Political development in the twenties

Chronological overview

29 February 1920 - the first constitution of Czechoslovakia

April 1920 - national parliamentary elections in Czechoslovakia

25 January 1922 The Slovak People's Party presented the first proposal for the autonomy of Slovakia
to the parliament

5 November 1925 - second parliamentary elections

France, which was the main support of the republic at the time of its establishment, had the greatest
influence on Czechoslovakia's foreign policy orientation, despite this, it was not among the important
economic partners of Czechoslovakia. Mutual relations with neighbors and Balkan countries were
important for Slovakia. The two unsuccessful attempts of the former emperor Karol to return, if not to
the whole empire, that is, to the Viennese throne, at least to the Hungarian throne, showed that the
initiative to restore the empire finds understanding not only in Budapest, but beyond the borders of
Hungary. Therefore, the fear of the return of the Monarchy united the former non-Hungarian peoples
of Hungary. Therefore, in 1920-1921, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia created an international
association called the Little Agreement. Its goal was to prevent attempts to return the monarchy and
restore Hungary.

Political and social life in Slovakia became active only after the end of the battles for Slovak territory,
i.e. at the end of 1919. The country was devastated and important buildings were destroyed - railway
lines and stations, schools, hospitals. Therefore, political consolidation, in which administrative and
administrative institutions, political parties, interest associations, cultural and other associations could
work, started later than in the Czech Republic. The General Financial Directorate, the Slovak branch of
the Directorate of the Czech-Slovak Railways, the Police Directorate, the Regional Gendarmerie
Headquarters and other important institutions were established in Bratislava. However, the everyday
life of the population changed slowly. In each region of Slovakia, it acquired different, special features.

In the 1920s, political parties, whose representatives participated in the activities of the government,
parliament and other institutions of the whole state, gained a decisive position in the social life of
Czechoslovakia. An important role was also played by the churches, which either directly created their
own parties or influenced the activities of parties and other institutions through believers.

It turned out that the new state could not meet all the demands of the citizens, so it was important
which part of the population would take over the leadership of the state and thereby kill the
development of the state and its character and future development. The leading political force in
Czechoslovakia became part of the Czech representation, which abroad was preparing the
establishment of the Czecho-Slovak state. Favorable positions were also obtained by Slovak politicians
who cooperated with it before 1918 and supported its goals. The ruling group had the opportunity to
influence the direction of the state's economy. It achieved its position mainly because during the war
it received the unequivocal support of the agreement statesmen. Even before the coup, it prepared a
political program and could count on nationally aware experts ready to occupy important posts in
political and economic life. Last but not least, because she had prepared powerful armed legions and
had the financial resources she used to achieve her goals. As far as Slovakia was concerned, it was able
to defend before the international post-war authorities its exchange from Hungary and its involvement
in the common state, organize the military seizure of the territory and ensure the establishment of a
new state administration. This group of politicians quite naturally formed the basis of all the
governments of the interwar Czechoslovakia.

The Constitution of Czechoslovakia

One of the most important tasks that the Revolutionary National Assembly focused on in the years
1918-1920 was the adoption of the constitution. Legal experts drafted it according to the model of the
French constitution and the US constitution. According to the constitution, Czechoslovakia was a
republic, headed by a president elected by the parliament. It also talked about citizenship and the
rights of citizens. It divided state power into executive (government), legislative (National Assembly)
and judiciary. It guaranteed the inviolability of private property, the right of assembly and the principle
of freedom of conscience and religion, it allowed public worship for all faiths. The Revolutionary
National Assembly adopted the constitution on February 29, 1920, and the first parliamentary
elections were held in April 1920.

The emergence and nature of political states

Political parties began to be formed in Slovakia in December 1918. They continued the tradition of pre-
war political movements, associations and associations that existed, for example, in the editorial
offices of various newspapers, and from which modern political parties could not arise in the conditions
of Hungary. In December 1918, the Slovak part of members from the originally all-Hungarian Social
Democratic Party was separated. At the convention in Liptovský Svät Mikuláš, she decided to join the
unified Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party. This alliance lasted throughout the interwar
Czechoslovakia. The programs mainly focused on solving the economic and social problems of
industrial workers and the middle classes. Its representatives were Emanuel Lehocký, Ivan Dérer, Ivan
Markovič. In Slovakia, it received significant support only in the first parliamentary elections.
Nevertheless, as a national party with a large mass base in the Czech Republic, it was almost always
part of the coalition government.

In December 1918, Catholic believers and clergy gathered in Žilina to renew the activities of the Slovak
People's Party (SĽS). They elected the well-known pre-war politician Andrej Hlinka to head it. The
Catholic clergy had a decisive influence on the activities of the SĽS. SĽS followed the intention of the
worldwide Catholic movement controlled by the Vatican. In the years 1918 - 1921, she cooperated
with the Czechoslovak People's Party, with whom she participated in the first parliamentary elections.
From the end of 1921, the SĽS embarked on a sharp anti-government course and put the
implementation of the Pittsburgh Agreement, i.e. the autonomy of Slovakia and the associated
recognition of Slovaks and Czechs as two separate nations, in the forefront of its programs. It secured
its mass base by accepting pro-Hungarian-oriented residents. Thus, Vojtech Tuka also became one of
the leading officials of the SĽS. He formulated important political documents of the SĽS, worked at the
head of the editorial office of the central daily Slovák. The political trial that was brought against him
in 1929 revealed facts about his cooperation with Hungarian politicians abroad, whose goal was the
demise of Czechoslovakia. In the 1920s, SĽS became the most mass political party, which was in
opposition except for two short periods.

In 1921, a more radical left wing separated from the Social Democratic Party - the Communist Party,
which was part of an internationally organized movement, the so-called The Third International, based
in Moscow. They are among the national parties with a central hero in Prague, which have steadily
joined the anti-government political bloc. He gained supporters especially among agricultural workers
in southern Slovakia. Its representatives were also in central bodies and in the club of deputies and
senators. Unlike the social democrats, who sought to improve the position of the poorer classes
through gradual reforms, the communists promoted a radical change in the political system through a
revolutionary upheaval and the abolition of private property. Among the so-called civil nationwide
organized parties belonged to the agrarian society. After 1918, they continued their association
activities from the pre-war period. They were headed by prominent personalities such as Milan Hodža
and Vavro Šrobár. In June 1922, this political direction joined the national Republican Party of the
Agricultural Peasant People. Unlike the social democrats, the agrarians retained a certain
independence, mainly thanks to the network of Slovak peasant units. They had support not only among
all classes of farmers, but also among the young intelligentsia. In the interwar period, the Agrarian
Party was the second most popular political party in Slovakia, it was in all government coalitions, and
its representatives held important positions in the administrative and economic bodies of Slovakia.

The rest of the members of the Slovak National Party (SNS) were another political party that remained
independent, operating only in Slovakia and with an automatic program. Part of the evangelical
intelligentsia and middle urban classes were concentrated in it. The SNS did not have a broad base, so
it usually allied itself with some other party in election campaigns. Initially, its chairman was the well-
known pre-war lawyer Ivan Stodola, who was replaced in the mid-twenties by Juraj Janoška Jr. and
finally, in the 1930s, the evangelical priest and writer Martin Rázus.

The palette of parties was gradually supplemented by political currents of citizens of minority
nationalities, which gained importance in the political life of Slovakia from about the mid-1920s.
Already in 1919, the strongest Hungarian minority party was formed, a little later the Hungarian
National Party. although these parties had their constitutional bodies in Bratislava in Komárno, in
reality their activities were more influenced by Budapest institutions. Together with the German
minority parties, they consulted among the opposition anti-government movements throughout the
interwar period. Several smaller national parties, whose wings also operated in Slovakia, often became
the deciding factor in the scales of political life. Although they did not gain mass support from members
and adherents, they played an important role in the development of Slovakia until the end of the
interwar Czechoslovakia, mainly because the membership consisted mainly of citizens of Czech
nationality working in Slovakia in important official positions and as teachers.

Political life

In the first half of the 20s, new state and self-governing institutions were created in Slovakia. Along
with the new constitution, the parliament adopted the law on the reorganization of administration,
according to which from 1.1. In 1923, they reduced the counties to 6 grand counties with headquarters
in Bratislava, Martina, Zvolen, Nitra, Liptovský sv. Mikuláš, Košicich. The authorities of Slovak counties
and the still existing Ministry for the Administration of Slovakia had to focus mainly on acute post-war
economic and social problems. Growing unemployment caused social storms and political tension,
which the new state administration and self-government could not face.

The elections to the national National Assembly on 11/15/1925 became a turning point in the political
life of Slovakia. In Slovakia, 1,425,595 voters went to the polls. The municipal elections in 1923 already
indicated and the parliamentary elections confirmed that an anti-government opposition atmosphere
prevails in Slovakia: The opposition SĽS, which entered the elections under the new name Hlinka Slovak
People's Party (HSĽS), gained the most confidence. In addition to an active election campaign, the
reason for her victory was disillusionment with the unbearable economic situation. The HSĽS offered
the disaffected, rebellious population a vision of an autonomous Slovakia and with it the hope that
their difficult life problems would be eliminated.
The communists, who after their II. the congress looked for new approaches to solving the nationality
issue in a multinational state. In their ideas about the right of nations to self-determination, some KSČ
functionaries went further than HSĽS. They also considered the possibility of a completely independent
Slovakia, i.e. the secession of Slovakia from Czechoslovakia, others emphasized the necessity of a
federative organization of Czechoslovakia. They achieved greater success in organizing economic and
social struggles, in which they mainly criticized the growing unemployment.

The strongest governing party in the whole of Czechoslovakia was the agrarian party. Since the
elections in 1925 and even in the interwar period (1938), she was the backbone of all government
groups, regularly occupying the position of Prime Minister and important ministerial seats.

The Social Democrats disappointed Slovak voters. Their side. which in the early 1920s gained the mass
support of citizens throughout the state with its program and occupied important positions in
government institutions, was unable to solve economic and social problems. The deviation of the
Slovak voters from the Social Democratic Party and the weakening of the national party was used by
its political rivals, they temporarily pushed it out of the government and created a government
grouping, which took the name "gentleman's coalition". In this government coalition, two ministerial
seats were occupied by HSĽS delegates.

The political life of Slovakia at the turn of the 20s and 30s was marked by internal party divisions. They
caused the forced departure or exclusion of some important functionaries of political parties or from
political life, including those who were at their birth. An important international political event that
sparked the attention of society in Slovakia was the treaty between Czechoslovakia and the Vatican in
1928, known as Modus vivendi. With this treaty, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was assured that
it would not be possible to enforce the law on the separation of church and state in Czechoslovakia.
The importance of the treaty, however, lay primarily in the fact that the contracting parties agreed on
the necessity of adapting the borders of the church dioceses to the Czech-Slovak state borders, which
was to exclude the influence of the Hungarian Catholic hierarchy on Slovakia, which was still active for
the time being. In addition, the contract was supposed to be the starting point for solving the property
problems of the church.

Doplnkový materiál:

https://www.malacky.sk/index.php?page=mesto&menuid=213

Obr. 1 Samosprávne rozdelenie Slovenska

 Obr. 2 Andrej Hlinka (https://matica.sk/andrej-hlinka/)

Obr. 3 Ústava ČSR 1920 (https://www.usoud.cz/aktualne/100-let-od-prijeti-ustavy-csr)