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Czechoslovakia was founded as a country in the aftermath of World War I with its borders set out in the Treaty of Trianon and Treaty of Versailles, though the new borders were de facto established about a year prior. One of the main objects of these treaties was to secure independence for minorities previously living within the Kingdom of Hungary or to reunify them with the "motherland" (even if this meant the expansion of the countries in question with no historical precedent, as in case of Romania), leaving only de facto nation-states. However most of the territorial claims were based on economic grounds instead of ethnic ones(for instance, the southern border of Slovakia had to be justified on economic and strategic grounds) which resulted in successor states with percentages of minorities almost as high as in Austria-Hungary before. Czechoslovakia had the highest proportion of minorities, who constituted 32.4% of the population Czechoslovakia was a founding member of the League of Nations, but even though the organization declared the protection of minorities, numerous attempts were made to assimilate all ethnic groups into the "Czechoslovak nation", including Hungarians, Germans and Ruthenians, but also Slovaks (who were viewed as "magyarized Slavs"). In 1921, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the Czechoslovak politician told to a French journalist:

"There is no Slovak nation....Only cultural level separates them."

Hungarians in Czechoslovakia

1920-1938

During the Dual Monarchy there was strong anti-Hungarian sentiment among certain sections of the Czech population, and not surprisingly this persisted to some extent in Czechoslovakia. It seemed to hit the city of Pressburg (soon to be renamed as Bratislava) the most: one of the very first measures brought by Samuel Zoch, the newly appointed župan of the city was the forced disbandment of the Elisabeth Science University, the only Hungarian university in Czechoslovakia, and the intimidation of its professors by the police in 1919, immediately after the formation of the country. Most of the professors and former students then left (what was later to become) Bratislava for Budapest (with the university later being re-established in Pécs). Zoch had previously stated "...but the question of minorities will be fully solved only after our public perception of morality will condemn ethnical oppression just as much as the oppression of religion".

Tensions mounted further in Bratislava as soldiers of the Czechoslovakian legion fired volleys at civilians, leaving 7 dead and 23 wounded. Most of these soldiers played the main part in the destruction of Hungarian and Habsburg statues and monuments.

Another aspect of the anti-Hungarian sentiment was the hatred of all the statues and monuments representing Austria-Hungary or Hungarian historical people. National socialist MPs of the Czechoslovak National Assembly have been calling for the demolition of such works of art as early as 1920. The hatred however was not limited to sculptures only: Hungarian books were burned in Poprad and possibly other locations as well. Concurrently some of the statues were destroyed as well: the millennium monument along with the Árpád statue in Devín was blown up using dynamite, the statue of Maria Theresa in Bratislava (pictured) was brought down using ropes tied to trucks. Statues of Lajos Kossuth were destroyed in Rožňava, Lučenec, Dobšiná and Nové Zámky, also a statue of Ferenc Rákóczi in Brezno and numerous others. In almost all of these cases the perpetrators were the soldiers of the Czechoslovakian legion. The police and government officials watched the process idly and decided to intervene only after the mob had begun to take over shops and properties of German enterpreneurs.

Hungarians (and other minorities e.g. Germans and Rusyns) were excluded from the constituent assembly, barring them from having any influence on the new Czechoslovak constitution. Later on, all the minorities gained the right to use their languages in municipalities where they constituted at least 20% of the population even in communication with government offices and courts. However due to gerrymandering and disproportionate distribution of population between Bohemia and Slovakia the Hungarians had little (if any) representation in the National Assembly and thus their influence on the politics of Czechoslovakia remained limited. The same considerations have limited the Slovak intelligentsia's political power as well.

References

1. Hugh LeCaine Agnew,The Czechs and the lands of the Bohemian crown , Hoover Press, 2004, p. 177 ISBN 978-0-817-94492-6
2. Dr. László Gulyás (2005). Két régió – Felvidék és Vajdaság – sorsa Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchiától napjainkig (The fate of two regions - Upper Hungary and Vojvodina - from Austria-Hungary to today) (in Hungarian). Hazai Térségfejlesztő Rt. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
3. Carol Skalnik Leff, The Czech and Slovak republics: nation versus state, Westview Press, 1997, p. 26 ISBN 978-0-813-32922-2
4. ^ Béla Angyal (2002). Érdekvédelem és önszerveződés - Fejezetek a csehszlovákiai magyar pártpolitika történetéből 1918-1938 (Protection of interests and self-organization - Chapters from the history of the politics of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia) (PDF) (in Hungarian). Lilium Aurum. pp. 18–19. ISBN 80-8062-117-9. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
5. László Szarka (2002), A szlovák autonómia alternatívája 1918 őszén (An alternative of Slovak autonomy in the autumn of 1918) (PDF) (in Hungarian), Nógrád Megyei Levéltár, p. 1, retrieved 2011-03-24
6. ^ Vladimír Jancura (2010-10-17). "Mesto zastonalo, keď cisárovnú strhli z koňa (The city has groaned, when the empress was tore off the horse)" (in Slovak). Pravda (Perex a.s.). Retrieved 2011-03-24.
7. Tipary Lászlóné–Tipary László (2004). Szülõföldem szép határa… - Magyarok deportálása és kitelepítése szülõföldjükrõl Csehszlovákiában az 1946–1948-as években (Beatiful borders of my homeland... - Deportation and forceful evacuation of Hungarians from their homeland at Czechoslovakia in the years of 1946-1948) (PDF) (in Hungarian). Lilium Aurum. p. 26. ISBN 80-8062-199-3. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
8. ^ János Lukáts (2001-04). "A szigorú virrasztó ébresztése (Raising of the strict watcher)" (in Hungarian). Magyar Szemle. Retrieved 2011-03-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. ^ Lubomír Lipták, Changes of changes: society and politics in Slovakia in the 20th century, Academic Electronic Press, 2002, p. 30 ISBN 978-8-088-88050-9
10. ^ Béla Angyal (2002). Érdekvédelem és önszerveződés - Fejezetek a csehszlovákiai magyar pártpolitika történetéből 1918-1938 (Protection of interests and self-organization - Chapters from the history of the politics of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia) (PDF) (in Hungarian). Lilium Aurum. pp. 23–27. ISBN 80-8062-117-9. Retrieved 2011-03-24.

• Czechoslovakia