12 - The Slovak state, 1939–1945

Summary

The regime

The establishment of the Slovak state was announced in Bratislava on 14 March 1939, and was the result of a deep political and moral crisis in Europe, German aggression and the break-up of pre-Munich Czechoslovakia. This series of events determined not only the foreign and internal policy of the new state, but also the duration of its existence. In terms of its area and population Slovakia was one of the world's smallest countries. It had an area of 38,000 km² and a population of 2.6 million, 85% of whom declared Slovak nationality (as of the census of 31 December 1938). The remaining 15% included Germans (4.8%), Czechs (2.9%), Ruthenians (2.6%), Magyars (2.1%), Jews (1.1%), Gypsies (sic, 0.9%), Poles (0.1%), and others (0.1%). More than half the population was employed in the agricultural sector.

The state was administratively divided into six counties and sixty-one districts. The capital city was Bratislava, which contained some 120,000 inhabitants. According to the constitution, the Slovak state had a republican system, and its official name was the Slovak Republic. The government was led by a president; from October 1939, this was the Catholic priest Jozef Tiso, who had previously been the prime minister, and was at the time the leader of the ruling Hlinka's Slovak People's Party. The supreme legislative body of the state was the Diet (Snem) of the Slovak Republic, elected in December 1938 as the parliament of an autonomous Slovakia within the framework of the Czecho-Slovak state, and not as the parliament of an independent state.