Chapter 197 Czech Republic and Slovakia

The 86-year-old former president of the Czechoslovak Republic, Mr. Thomas Garrig Masaryk, has been a little troubled recently. He was involved in a political murder!

In fact, it is not considered "involved". Although the old man is old, his memory is not bad. He still remembered that he had issued an order to get rid of Milan Restislav Stefanik - the person who was killed was one of the three founding fathers of Czechoslovakia and the first Minister of Defense of the Republic!

Moreover, the old man still remembered that he had an accomplice, the current President Edward Benes, who was also one of the Three Founding Fathers.

It appears to have been a power struggle - two of the three Founding Fathers teamed up to murder the other. But Mr. Masaryk knew that the murder that occurred among the three founding fathers was not for the fight for power, but for the country and the nation!

Milan Restislav Stefanik gave his life for the country and the nation. He was a noble man, and the person who murdered him was also noble.

The real culprits in this murder case were the more than 3 million Germans in Czechoslovakia! They are the third largest ethnic group in Czechoslovakia, after the Czechs with a population of more than 6 million and the Slovaks with a population of 1.9 million.

What? More than 3 million people ranked third, and 1.9 million people ranked second?

That’s right, this is Czechoslovakian mathematics. Otherwise Czechoslovakia should be renamed Czech Germania!

However, the reason why the math problem is done is not entirely for the sake of a country name, but for Czechoslovakia to become a new nation-state. The Paris Peace Conference held in 1919 set a threshold for a new nation-state: a majority ethnic group accounting for two-thirds of the population was required.

Without such a majority, the country can only become a federation. For Czechoslovakia, this meant that more than 3 million Germans could have their own Free State. Having a Free State means that you can practice self-government, have your own parliament and a small defense army, and you can also hold a referendum to secede from Czechoslovakia in accordance with the principle of national self-determination!

This was not allowed in 1919!

Therefore, Czechoslovakia must have an ethnic group that accounts for two-thirds of the population - but according to the population data released after the Allied Powers survey, the Czechs only account for 50% of the total population of Czechoslovakia, and in fact it is definitely less than this number.

However, this did not trouble old Mr. Masaryk and Eduard Benes. They invented the "Czechoslovak nation" - combining the Czechs and Slovaks to pretend to be a dominant nation, and at that time they also won the "Czechoslovak nation" The support of General Štefánik who could represent” the Slovaks.

And this kind of behavior, which is almost a falsification of accounts on ethnic issues, has been successfully carried out under the deliberate protection of the three major powers, Britain, France and the United States. Czechoslovakia had a dominant nation, and the Germans, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Poles in Czechoslovakia also lost the right to self-government.

The story should have ended successfully here, but no one expected that when the arrogant Germans had chosen to surrender, the Hungarians refused to accept their fate and continued to resist.

What Mr. Masaryk and Edvard Benes did not expect was that under the control of the Hungarian Bolshevik Party, the Slovaks actually had a taste of the country for the first time - there was a Soviet led by the Slovak Bolshevik Party. republic.

Although this Soviet Republic, which was destined to be incompatible with the Allied Powers, could not exist for long, it still gave some Slovak nationalists the idea of ​​independence or autonomy.

Milan Restislav Štefánik was the leader of these Slovak nationalists, although at that time - when fighting the Hungarian Bolsheviks - Štefánik did not propose Slovak autonomy or independence. But everyone knows that as long as Stefanik, the leader of Slovakia, exists, this will only happen sooner or later.

Once the Slovaks engage in "national autonomy," the image of Czechoslovakia as a "subject nation" will also be torn off. In this way, what reason do the more than 3 million Germans have for not being able to engage in autonomy?

Therefore, the plane riding on General Stefanik, one of the Three Elements, could only be crashed. This matter seemed to be done flawlessly at the time, and it has not been exposed for so many years.

After defeating the Hungarian Bolsheviks (Slovak Bolsheviks), the Czechoslovak government also did a lot to appease the Slovaks, such as providing subsidies to backward Slovak settlements, sending teachers and officials to help the Slovaks, and protecting the Slovak language and culture. , and also made the Slovaks the "second-class people" of Czechoslovakia. Superior to Poles, Ukrainians, Hungarians and Germans…

But what happened next still caught Czech politicians such as Mr. Masaryk and Edvard Benes by surprise. The Slovaks didn't appreciate it. They viewed the Czechs' help as slavery and oppression - just like the Czechs viewed the Germans back then!

And in some places, the treatment of the Slovaks was worse than that of the Czechs, and even worse than their situation before the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After all, the economic growth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was relatively good, and Austria-Hungary was still a very large market. Although the various ethnic groups were unhappy in the "prison" of Austria-Hungary, they were economically interdependent.

After the disintegration of the country, the large market was divided into small markets by the customs of various countries, and the interdependent ethnic groups became sworn enemies. The industrially developed Czech Republic naturally lost most of its inherent markets, and Slovakia became a dumping market for Czech industrial products. Slovak industry and commerce went bankrupt under the impact of Czech industry and commerce, and Slovak agricultural products and minerals could only be sold to the Czech Republic at low prices. As a result, the Slovaks felt exploited.

In addition, the legacy of the Hungarian War in the 1920s has not been resolved. The guerrillas of the Hungarian Bolshevik Party and the Slovak Bolshevik Party have been active in the mountainous area bordering Hungary and Czechoslovakia for so many years. The long-term encirclement and suppression of them by the Czechoslovak army, which was mainly composed of Czechs, inevitably harmed many Slovak civilians.

As a result, the gap between Czechs and Slovaks became wider and wider. In 1929, with the beginning of the Great Depression in the United States, the last safety valve of Slovak society also failed - immigration to the United States was the best way out for Slovaks before, but now this way is blocked. Moreover, the living standards of Slovaks plummeted as the Great Depression swept across Europe.

Under such circumstances, the originally moderate Slovak Catholic political forces also began to turn to the autonomy movement - the Catholic Slovak People's Party led by Slovak Catholic priest Andrei Hlinka began to rise, and together with the Slovak Bolshevik Party, they made trouble with the Czechs.

Although this kind of trouble was annoying, the Czechoslovak government still had ways to deal with it - the Slovaks' disgust for the Czechoslovak Republic was not too high, and was better than that of Germans, Hungarians, Poles and Ukrainians.

But not long ago, shocking news began to spread in Slovakia: Milan Restislav Štefánik, the leader of the Slovaks at that time, was ordered to be killed by the Czech President Masaryk!

This is not just a rumor, but there is evidence! Testimonies from several Slovak veterans (said to be people around Štefánik), and a secret report from a French military adviser investigating Štefánik's death.

The Catholic Slovak People's Party took the opportunity to file a lawsuit with the Prague District Court, accusing former President Masaryk.

"Father, we don't have to pay attention to the accusation, and you don't have to appear in court in person." Mr. Masaryk's son, Jan Masaryk, who had just returned from London (he was the ambassador to London), stopped his father before he was about to go out to the court. "Britain and France support us, and we can take tough measures."

"No," Masaryk waved his hand while leaning on a cane, "We can't take too tough measures against the Slovaks, that would cause the disintegration of the country. They have 1.9 million people... A quarter of the officers and non-commissioned officers in our army are Slovaks. If we lose them, our army will become weak. And the Germans, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Poles will also take the opportunity to make trouble. This is very disadvantageous to us."

Masaryk was the main promoter of the modernization of the Czechoslovak army. With his efforts, Czechoslovakia established a standing army of 160,000 to 180,000 people and a reserve army of 1 million people, and they were well-equipped with tanks and aircraft - all produced by Czechoslovakia itself. The Czech Republic has the famous arsenal Skoda and three aircraft manufacturing companies, Letov, Egger and Avia.

But a strong army cannot have only weapons but no people! The Czech nation has a population of only over 6 million, and cannot support a reserve army of one million people. This reserve army must be formed by the Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians and Ukrainians. The most reliable of these peoples are the Slovaks besides the Czechs.

If the Slovaks and Czechs fall out, then the Hungarians and Ukrainians will definitely follow suit, and then the Czechs will have to fight alone.

"It will be okay," Masaryk smiled at his son, "Their evidence is untenable... In order to show that we are innocent, I'd better be present, and I will also propose in court that an international court should try this case. I believe this will definitely shut up the Slovaks."