Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia - for
many who are far distant from these nations, it’s not always clear what the difference between the
three is or when each came to be. Once divided, temporarily united, then divided once more,
and still to this day, the Czech and Slovak people remain brotherly Slavic nations with strong
ties and similar cultures. But if that’s the case, then what exactly happened? Why
did Czechoslovakia fall apart?... Czechoslovakia was birthed in 1918 as the
Austro-Hungarian Empire neared its demise and some of its provinces decided to unite
in response to their vastly similar cultures, languages, and people. Bohemia, Moravia, and
Slovakia formed the new nation and at first, seemed to get on quite well. Czechoslovakia
was initially a parliamentary democracy under President Masaryk and quickly became one of
the more stable and industrially advanced of the Eastern European nations, but this would
be challenged just before the outbreak of the second world war. As the German Fuhrer began
his campaign of expansion throughout Europe, at the end of the 1930s, the regions of Bohemia
and Moravia fell to the Germans. Slovakia would eventually be occupied by Germany in a matter
of years as well, but this period of instability would only last a short while before the Soviet
Union sent troops in to “liberate” Czechoslovakia during World War Two. Soviet involvement
would soon catapult the communist party within Czechoslovakia to the top of the totem pole
and pushed through a 1948 coup d’etat that would lead to the founding of the Czechoslovak Socialist
Republic as the communists took over the nation… This era of Czechoslovakia’s existence would
sadly be plagued by troubles no less. One of the most well-known challenges that the
newfound socialist republic would face came in the 1960s and became known as the
Prague Spring. This period represented a time of what appeared to many to be promising
reforms, though none were too drastic. Still, when the reformist Alexander Dubcek rose to power,
he aimed to create something called “communism with a face” and began passing a series of
reforms both politically and economically, with one of the most important being the
increased freedoms of speech. While this pleased many Czechoslovak citizens, it had a starkly
contrasting effect on the nearby Soviet Union. The Prague Spring came to a violent
end on August 20, 1968, as 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops, led by the Soviet Union,
invaded Czechoslovakia. Dubcek was ripped from power as a result of the attack and under
his pro-Soviet replacement, Gustav Husak, the progressive reforms were immediately repealed.
The following decades would keep the Czechoslovak republic under a repressive communist
regime, and this was a ticking time bomb… As communism came under attack throughout the
East and the Berlin Wall came crashing down, the citizens of Czechoslovakia became restless
once more. November brought about renewed calls for demonstration, but due to the overbearing
dictatorship they were under, activists were technically unable to organize such protests.
Nevertheless, the communist government was willing to sanction a demonstration on November
17, 1989, in commemoration of a student that had been murdered 50 years prior by the occupying Nazi
forces. Organized in part by the Socialist Youth Union, the event was supposed to avoid the city
center and remain focused only on the memory of the martyred student. This, however, isn’t what
actually happened. Instead, as more and more citizens joined the protest having heard of its
existence or seeing it on TV, the demonstration started to shift from being an anti-Nazi
movement to an anti-Nazi and anti-communist one. While the police allowed the first portion
of the demonstration to carry on undisturbed, as the crowd marched their way toward Wenceslas
Square, this changed drastically. Banners of ‘Stop Beating Students’ and ‘Freedom’ provided a
clear visual alongside the shouts of “Dialogue!” and “We don’t want the Communist Party” “Forty
Years are enough!” that triggered the police response. Of the 50,000 people present for the
demonstration, some say that around 100 were detained and many were injured with over a dozen
being hospitalized as a result of beatings from police with batons and K9s. Many demonstrators
began to flee by this point while others were forced to go. It’s additionally believed that
there was a rumor spread of one student martyr, although many thought that this was
done by a police officer claiming to be a student and faking his own death to
stir the pot. Whatever actually happened, any goals of emboldening the people to continue
standing up to the dictatorship truly worked… This was the start of the Velvet Revolution.
In reaction to the events of November 17, opponents of the current one-party government
became emboldened and energized. The aggressive responses by the police failed to deter
further demonstrations, and instead, the protests only grew. Only 3 days later, half
a million demonstrators showed up at Wenceslas Square to protest the communist dictatorship.
Popular dissident and theater star Vaclav Havel played a significant role in the revolution
as well and is credited with choreographing one of its more theatrical signature signs
of unity in the form of mass jingling of keys. The underground press expanded as did
the public protests over the following week, but, as described by British author Timothy
Garten Ash, the overall movement was “swift, entirely non-violent, joyful and funny.” By November 28, the Czechoslovak government
accepted its fate. There was no Warsaw Pact invasion to swoop in and save communism this
time, and the people of Czechoslovakia were simply fed up. The contemporary administration
stepped down in favor of a revived multiple-party system with Vaclav Havel elected as the
new and last president of Czechoslovakia… The following elections in the summer of
1990 saw the communists face a crushing defeat and the solidification of the
new anti-communist government. This, however, also triggered the period
known now as the “Velvet Divorce”. Having just started the
process of democratization, Czechoslovakia was suddenly facing
a newly heightened tension of old: the divide between Czechs and Slovaks. The
discord was peaceful but serious nonetheless, as both sides disagreed on how to move forward
after communism and the differing populations had long been drifting apart. This would
eventually result in the non-violent separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech
Republic on one end and Slovakia on the other. Interestingly though, according to opinion
polls from the time, it seems that the division between the Slovak and Czech people was mostly
concentrated in the population of those in power, and lesser so among the average citizens, who
often favored the unified nation. Nevertheless, nationalist sentiments did exist on both sides
and the reforms that either side yearned for didn’t exactly line up with one another. On
January 1, 1993, the breakup became official… In summation though, why did Czechoslovakia
split up? What were the final straws? For starters, as stated earlier, Czechoslovakia
was a young nation and had not always been united as one. The Czech and Slovak people, though
similar, were not identical. They had different cultures, languages, and politics, despite the
claim by those in favor of creating Czechoslovakia that these ethnic and cultural identities were
one of a kind. Furthermore, the Czechs generally outnumbered and overpowered the Slovaks within the
union, but they had been the lesser of two evils as the fellow slavs in opposition to Slovakia’s
alternative of eventually being absorbed in some way into Hungary. The Czechs too had been hoping
to pair up with a Slavic neighbor to counteract the significant ethnic German population within
the Czech borders. However, after the deportations of Germans that followed the second world
war, this need was fairly non-existent. Additionally, after the collapse of the
communist government, there was room for change within Czechoslovakia and a need for
reforms. As stated earlier, these reforms proved a bit problematic as, though similar,
the Czech and Slovak people and governments, in particular, couldn’t agree on how exactly
to go about adapting to their new democratic governments. And it's not that these
disagreements were new, but instead, after the Velvet Revolution, it was just
the first time that such discord could even be expressed. And now, with the threat
of Germanization or Hungarianization gone, such disagreements really had no reason to not
be acted upon. Thus, even though no referendum was held to see if the people themselves
were truly in favor of the split or not, the governments of both halves of Czechoslovakia
decided to make Czechoslovakia no more…
