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Relations and analogies of historical, social and cultural nature between the Poles and Slovaks in the past were intense and reflected in various spheres of our life. Slovak-Polish relations in the 20th century were and still are in the shadow of Polish-Czech relations. Moreover, it could be said that a considerable part of Polish society perceived Czechoslovakia mostly as a Czech state and that its perception of the Slovaks and Slovakia was dominated by this view. a similar optic, although to a lesser extent, is symptomatic for a part of Polish historiography dealing with Polish-Czechoslovak relations. Last but not least, the mainstream of Czech historical production dedicated to the Czechoslovak-Polish relations reflected the Slovak aspect rather marginally. These circumstances result to a great extent from the constitutional model of the centralized Czechoslovak state (Czechoslovak Republic and, after 1960, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic – ČSSR), although the mentioned Polish perception of Czechoslovakia as a Czech state plays a certain role too. In historiography, this fact is reflected by a relative small number of research works devoted to the Slovak-Polish questions, nay – it affects the degree of knowledge about Slovak-Polish relations in the yesteryear and the way, how the Slovaks and Poles perceive each other. The presented publication titled Neighborhood in the Period of Crucial Changes is dealing with selected aspects of Czechoslovak-Polish relations during 1943 – 1948. Its ambition is to mention some of the specific questions of Slovak-Polish relations in the 1940’s. Although the considerations of the authors of particular articles in this book surveying the period starting with the final phase of the Second World War until 1948 are based on the Czechoslovak context, they are primarily focusing Slovak historical aspects and Slovak-Polish issues in this period. Both the macroand micro-levels of these relations are reflected, such as the Polish-Czech-Slovak political relations in the exile in the final stage of World War 2, the international background and the attitude of the Great Powers towards Czechoslovakia and Poland, further the bilateral relations between both countries immediately after WW2, and finally – the situation in the Czechoslovak-Polish, or more accurately, the Slovak-Polish border regions. Dušan Segeš is focusing on the final period (1943 – 1945) of official diplomatic relations between the Czechoslovak and the Polish government in exile residing in London. These relations were interrupted in January 1945, after the decision taken by Czechoslovak authorities in exile to recognize the Polish Committee of National Liberation headed by the communists and close collaborationists of Stalin’s Soviet Union. Segeš is presenting the details of the diplomatic faux pas caused by the Czechoslovak Ambassador in Moscow Zdeněk Fielinger in 1944, and further, among other Czechoslovak-Polish issues, a unique document written by President Edvard Beneš in April 1944, which is his personal account of the CzechoslovakPolish political relations in the exile. Slavomír Michálek’s study is dealing with the Czechoslovak foreign policy in the immediate after-war period (1945 – 1947), taking into consideration the possibilities of its orientation and the international context and reality of that time. The author is paying attention to the Czechoslovak project of “bridge building” between the East and the West (with the President Edvard Beneš and Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk as its major advocates), giving special examples such as the European Recovery Program (the so-called MarshallPlan) where this Czechoslovak strategy was put through the mill and, in the long run, failed. František Cséfalvay is reflecting the activities of home-resistance and partisan groups operating in the Slovak-Polish border regions in 1944, mostly on the Slovak side of this border. Jan Štaigl deals with the specifics of security situation in the northern region Orava as a consequence of re-allocating of some of the parts of it to the Polish authority. The author is taking into account the development within both the regions incorporated to Poland and the Slovak parts of Orava and Spiš, from the entry of the Red Army to these territories up to the year 1947. This year meant a breakthrough in the bilateral relations between Czechoslovakia and Poland due to the signing of Czechoslovak-Polish treaty on friendship, cooperation and solidarity. Štaigl mainly reflects the activities in the Polish-Slovak border zone of the Polish military group “Błyskawica”, headed by Józef Kuraś “Ogień”. The members of this military formation were involved in persecutions of Slovaks living in Poland after WW2; moreover, they were organized robberies of Slovak villages in Czechoslovakia. Štaigl is focusing on the actions taken by the Czechoslovak Army and Slovak armed forces against the troops of “Ogień” and their cooperation with Polish security forces in order to liquidate these troops. Matej Andráš is paying attention to chosen aspects of the Czechoslovak-Polish relations during 1945 – 1948, in particular focusing on territorial changes alongside the Czechoslovak-/ Slovak-Polish border and the situation of Slovak inhabitants of Upper Orava and the Northern Spiš living in Poland after the Second World War. Andráš’s description of this topic is based on research of materials from historical and diplomatic archives, using also data from his own personal archive that was collected during his active diplomatic career in the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

History --- Geography, Regional studies --- Diplomatic history --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Security and defense --- WW II and following years (1940 - 1949) --- Poland --- Historiography.

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Author’s goal in the presented monograph was to analyze the democratisation process in Czechoslovakia of that era, by taking into acount the development in Slovak part of Republic, which in that time had merely a status of a province. He could, however, not ignore the crutial tendencies, that were inherent in the whole Czechoslovak Republic or within the Soviet bloc, since the development in Slovakia was fundamentally infl uenced by these tendencies. In the presented book author is focusing on political evolution only, since separate publications dealing with the economic and cultural aspects in Slovakia of that period are synchronously prepared by other Slovak historians. The book is divided into fi ve chapters. First of them is dealing with the cautious and moderate liberalization in Slovakia during the so-called „pre-spring“ (1963–1967), since the revival process of 1968 had its evolution and did not came out from nowhere. In 1968, the democratic tendencies, that started some years before, were solely intensifi ed. The second chapter is analyzing the political development in Slovakia and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic during the fi rst months of 1968, when the promoters of reforms were strenghtening their power possitions and preparing the programme of reforms: the known Action Programme of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. A detailed analysis of this documment is an integral part of the second chapter. In the third chapter titled „Reformers and Conservativists“, the author’s ambition was to give an account of the complicated development taking place in the leadership of the Communist Party of Slovakia, which resulted from the polarization between the adherents of reforms on the one hand and their adversaries in the other hand. The reformers understood the necessity of modernisation of the Soviet-type socialism by perceiving and adopting global development trends in the world, especially the so-called third wave (scientifi c-technical revolution). They knew as well, that it is impossible to undertake such a step without democratization of not only the economic, but also the political system. The conservativists, concentrated mostly in the bureaucratic aparate of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia – the strongest part of the whole socialist political system, were deeply concerned about such a possibility. They were aware, that the democratization tendencies implemented in the economics and politics create a strong pressure on bureaucratic structures of the party-leadership and that their own political existence is strongly questionable by this fact. The fourth chapter is focused on the main question, that is: what is the reason for the fact, that the democratization process (actually processes) in the Czech and the Slovak parts of the Republic were going different ways? Both national communities were pursuing non-identical priorities of this movement, such as the revived civic society in both parts of the state acted differently and followed disparate goals. In order to fi nd an answer this question, the mentioned chapter is based on the analysis of the reasons and concrete symptoms of these differences. In this (and partly also in the fi rst) chapter, the author is paying some attention to the national minorities living in Czechoslovakia – the Hungarian, Ruthenian/Ukrainian, and the Roma-minority, and their perceptions of the reformation process. The fi fth (fi nal) chapter called „The end of reform“ is dealing with the culmination of the democratization process in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, with the failed attempt of the consolidation of this process initiated by the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. This chapter speaks also about the brutal attacks on Czechoslovak reform-attempt comming from the Warsaw-Pact states and about the military invasion of „Five“. The mentioned chapter of the book describes the adoption of the Act concerning the „temporary“ stay of Soviet military troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia in the mid-October 1968 – that means the legalization of occupation of the country.

History --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Post-War period (1950 - 1989) --- History of Communism --- Slovakia --- Politics and government.

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The chapters of the 20th century history creating this book deal with the important moments from the history of modern Slovakia in the changing world. The authors – friends and disciples of PhDr. Valarián Bystrický, DrSc. – are presenting here the newest results of their research and its critical evaluation. What they all have in common with Valerián Bystrický is the conviction that the 20th century Slovakia kept the same developing rhythm as the rest of the world. They agree with his opinion that the Slovak history of this period has to be studied and interpreted from a global perspective. The detailed knowledge of internal changes in Slovakia following its separation from Hungary, of amalgamating the Czechs and Slovaks in the common Czechoslovak state with all its internal and international problems and with its Central European political, economical and cultural context, enables to understand also the contemporary shape of the Slovak Republic – a sovereign state and a member of the European Union. The 20th century world had been changing as well as the Slovak historiography that reflected those changes. And as it is shown in the first chapter of this book, the scientific achievements of Valerián Bystrický are important and integral part of it. They deal with international affairs between the two world wars, with the interwar problems of the Balkans and in the same time with the history of Slovakia. In not so distant period the regime pressure on a creative individuality was hardly bearable. Not every scientist was able to resist it in the same way even on the ground of one academic institution. But Valerián Bystrický succeeded to preserve the clean shield in clash with this period as an author of historical writings and after 1989 as a manager of science. In 1998 – 2006, being a director of the Institute of History of the SAS, he had helped to create the healthy conditions for a free scientific research, where no methods of one historical school would prevail over the others. He should be respected for that. This book intentionally begins with the chapter on demographic development of Bratislava. In the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries, protagonists of the Slovak national movement often regretted that Slovakia did not had a significantly Slovak, city-like national and administrative center. In 1919 it was Vavro Šrobár, the minister for Slovakia, who insisted on the Slovak character of Bratislava. Milan Zemko begins his chapter with the statement that the development of every capital of each state, the progressing of its social and national structure, indicates a lot about the development of the whole country. In the 20th century, Bratislava was officially the capital of an independent state only in 1939 – 1945 and then again from 1993. But already in 1919 it started the career of an informal political administrative, economical and step-by-step also cultural centre of Slovakia – a country with 3 million inhabitants that was part of a newborn Czechoslovak state. This new situation strengthened by internal and external political factors, had caused great changes in “the city upon Danube”, including the changes of its ethnical structure. And Milan Zemko concentrates mainly – using the statistics from the first half of the 20th century – on the transformation of the Bratislava multiethnic character and its gradual “Slovakization”. The following three chapters deal with the history of the Czechoslovak and Slovak political parties in interwar period. Natália Krajčovičová examines the history of the Slovak agrarian political movement – the formation of the Agrarian Party in Slovakia, its unification with the Czechoslovak agrarians and the following development of the party, which significantly influenced the Slovak and the Czechoslovak political scene until the turbulent year 1938. Jaroslava Roguľová focuses on the autonomist program of the Slovak National Party and its significant theoretical ideas and deals also with the standpoints of this party towards reforms of the political administration. The result of her analysis is the characteristic of the four periods of the Slovak National Party autonomist program from 1918 to 1938. In the chapter written by Alena Bartlová the Czechoslovak agrarianism crosses the borders of the republic. In the focus of it is the participation of Dr. Milan Hodža on the international cooperation of agrarian political parties in the Eastern-Central Europe in the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s. The text shows Hodža’s efforts to cooperate with the politicians from Polish and Bulgarian Agrarian Parties and also its limits: the agrarian politicians were not able to consider the broad spectrum of their societies and the crucial specific problems of other classes. After the World War I Europe hoped for everlasting peace, social justice, stability and prosperity. But this optimism of citizens failed. Instead of it there had risen fear of the countries, which were not satisfied by the peace treaties and wanted to revise them. Czechoslovakia tried to face it by building and strengthening its armed forces. Miloslav Čaplovič in his chapter writes about the specific and important theme – organization and activities of the Czechoslovak military intelligence service in 1919 – 1939. In another chapter Bohumila Ferenčuhová focuses on problems of regional and European security from the perspective of diplomacy. She examines the negotiations that had led to the treaty between Romania and France in 1926 and analyzes the role of this treaty in the Versailles peace treaties system. Even in the period of European pacifism, Central and South-Eastern Europe from the Adriatic to the Baltic had to consider interests, positions and the territorial claims of the two for this once returning powers – Germany and the U.S.S.R. Not long ago the objective analysis of the great power policy of Russia and the U.S.S.R. towards Central Europe and the Balkans was a theme that belonged to less frequently researched and almost taboo themes in the Soviet block historiography. Ľubica Harbuľová in her chapter brings a detailed analysis of contemporary results of the Russian historiography dealing with the Czechoslovak history, which are based upon the materials from the former inaccessible archival funds. The Munich of 1938 represents one of the key and dark moments in the Czechoslovak history. The chapter written by Jindřich Dejmek follows less known aspect of this problem. He analyses the permanent and persistent diplomatic activities of Dr. Edvard Beneš that led in 1942 to the declaration of the Munich Agreement for not valid. His success helped to restore the postwar Czechoslovakia in the borders from 1938 (without Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia). The part prepared by Ondrej Podelec deals with the Slovak Republic in 1939 – 1945. It is a thorough analysis of the trials in which the Slovak courts of justice tried in absence the members of political exile and the author examines their legislative background and judgment practices. Due to long lasting procedures of the tribunals some cases were not concluded till the decline of the state in 1945, as it was the trial with Štefan Osuský and co. This analysis also shows, that since autumn 1944 the Slovak judicature was not able to resist political pressure of the regime and the German occupation forces. The chapter written by Slavomír Michálek bridges the war and postwar periods from the perspective of the U. S. – Czechoslovak economic relations. Projects like lend – lease and UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) were part of a specific U. S. help for the countries that had suffered under the German occupation and expansion. Among them was also Czechoslovakia. Her citizens understood very well that the massive UNRRA activities were an American project. Therefore the Czechoslovak communists played down its importance and trivialized its economic effect, because the help from the capitalist country did not fit to their schemes and political goals. After World War II, the limited parliamentary democracy was restored in Czechoslovakia. But this regime differed from the parliamentary system of the first Czechoslovak Republic. The so-called people’s democracy considered the Czechoslovak citizens (except German and Hungarian minorities) as a special kind of plurality and democracy. But it had not been an idea only of the communists who saw in it a transitional step towards their own regime. The democratic parts of domestic and exile resistance contributed to its birth, too. Michal Barnovský in his text compares Polish and Czechoslovak road to one party regime. The specifics and differences between them had not been so significant for establishing a communist regime, but they played an important role in the following development. The attempts to change the Stalinist regimes in Poland and Hungary in 1956 had many-sided influence on the neighboring countries. Dagmar Čierna-Lantayová in her chapter describes the rise of opposition moods among students and intellectuals in Slovakia. But in contrast to Hungary, the socio-political tension was not eruptive enough for mass protests. This was one of the causes why the support for the events in Hungary had been so minimal. Half-hearted attempts of the press to express other than official opinion, were played down prevented by “watchful” censorship. In December 1956, the Czechoslovak communist party officially condemned “the attempt of counter-revolutionary coup d’état in Hungary”. The communist control over the Slovak society had even deepened. Events in Central Europe in 1956 were overshadowed by a global clash of the great powers. Karol Sorby’s chapter shows that the failure of the British and French “Suez adventure” made it easier for USA to take over the leading role in the region. According to the Eisenhower doctrine “power vacuum” in the Middle East had to be filled in by the United States in order to stop the communist – especially Soviet – infiltration of this part of the world. But in the eyes of Arabic nationalists the Suez crisis destroyed the myth of Soviet threat to the security of the region. They viewed the Soviet Middle East policy as more sensitive towards their interests. Sorby analyzes and compares politics of different Arabic states after the formation of Eisenhower doctrine and evaluates its global consequences. For some independent Slovak intellectuals it was difficult to let themselves tie down by the communist regime. Jozef Leikert in his chapter deals with the case of journalist and writer Ladislav Mňačko, whose emigration to Israel in the late 1960s was an act of opposition to the anti-Israeli politics of Czechoslovakia. Through the interviews of Jozef Leikert with Ladislav Mňačko, various authors of Kultúrny život (journal Cultural Life) and members of the Union of Slovak writers we may be involved not only in the atmosphere of this period, but we will meet oppositionists and conformists among the Slovak intelligentsia, too. So-called normalization in 1970 – 1989 almost returned Slovakia to the stuffy atmosphere of the 1950s. That is why we decided to close this book not with the independent and proud attitude of Ladislav Mňačko, but we return back to the phenomenon typical for the whole period of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. In the years 1948 – 1989 it was very important for communists to control churches, because they considered them potential opposition in Slovakia. Jan Pešek examines in his text the institutional instruments of this control: legislation, activities of the Slovak Office for Church Affairs as a highest state authority for regulation and control of churches (which actually did not change during the whole 40 years of the communist regime), church policy of the communist Party and the (mal-)practices of the State security towards churches. Despite protests from domestic and foreign Church authorities – especially RomanCatholic – the regime did not modify either the spirit or the letter of the so-called Church Acts from 1949. The fundamental change came only with the “velvet revolution” in 1989: the communist regime collapsed and the apparatus for the control of churches has gone to the history.

Christian Theology and Religion --- History --- Economy --- Cultural history --- Agriculture --- Diplomatic history --- Economic history --- Military history --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Theology and Religion --- History of Communism --- Slovakia --- History.

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During and after World War II, Slovakia underwent massive political, economic, social and state constitutional changes. Being the part of the international events of the “hot” and Cold War, it had been brand marked by the two nondemocratic, totalitarian regimes – fascist and communist. After the Slovak Republic, which was in 1939 – 1945 a satellite state of the Nazi Germany, Slovakia became a part of the reconstructed Czechoslovak Republic with its specific system of “the limited democracy”. The communist coup d’état in February 1948 had brought the country under the rule of another totalitarian regime, spreading from Moscow to all states of the Soviet block. Though, the Czechoslovak society in 1968 tried to reform the communist system, it was unsuccessful in the same way as some other Soviet block countries, which also attempted to disengage the chains of the Soviet imposed regime. This period of the modern Slovak history has been – mainly after 1989 – a subject of numerous studies. Nevertheless, it is still researched only partially, some problems more other less. At the most is missing the synthesis of the contemporary history of Slovakia. The Institute of History of SAS is trying to fill this gape with a project Slovakia in the 20th century granted by the state Agency for Support of Science and Research. The part of this project will be the collective monograph (as the volume V) dealing with the history of Slovakia in 1945 – 1968, and its authors plan for the future also the next, sixth, volume of this synthesis. The book Chapters from the Slovak Contemporary History, which now the reader has in his hands, is also aimed at the presentation of some key or important problems of the Slovak war and postwar history. But it is not the only goal. The publication is also a tribute to the 70. life jubilee of an outstanding Slovak historian Michal Barnovský. His forty-five years of scientific career in the Institute of History have enriched the Slovak historiography in the field of the contemporary Slovak history. In which researched themes and to what extend, the reader may find in the introductory article and in the selected bibliography of Dr. Barnovský. The book begins with chapters showing the multiplicity of the history of the Slovakia and the Slovak question during World War II. The first one (author Jozef Bystrický) describes the role, which the Slovak army played in the plans of the Czechoslovak Ministry of National Defense (MND) in London in 1943 – 1944. Various documents, especially the Directives from 1943, enclosed the views of the London exile, how to engage the army of the Slovak state in the rising against its regime and in military resistance against the Nazi Germany. Though, the Military Headquarters in Slovakia preparing and then in August 1944 realizing the uprising had had to take in account the specific situation on the Slovak territory at the given moment, the MND instructions and directives influenced highly positive the contents, character and the quality of the military-technical arrangements for the rising. The second chapter of this Slovak state points at issue deals with the specific phenomenon of the regime propaganda. In this connection the author Marína Zavacká analyses a Slovak state journal Vĺča (The Young Wolf) for boys of age between 6 and 10, members of Wolf corps of the Hlinka’s Youth organization. It served as a regime-sponsored source of officially approved children’s role-models, including patterns of deeds to be followed. The study summarizes different propagandist vehicles used for making up heroic stories, ranging from social sacrifice to the sacrifice of life. Following four chapters concentrate on several important problems during the period of “the limited democracy”. One of the crucial questions of those times was the position of the Slovakia in the newly reconstructed republic and the search for the model of the future co-existence of the Czechs and Slovaks. Marek Syrný in his text examines this complicated problem from the point of view Democratic Party (DP), which arouse from the Slovak National Uprising as the strongest noncommunist political subject in Slovakia. The idea of its leaders was the Czechoslovakia as de facto federal state. The decline of this DP plans was pronounced in the course of discussions to the three Prague agreements, which had been till February 1948 more and more influenced by the struggle for power between democrats and communists. The next chapter by Slavomír Michálek shows one of the key problems of this period in the sphere of the foreign policy: the aims and the activities of the Czechoslovak delegation at the Paris Peace Conference 1946, which were concentrated on the preparation of the treaty with Hungary. Beside the participation of the two leading figures of the delegation – Jan Masaryk and Vladimír Clementis – the author follows especially Juraj Slávik. Slovak born Slávik, who during his professional life belonged to the influential personalities of the Czechoslovak policy and diplomacy, participated at the finalizing the peace treaty texts regarding Hungary. Although the Slovaks felt the Hungarian problem as the most important for them, there had been another national community in Slovakia which postwar destiny radically changed. The German minority had been evacuated by German authorities, before the Red Army had crossed the Slovak borders (the chapter written by Milan Olejník). After the war had ended many of the Germans returned home, but there they fell under the decrees of President Beneš. Due to them they lost the Czechoslovak citizenship, underwent political, economic and social discrimination and 32-tousand of them were expelled. In 1948 to the rest of them the citizenship was returned, but the minority rights they have been lacking until 1989. The last chapter covering the period 1945 – 1948 belongs to the commentated document in which the French Consul General in Bratislava E. M. Manac’h informs his government about the key political phenomena in Slovakia during the Czechoslovak crisis in February 1948. The commentator of the material – published in Slovak translation and in French original – Pavol Petruf stresses, that E. M. Manac’h stated that the events between 21 and 27 February 1948 had shown the communists, in comparison to their democratic opponents, as better prepared for solving the batte for power. Couple of problems connected with the the communist coup d’état in February 1948 are the subject of another chapters. Miroslav Londák in his text analyses the changes of the economy system in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, which had taken place in the first, “founding” period of the new regime. They resulted into the socalled socialist economy, based almost entirely upon the state ownership and directed by the centrally composed five years plans. The author also points out the specifics of the development in Slovakia and the determinants of its socialist industrialization. Another sector of economy – the agrarian one, is the topic of the chapter written by Viera Hlavová. The strategy of the communists immediately after the war was to get peasants on their side and therefore they had rejected the cooperatives of the Soviet type. But after the February 1948 the primary task became to re-orient the small agrarian production to the large-scale socialist one, to form state agricultural enterprises and, in the same time, to fight the “capitalist elements” in the country. The village had been transformed according to the Soviet mode, without respecting the specifics of the Czechoslovak and Slovak agriculture. The same regime changes as upon the Slovaks, dropped down upon the members of the Hungarian minority. In addition to it – as Soňa Gabzdilová-Olejníková states – immediately after the coup d’état the exchange of the inhabitants between Czechoslovakia and Hungary continued, the plans were made for the second stage of re-Slovakization and there was no hope for in the Czech lands deported Hungarians to return back to Slovakia. In this respect the situation changed with incorporation of the principles of so-called proletarian internationalism into the mutual relations between the communist parties of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The communist coup d’état influenced also the Slovak postwar emigration, which had been concentrated at the free and independent Slovakia. As Karel Kaplan in his chapter analyses, this Slovak exile was for a long time devided, but after the February 1948 Karol Sidor – one of the leading figures of the Slovak autonomist émigrés – successfully formed the Slovak National Council Abroad, the umbrella organization of the Slovak political exile. The direct influence of the exile states in his text also Vladimír Varinský, who surveys the formation of The White Legion organizations in Slovakia. Although it was possible, that some of these organizations provoked the State Security, the newest research shows that the main cause of their secret existence and activities was a spontaneous resistance of the people against the practices of a new regime. And the reaction of the communist establishment was persecutions. The most brutal form of them had been the framed political trials and the two of them from the beginning of the 50ties depicts in his chapter Jozef Leikert. Based upon the archival research, but mostly upon oral testimony he analyses them from the point of view of their insider, journalist and writer Ladislav Mňačko. He witnessed these trials as the daily news Pravda journalist and influenced the public in accordance with the regime propaganda. But later on he came round to realize its fabricated character and confessed his part of guilt. In the shadow of the “founding” period of the communist system with its totalitarian practices and persecutions stays the sometimes natural development – though politically and ideologically distorted – of various phenomena in the Slovak society. One of them, the development of the Slovak science from its half-amateur stage to internationally accepted partner, shows in her chapter Elena Londáková. She concentrates on the Slovak Academy of Sciences, but deals also with the complex of the state and party policy towards the science and its various branches. On the outside and from the point of view of communist leaders the “founding” period represented a successful establishing of the communist system. But already in this time there were the signs of the crisis, which is immanent to this type of regime. Jiří Pernes in his text summarizes the various opinions regarding its beginnings. Unlike Karel Kaplan, who talks about the crisis in 1953 – 1957, Pernes inclines to take in account deeper tokens of it, which perhaps started the crisis development already in the early 50ties. With the chapter of Václav Vondrášek the themes of the publication move chronologically to the history of the 60ties. He surveys the activities of the Hlinka’s Peoples Party exile at the turn of 50ties and 60ties and the countermeasures of the communist establishment in Slovakia. The efforts to unify this exile abroad, watched the communist regime in Czechoslovakia with suspicion. As the reaction, the State Security activities towards the potential followers of this exile branch started to intensify. So much more that in connection with the further restriction of power of the Slovak national institutions and worsening of the economic situation the discontent in Slovakia had grown. This special Slovak national discontent created also one of the differences in perception of the “Prague Spring” in the Czech and Slovak societies. As the author of this chapter, Stanislav Sikora states, during the attempt to reform the Soviet type of socialism in 1968, both state building nations in Czechoslovakia had their own conceptions of the democratization process. While in the Czech lands the priority was the general democratization of the political system, Slovaks felt it as the opportunity for the further national emancipation. But the newest studies also show that also the Slovak society was more diversified than this traditional characteristic says. The next chapter of the book treats the staffing transgression of the communist regime into the activities of the Slovak Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession in 1948 – 1989. Jan Pešek in his text analyses the communist regime attempts to rule over all spheres of the society, including the churches. In the case of Slovak Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession the establishment used the traditional election of all church and laic authorities for its own purposes. With various practices influenced the elections to the benefit of persons, willing to cooperate with the regime. In this way the ability of the Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession to resist the pressure of the communist system had been markedly weakened. Also the following chapter treats a specific issue. Jan Rychlík surveys the travel relations between Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1980 – 1989. The point is that in connection with the strikes in Poland and forming the independent trade union Solidarity, the Czechoslovak authorities started to be afraid of the free travel possibilities between two countries. There were two causes for this fear: political and economic. The author very precisely documents the official measures and economic circumstances, which for more than a decade regulated the travel transfer between the Czechoslovakia and Poland. The last chapter of the book by Juraj Marušiak bridges the history and contemporary development. It is an analysis of the perception of the past by the Slovak society and of its influence on the development after the November 1989. The author concentrates on the perception of the two totalitarian regimes – that of the war Slovak state and of the communist period. He comes to conclusion that in the Slovakia the roots of democratic tradition are not strong enough, which should be the result of the political system before 1918. Both totalitarian regimes of the 20th century used these behavior patterns of the population and on the other hand a great part of the people identified themselves with these regimes.

Politics / Political Sciences --- Christian Theology and Religion --- Politics --- History --- Social Sciences --- Sociology --- Diplomatic history --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Theology and Religion --- Security and defense --- History of Communism --- Ethnic Minorities Studies --- Slovakia --- History.

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The formation of the Czechoslovak Republic was confirmed officially on October 28 and 30, 1918 by passing two constitutional acts – the Proclamation of the Czechoslovak National Council in Prague and the Declaration of the Slovak Nation in Turčiansky Svätý Martin. The implementation of Czechoslovak independent statehood, however, required another two years of consolidation in the territory of Slovakia, a period which ended by signing the Treaty of Trianon in June 1920. The period between these two milestones – October 1918 and June 1920 – was exceptionally demanding for Slovakia and its leading politicians. The author presents in her work “Slovakia on its Path to Democracy“ the complex problems that emerged immediately after the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic and that were closely connected with the process of integration of Slovakia into the new state. The crucial problem was especially the great gap caused by different levels of development of Slovakia and the Czech lands. It was exactly this feature that gave rise to new problems in the process of integration of the two territories. The Office of the Minister Plenipotentiary for the Administration of Slovakia was temporarily in charge of the consolidation of the new political situation. The Minister’s task was made more difficult by the efforts of Hungary to regain the territory of Slovakia or at least a part of it. This “war after the war” complicated the proper functioning of the administration and of the democratisation process in Slovakia, which was lawfully initiated and codified by the Revolutionary National Assembly. Many of its provisions could be implemented in the Czech lands only, as Slovakia had to be put under martial law in March 1919 because of new war events, with a military dictatorship being introduced in June 1919. Supplying the citizens with basic needs became more difficult, which led to an increase of post-war social tensions, disgruntled minorities, and even more complicating consequences on the domestic political scene. The author, besides describing the first steps that were made after the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic and the ideological and programmatic trends of Slovak policy, analyses some key issues that the Ministry Plenipotentiary had to face. These were closely linked to the changes in administration, staffing and funding, and the overall authoritative character of the post-war regime in Slovakia. Along with the national, economic, and social difficulties, they influenced the outcome of the general elections in 1920, which did not favour the Slovak middle-class parties, but made leftist parties victorious. In this context, the author focuses on certain prominent personalities of this era: especially Vavro Šrobár, Milan Hodža, and Juraj Slávik. They were representatives of the new Slovakia not only as government ministers, but also as leading politicians of the Agrarian Party, which played an important ideological, political, and economic role in Czechoslovakia from its beginning to its end. It is obvious that some problems that emerged immediately after the formation of Czechoslovakia (e.g. the struggle for Slovak autonomy and official recognition of Slovak national identity) and were not properly resolved, continued to reproduce themselves. They polarised the Slovak political scene to an unfortunately large degree, reappeared after twenty years in a more radical form, and proved fatal to the Republic as a whole and to Slovakia in 1938.

Politics / Political Sciences --- Politics --- History --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Government/Political systems --- Pre-WW I WW I (1900 -1919) --- Interwar Period (1920 - 1939) --- WW II and following years (1940 - 1949) --- History of Communism --- Slovakia --- Politics and government