoslovakia".
But the Czechs, after all, have the same origin as the Slovak race, and do not oppress the Slovaks as the Hungarians. The economy of Slovakia also improved after independence, which eased the resistance of Slovaks.
German share in the Czech Republic (before World War II)
The turbulent situation in Europe in the 1930s also overshadowed the contradictions between the Czech and Slovak communities. Especially after Hitler came to power and Germany rose again, Czechoslovakia felt a huge threat, and more than 3 million Germans in czechoslovakia became a "dark thunder" that could explode at any time.
Hitler did have a plan for Czechoslovakia, especially the developed military industrial system of the Czech Republic would provide strong support for Hitler's war of expansion.
Before World War II, Czechoslovakia strengthened its military and other industrial sectors on the basis of the industry built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The industrial production capacity is higher than that of Japan, Spain and other countries, ranking seventh in the world.
▲ Germany's armament war
After Hitler annexed Austria, he made territorial claims to the Sudetenland, where Germans were concentrated in Czechoslovakia. The appeased Britain and France betrayed Czechoslovakia and agreed to Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in the form of the Munich Agreement in exchange for Germany not waging war. In March of the following year, the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia and annexed the remainder of the Czech region.
▲ Conspiracy in Munich
As for Slovakia, its southern highlands and the Eastern Carpathian region were ceded to Hungary by Germany in exchange for Hungarian support. Germany established a puppet regime in the remainder of Slovakia, and the first national power of the Slovaks took the form of such a form.
▲ Czechoslovakia was destroyed
In 1941, Hitler marched eastward to invade the Soviet Union. Due to the huge attrition of the war, in addition to the German military enterprises, the Czech military factories such as Skoda and Bruno also used full power to provide arms to the German army.
In 1945, soviet forces launched an all-out counteroffensive against Nazi Germany took control of Slovakia, and the Carpathian region, which had been occupied by Hungary, was annexed by the Soviet Union (present-day Carpathian Oblast, Ukraine). After World War II, Czechoslovakia regained its independence, and the confrontation between the East and the West made the two communities still choose to unite, which was also recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union. After the curtain of the Cold War fell, the Soviet Union eventually incorporated Czechoslovakia into the Soviet Union.
▲The territorial changes in Europe after World War II
Iii. Awakened Slovakia
After World War II, with the exception of the easternmost Transpathians, which were annexed by the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia continued its previous administrative divisions. But 3 million Germans living in the Czech Republic were expelled, and more than 700,000 Hungarians moved to Hungary through "national substitution". The combined population of the Czech and Slovak ethnic groups has increased from 65% before the war to 94%, the two ethnic groups have lost the political basis of "joint confrontation against other ethnic groups", and the contradictions between Czechs and Sri Lanka have become increasingly apparent.
In 1951, Khusak, the leader of the Slovak Communist Party, proposed "the introduction of federalism and the granting of the status of the political subject in Slovakia". But the ethnic Czech-controlled government accused Husak of being a "nationalist" and sentenced him to life in prison, and the Slovaks' claim to autonomy was suppressed.
After World War II, the Transcarpathians were assigned to the Soviet Union
In 1968, Dubček, of ethnic Slovak ethnicity, came to power in Czechoslovakia with the support of the Soviet Union. Dubček studied in the Soviet Union for many years, which also made him popular with the Soviets.
In order to safeguard the interests of the Slovaks, Dubček promoted the transformation of the organizational structure of the state from a unitary system to a federal system, that is, the state is composed of two political entities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the two are equal in status.
The supreme legislature was restructured to a bicameral system. The Lok Sabha uses equal population elections, while the Lok Sabha has 150 seats, with the Czech and Slovak nationalities accounting for half each.
▲ Dubček
Czechoslovakia was at the forefront of the confrontation between the East and the West, bordering Western countries, and the all-round confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union affected Czechoslovakia. Dubček sought to introduce market mechanisms and diplomatically strengthen interaction with Western countries, known as the "Prague Spring".
On August 20, 1968, the Warsaw Pact countries, led by the Soviet Union, invaded Czechoslovakia with 500,000 troops, forcibly interrupting the reform process, and Dubček stepped down shortly after.
The Prague Spring ended, but the "federal reforms" that were part of the New Deal were preserved. In 1969, Czechoslovakia established federalism, and Slovaks won political rights on an equal footing with Czechs.
Soviet troops enter Prague
To divide the Czechoslovak political elite and calm the tide of opposition in the Czech Republic. The Soviet Union brought out Khusak, a Slovak politician accused of being a "nationalist" in the 1950s.
Hussak maintained his administration of Czechoslovakia for 18 years, during which time Slovakia received strong support from the central government and greatly improved its economic development. By 1971, Slovakia's national income reached 78.9 per cent of that of the Czech Republic and 69.8 per cent of its industrial output, and the gap between the two was narrowing.
▲ Husak
Between 1970 and 1985, Czechoslovakia's national income increased by 80 per cent and industrial production by 95 per cent. During the same period, the national income of the Slovak region increased by 320%, and industrial production increased by 152%, which was higher than that of the Czech Republic. By the end of the 1980s, per capita income in Slovakia was equivalent to 90% of Czechs in the same period.
Slovakia's development benefited from the policy support of the central government, as well as the financial resources and technology provided by the Czech region, but the development of heavy industry and arms industry brought serious pollution to Slovakia. The Slovaks believed that the Czechs threw away their unwanted and tattered properties, while the Czechs did not want to be subsidized by Slovakia with their own money.
▲ Military factories in Slovakia
In the 1980s, the planned economic system brought Czechoslovakia's development to a standstill, and its economic growth averaged only 1.3% from 1981 to 1989. As a result, Czechoslovakia's level of development could not keep up with its Western European neighbors. The decline in living standards led to a boiling of public discontent, and in 1989 the political turmoil in Poland further intensified the situation in Czechoslovakia, and the upheavals in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe began.
▲ Upheavals in Eastern Europe
Fourth, velvet separation
In November 1989, Czechoslovakia resumed parliamentary democracy and broke away from the Soviet bloc. Because this movement did not cause large-scale casualties, the transformation of the government was as smooth as velvet, so it was called the "velvet revolution".
After the Velvet Revolution, the Czech Javier was elected federal president, the Slovak Charfa was elected prime minister of the government, and how to coordinate the interests of the two communities became a major problem facing the new regime.
▲ Velvet Revolution
In 1990, Slovakia proposed to add a dash to the middle of the country's name to indicate the reciprocal relationship between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Czechs mostly consider themselves to be part of the "Czechoslovak" ethnic group, but Slovaks consider the two to be two ethnic groups of the same origin.
As nationalist parties won local elections in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, tensions between the two communities over political views, economic interests, and religious perceptions intensified, and voices of independence emerged in Slovakia.
To this end, the Federal Government has proposed a power-sharing plan to finalize the competence of the Federal Government and the Republics. The Czechs believed that Slovakia would not be separated and that the negotiations would be just "handouts and beatings" to the Slovaks. This view is not without merit, slovakia's development depends on Czech support, and polls show that only 11% and 17% of Czechs and Slovaks support the separation of families.
President Javier of Czechoslovakia (raiser)
But Slovak politicians are not the same as the people, who are constantly raising their asking prices in an attempt to gain political gain. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia made the establishment of a nation-state a political goal for Slovak politicians. Slovakia's local ruling party demanded the creation of a loose confederation, i.e. the preservation of all sovereign state rights on the basis of economic support from the Czech Republic.
The Czechs, who control the central government, can't stand it anymore and try to resolve the dispute through a referendum. While the vast majority of the Slovak population wanted to keep the federation, Slovak politicians wanted to establish their own nation-state. Due to political structure problems, Slovak parliamentarians make up half of the parliament, and they have repeatedly voted down the referendum bill despite popular opposition.
▲Economic problems are also an inducement for separation
In the end, without popular participation, the politicians of the Czech and Slovak ethnic groups decided the fate of the separation of the country. In July 1992, the Parliament adopted the Law on the Dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic. On January 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia officially separated, known in history as the "Velvet Separation".
There are many reasons for the velvet separation, but in addition to external factors, what is more important is the flaws in the country's internal political system, the carelessness of the Czechs, and the short-sightedness of Slovak politicians
▲ The leaders of Slovakia and Czech Republic signed the dissolution bill
The border between the Czech and Slovak ethnic groups is clear, there is no large-scale ethnic mixing, and it has become the only country in Eastern Europe to peacefully disintegrate after the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Now that both countries have joined the European Union and NATO, Czechos and Slovakia are still each other's main trading partners (ranking in the top three of their respective import and export lists), and cultural and economic exchanges are close.
Tens of thousands of citizens of each country have long settled in each other's country, and Babiš, the second richest czech country and prime minister from 2017-2021, is born in Slovakia.
After the separation, the Czech Republic adopted the Czechoslovak flag, and independence day was still 28 October (Czechoslovak Independence Day), while Slovakia designated July 17, as independence day, as the adoption of the Law on the Disintegration of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic.
In 2018, the Czech Republic held the commemoration of the "100th Anniversary of the Founding of Czechoslovakia". That former country still exists in the hearts of the people of the two countries, but the years of unity have become historical memories and will not return.
The 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia