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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 November 2008
This article examines the complex relationship between Catholics, communists, and democrats in connection with the battle over the nationalisation of Slovakia's schools in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. While the Catholic Church defended parochial education, at times in ways that the state would not tolerate, the communists championed a state education monopoly, although with some tactical regard for Catholic sensibilities. The democrats used the education issue to curry favour with Catholics, a move that backfired when they were unable to deliver on the hopes that Catholics placed in their party.
Cet article étudie les relations complexes entre catholiques, communistes et démocrates dans les tensions nées de la nationalisation des écoles slovaques dans l'immédiat après-Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Alors que l'église catholique défendait l'éducation paroissiale – parfois d'une manière intolérable pour l'Etat – les communistes prônaient le monopole étatique en matière d'éducation avec une certaine considération d'ordre tactique pour les sensibilités catholiques. Les démocrates enfin se servaient le thème de l'éducation pour favoriser un rapprochement avec les catholiques. A tort, puisque ces projets se sont rapidement retournés contre eux dès lors qu'il parût évident qu'ils étaient incapables de satisfaire les espoirs que les catholiques avaient placés dans leur parti.
Dieser Artikel untersucht die komplexe Beziehung zwischen Katholiken, Kommunisten und Demokraten in Bezug auf den Kampf um die Nationalisierung der slowakischen Schulen unmittelbar nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Während die katholische Kirche die Bildung durch die Pfarrgemeinde manchmal mit einem für den Staat untolerierbaren Eifer verteidigte, verfochten die Kommunisten das staatliche Bildungsmonopol, indem sie Rücksicht auf bestimmte Anliegen der Katholiken nahmen. Die Demokraten benutzten das Thema Bildung, um sich bei den Katholiken anzudienen. Weil sie jedoch unfähig waren, die von den Katholiken in sie gesetzten Hoffnungen zu erfüllen, ging dieser Plan nicht auf.
1 In 1950, the Czechoslovakian population was approximately 12.3 million, with approximately 8.9 million in the Czech lands and 3.4 million in Slovakia; Slovakia's inhabitants made up 27.9 per cent of the population of Czechoslovakia overall: Kučera, Milan and Pavlík, Zdenek, ‘Czech and Slovak Demography,’ in Musil, Jiří, ed., The End of Czechoslovakia (Budapest: Central European Univ. Press, 1995), 37.Google Scholar
2 According to the 1930 census, 71.61 per cent of Slovakia's population identified themselves as adherents of the Roman Catholic confession, and an additional 6.42 per cent identified themselves as adhering to the Greek Catholic confession, for an overall proportion of 78.03 per cent for Catholics in Slovakia. In the 1950 census, the percentages were 76.20 per cent and 6.55 per cent respectively, for an overall proportion of 82.75 per cent; for Protestants, the percentages for Lutherans were 12.02 per cent in 1930 and 12.88 per cent in 1950, while for Calvinists they were 4.38 per cent and 3.25 per cent respectively. Thus, in 1950, 98.88 per cent of Slovaks identified themselves as Catholic or Protestant Christians. Of course, this data includes not only practising believers but those who belong to a particular confession only nominally: Pešek, Jan and Barnovský, Michal, Štátna moc a cirkvi na Slovensku 1948–1953 (Bratislava: Veda, 1997), 13.Google Scholar
3 This was the Slovak Peoples Party, run by Father Andrej Hlinka from 1919 to 1938, and Father Jozef Tiso thereafter.
4 In fact, the new Czechoslovakia had an asymmetrical structure, as Slovaks were allowed to maintain institutions they had established during the wartime Slovak National Uprising, such as the Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners, which served as the main legislative and executive organs of that uprising. Slovakia's autonomy would be gradually whittled away during the period 1945–8.
5 See Z prameňov našich dejín (Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladatel'svto, 1974), 315. All translations of quotations from untranslated sources are by the author.
6 The term ‘Church’ in the context of this article will refer to the Roman Catholic Church.
7 While many of the issues facing Czechoslovakia's new regime were decided or at least heavily influenced by the central government in Prague (e.g. land reform, the expulsion of unwanted ethnic minorities, economic reconstruction), education during this period was left to Slovakia's authorities to decide. An indication of the divergence between educational policy made in Slovakia from that of the Czech lands can be seen in the fact that parochial schools were forbidden in Slovakia from 1945, but legal in the Czech lands until the communist takeover in 1948. While ultimately education policy was to be instituted across the republic on the basis of a parliamentary law on education, such a law never got out of legislative committee before the communist takeover of the country in February 1948.
8 For a discussion of some of the problems between the Catholic Church and the regime of the First Czechoslovak Republic, see Teodorik J. Zúbek, ‘Katolícka cirkev na Slovensku v rokoch 1918–1948,’ in Kružliak, I. and Okál, J., Svedectvo jednej generácie (Cambridge, Ontario: Dobra kniha, 1990), 133–5, 145–9Google Scholar; Beneš, Václav L., ‘Czechoslovak Democracy and Its Problems,’ in Mamatey, Victor S. and Luža, Radomír, eds., A History of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918–1948 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 83Google Scholar. Not everything was negative in relations between the Church and the Czechoslovak Republic during the inter-war period. In 1928 the Republic concluded with the Vatican the so-called Modus Vivendi, an agreement whereby both sides agreed, among other things, that diocesan boundaries would be aligned with Czechoslovakia's international border, so that no part of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia would be under the jurisdiction of a bishop situated in a neighbouring country. For Slovakia this was especially significant, as it freed the Church there from any supervision by bishops from Hungary. In the Modus Vivendi, the Vatican promised that episcopal nominees would be vetted by the Czechoslovak government and that newly appointed bishops would take an oath of loyalty to the republic; see Zúbek, ‘Katolícka cirkev,’ 147–8.
9 Johnson, Owen, Slovakia 1918–1938: Education and the Making of a Nation (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1985), 318–19Google Scholar; Zúbek, ‘Katolícka cirkev,’ 146–7.
10 Petranský, Ivan A., Štát a katolícka cirkev na Slovensku 1945–1946 (Nitra: Garmond, 2001), 25–33Google Scholar; Jelinek, Yeshayahu, The Parish Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party 1939–1945 (Boulder, CO: East European Quarterly, 1976), 52Google Scholar; Kamenec, Ivan, Slovenský stát (1939–1945) (Prague: Anomal, 1992), 34Google Scholar. Although the Catholic Church co-operated closely with Tiso's regime, such co-operation should not be overstated. The Catholic bishops did, for example, publicly oppose the most egregious policies of the government, above all the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps. The Vatican also expressed its opposition to these policies, albeit not publicly but through diplomatic channels; see Conway, John, ‘The Churches, the Slovak State and the Jews 1939–1945,’ Slavonic and East European Review, 52, 126 (January 1974)Google Scholar, and Kamenec, Ivan et al. , eds., Vatikán a Slovenská Republica (1939–1945), Dokumenty (Bratislava: Slovak Academic Press, 1992)Google Scholar. This latter collection contains dozens of documents connected with Vatican concerns over the policy towards Jews in Slovakia.
11 See Jelinek, Parish Republic, 109–11; Conway, ‘The Churches’, 89; Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev, 32; and Zúbek, ‘Katolícka cirkev’, 152.
12 The US ambassador, Laurence Steinhardt, made this point in May 1947, when he wrote that ‘For the Czech non-communist parties and their leaders, including [President] Beneš, as a result of their experiences in 1938–1939 when Slovak aspirations contributed materially to the dissolution of the Czechoslovak State, feel with a deep intensity that Slovak autonomy, while acceptable in theory, must have definite limitations in practice. These leaders are therefore all too likely to side with the communists on any issues to which the latter are able to give a Czech versus Slovak or autonomy versus centralism complexion.’ See United States Department of State, Decimal Files, 860f.00/5–2947, no. 2477.
13 For more on the Slovak underground see Barnovský, Michal, Na ceste k monopolu moci (Bratislava: Archa, 1993), 185–6Google Scholar, and Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev, 237–9.
14 The underground in Slovakia was chiefly limited to small, disparate, disunited fringe elements, although at times it did break out into more substantial public actions. One such action, a relatively large (over 1,000 participants) demonstration on Tiso's behalf in Piešt'any in March 1947, was instigated by the local Catholic priest; for accounts of this demonstration see Čas, no. 72, 27 March 1947; Pravda, no. 70a, 24 March 1947, no. 74, 28 March 1947; Letz, Róbert, Slovensko v rokoch 1945–1948 na ceste ku komunistickej totalite (Bratislava: Ústredie slovenskej krest'anskej inteligencie, 1993), 145–6Google Scholar; Kaplan, Karel, Dva retribuční procesy, Komentované dokumenty (1946–1947) (Prague: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny ČSAV, 1992), Document 19, 199–203Google Scholar; and Slovenský národný archív (SNA), Fond Demokratická strana (hereafter referred to as DS), Carton 3, Bundle 161, Folios 39–80 (KSS situation report on Slovakia from spring 1947).
15 The conceptual differences outlined herein pervaded polemics between communists and Catholics during this period. See the memorandum of Archbishop Karol Kmet'ko of 23 May 1945, the KSS-inspired ‘Proclamation on the Misuse of Religion for Politically Subversive Actions’, of 16 July 1945, and Kmet'ko's reply to the Proclamation on 23 July 1945 for examples of argumentation based on these conceptions. (The documents noted above can be found, respectively, in Vnuk, František, Dokumenty o postavení katolíckej cirkvi na Slovensku v rokoch 1945–1948 (Martin: Matica slovenská 1998), 59–61Google Scholar; Pravda, no. 121, 20 July 1945, 1; and SNA, Fond Ústredný výbor Komunistickej strany Slovenska (hereafter referred to as UV KSS), Carton 2157, Folder GT–248, Bundle 4, Folios 2–5.)
16 Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev, 134.
17 Ibid., 134–5; Novomeský, it should be noted, had for a communist relatively good relations with Catholics. Although he was uncompromising in his support for the nationalisation of education, he was open to accommodating Catholic concerns to some extent in related issues, such as policies towards teachers who belonged to religious orders; see Čarnogurský, Pavol, Svedok čias (Bratislava: USPO, 1997), 151.Google Scholar
18 For the text of this memorandum, see Vnuk, Dokumenty, 59–61.
19 Already in the early weeks of nationalisation, local demonstrations by Catholic parents and students broke out over issues such as the removal of crucifixes from the walls of classrooms, the transfer out of district of teachers belonging to religious orders, or the assignment of Protestant teachers to traditionally Catholic schools. The bishops mentioned such unrest in their memorandum; for a more detailed description of such incidents see Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev, 141–2 and 153–5.
20 SNA, Fond Ústredný akčný výbor Slovenského národného frontu (hereafter referred to as UAV SNF), Carton 2, Folder ‘cirkevné školy’.
21 Prečan, Vilém, ‘Úloha katolické hierarchie na Slovensku před Únorem 1948’, in César, Jaroslav et al. , eds., Církve v našich dejinách (Prague: Orbis, 1960), 192.Google Scholar
22 Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev, 145–6.
23 Ibid., 57.
24 Police also found the text of a prayer in which Catholics asked Jesus Christ to ‘not allow Your enemies, through godless schools and faithless education, to deprive [children] of faith and innocence and so tear them away from You’. For these documents see SNA, UV KSS, Carton 2195, Folder GT–255, Bundle 4, Folios 1–9 and Bundle 3, Folio 11, respectively.
25 Červinka, Jaroslav, ‘Príspevok k histórii bojov o jednotnú a štátnu školu v Československu v rokoch 1945–1948’, in Baláž, Ondrej, ed., Rozvoj spoločnosti a výchova (Bratislava, 1977), 32–3.Google Scholar
26 Pravda, no. 121, 20 July 1945, 1.
27 SNA, UAV SNF, Carton 2, Folder ‘cirkevné školy.’
28 Pravda, no. 121, 20 July 1945, l; ‘Ludak’ (L'udák) was the term for a member of the HSL'S.
29 SNA, UV KSS, Carton 2157, Folder GT–248, Bundle 4, Folios 2–5.
30 In fact, the communists were soon to begin supporting the formation of a Catholic party themselves.
31 SNA, UV KSS, Carton 2157, Folder GT 245, Bundle 8, Folio 1. He went on to serve the communists on a number of fronts, including education. Along with his service on the education question, Straka oversaw a purge at Slovakia's major Catholic cultural institution, the Saint Vojtech Society, participated in negotiations over state salaries for clergy, advised the government in its relations with the Vatican, publicly advocated the confiscation of church lands in Czechoslovakia's land reform, wrote articles in the communist press defending communist policies on the basis of scriptural and papal social teaching, and provided intelligence to the communists about Slovakia's Catholic community, including journalists and educators. For more details about these issues and Straka's involvement, see Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev, 165, 205, 212–13, 250, 271–3; SNA, UV KSS, Carton 2158, Folder G–254II, Bundle 2, Folios 1–2; and Pravda, no. 211, 14 September 1947.
32 Administrative functions in Slovakia were handled by a Board of Commissioners, who headed a number of commissions resembling governmental ministries.
33 Petranský, Štát a katolícka cirkev, 222n.
34 SNA, DS, Carton 2, Bundle 84, Folio 12.
35 SNA, UV KSS, Carton 789, meeting of 13 July 1945.
36 SNA, DS, Carton 99, Folder 403–99-9.
37 Later published by the DS as a brochure entitled ‘The Way of the DS’. SNA, DS, Carton 1, Bundle 19.
38 Pravda, no. 10, 23 Jan. 1946, 1.
39 For a discussion of the April Agreement and the events leading up to it, see Jozef Staško, ‘Katolíci a “Aprílová dohoda”’, Most, 23, 1–2 (1976), 32–50, 126–43; Barnovský, Na ceste, 72–82; and Letz, Slovensko, 28–37.
40 For the text of the April Agreement see Staško, ‘Katolíci’, 141–3.
41 SNA, DS, Carton 2, Bundle 84, Folio 12.
42 Katolícke noviny, no. 21, 26 May 1946, 1.
43 The DS, with 999,622 votes, won 62 per cent of the vote in Slovakia; the KSS won 30.37 per cent (489,596 votes). Two small parties accounted for the rest of the vote (the Party of Freedom at 3.73 per cent and the Party of Work at 3.11 per cent). A mere 0.79 per cent of Slovak voters chose so-called ‘blank ballots’, a means of expressing their dissatisfaction with all the choices. (Electoral data can be found in Barnovský, Na ceste, 97).
44 For the text of this ‘National Front Proclamation to the Slovak Nation and Czechoslovak Public’ of 26 June 1946 see SNA, UV KSS, Carton 2156, Folder GT-II–237/20, folios 1–3.
45 See SNA, UV KSS, Carton 789, meeting of 15 July 1946, for a KSS report on how the proclamation could be used for just this purpose.
46 Červinka, ‘Príspevok’, 42; Nové slovo, no. 43, 9 Nov. 1946, 1–2.
47 Nové slovo, no. 43, 9 Nov. 1946, 1–2; see also Katolícke noviny, no. 50, 15 Dec. 1946, 3.
48 Katolícke noviny, no. 22, 1 June 1947, 4; no. 23, 8 June 1947, 3–4.
49 The council in this respect was clearly appealing to the third of the freedoms pronounced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his annual message to Congress on 6 Jan. 1941, ‘freedom of every person to worship God in his own way’. With respect to the Atlantic Charter, there is virtually nothing in that joint declaration of 14 Aug. 1941 by Roosevelt and Winston Churchill which seems applicable to the educational conflict in Slovakia.
50 Katolícke noviny, no. 27, 6 July 1947, 5.
51 See ibid., no. 28, 15 July 1947, 1; no. 31, 3 Aug. 1947, 1–2; no. 33, 17 Aug. 1947, 1–2.
52 Ibid., no. 28, 15 July 1947, l.
53 Ibid., no. 33, 17 Aug. 1947, 1–2.
54 Nové slovo, no. 43, 9 Nov. 1946, 1–2.
55 Červinka, ‘Príspevok’, 47.
56 Nové slovo, no. 16, 19 Apr. 1947, 249–50; Pravda, no. 83, 10 Apr. 1947, 4; no. 201, 3 Sep. 1947, 3.
57 Pravda, no. 83, 10 Apr. 1947, 4; Nové slovo, no. 16, 19 Apr 1947, 249–50.
58 Pravda, no. 83, 10 Apr. 1947, 4; Nové slovo, no. 16, 19 Apr. 1947, 249–50.
59 Pravda, no. 117, 22 May 1947, 1; no. 134, 13 June 1947, 3.
60 Barnovský, Na ceste, 139, notes that there were mass resignations from the DS the day after Tiso's execution; moreover, already in the summer of 1946 Catholics were beginning to complain that the April Agreement was not being implemented to expectations (see Vnuk, Dokumenty, Document V/8, 102–3 for a letter of 22 July 1946 from Andrej Cvinček, one of the most prominent Catholic leaders of the DS, to party chairman Jozef Lettrich, in which Cvinček protests against the party's failure to live up to the promises of the April Agreement).
61 Katolícke noviny, no. 21, 25 May 1947, 2; Pravda, no. 117, 22 May 1947, l.
62 Nové prúdy, no. 18, 3 Aug. 1947, 365–7; Nové prúdy, no. 21, 14 Sep. 1947, 447–50.
63 Pravda, no. 117, 22 May 1947, 1.
64 Červinka, ‘Príspevok’, 57–61, passim.
65 A comparison here with Hungary is instructive. As Peter Kenez notes, from 1945 to 1948 the communists ‘again and again emphasised that they were not against religion and even attempted to win the allegiance of at least some believers’: Peter Kenez, Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 1944–1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 176. Yet unlike Slovakia, where the nationalisation of education was already under way by the end of the war, in Hungary it did not come about until spring 1948, after the communists were solidly in control. See Peter Kenez, ‘The Hungarian Communist Party and the Catholic Church, 1945–1948’, Journal of Modern History, 75, 4 (December 2003), 864–89, and Csaba Szabó, Die katholische Kirche Ungarns und der Staat in den Jahren 1945–1965 (Munich: Verlag Ungarisches Institut, 2003), 56–60, 67–9, for a detailed discussion of the Hungarian situation.
66 See Phayer, Michael, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1945 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000), 34–5Google Scholar, for examples of Catholic clergy who were implicated in Croatia's fascist Ustaša regime, and Spicer, Kevin P., Resisting the Third Reich: The Catholic Clergy in Hitler's Berlin (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004), 139–59Google Scholar, where Spicer discusses the pro-Nazi ‘brown priests’.