Slovakization

Slovakization (or Slovakisation; Hungarian: elszlovákosítás or szlovákosítás, Rusyn: Словакізація) is a term used to describe a cultural change in which ethnically non-Slovak people are made to become Slovak. In terms of historical context Slovakization can refer to the government policies in either Slovakia or the former Czechoslovakia in imposing a nation-state.

The term is used for example in relation to Hungarians, Rusyns (Ruthenians)., or Poles.

Hungarians

After WWI

In the aftermath of World War I, Czechoslovakia was established. This new country was mainly a union of Czechs and Slovaks, but the territory included a sizable German and Hungarian population as well. Paris Peace Conference set the southern border of the new state due to strategic and economic reasons much further south than the Slovak-Hungarian language border. Consequently, fully Hungarian-populated areas were annexed to the newly created state.

The Hungarian and Slavic national awakenings of the 19th century, especially the Pan-Slavism caused serious resentment against Hungarians, wich resulted in some magyarization attempts in the late 19th century, for example restricting the usage of the Slovak language. These created up to day tensions between Hungarians and the other ethnicites lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary.

When Czechoslovakia arose as a new country in this situation, in Slovak-populated regions Slovak schools were established, while Hungarian schools in largely Hungarian, German etc. regions etc. remained Hungarian, German etc. The Hungarians, for example, had 31 kindergartens, 806 elementary schools, 46 secondary schools, 576 Hungarian libraties at schools in the 1930s and a Department of Hungarian literature was created at the Charles University of Prague. The number of Hungarian elementary schools for example increased from 720 in 1923/1924 to the above number 806.

According to the 1910 census conducted in the Kingdom of Hungary, there were 30.2 % (884,309) Magyars (ethnic Hungarians) in what is now Slovakia. The results of the 1910 census however are disputed by all demographers of Slovakia, Serbia and Romania, although is usually not disputed in present-day Hungary itself (. According to the last undisputed Hungarian official census there were only 22.1% (540 492) Hungarians in the same territory in 1880. The, equally disputed Czechoslovak census of 1921 yielded 650,597 Hungarians and the first modern census of 1930 571,952 Hungarians. The whole matter is complicated by the fact that there was a high percentage of bilingual and similarly "Slovak-Hungarian" persons who could claim being both Slovak and Hungarian.

Hungarian authors use to interprete the difference between the disputed 1910 census and the 1930 census as follows: There was a great decrease between 1910 and 1930 by 106,000 people, many fleed to Hungary after World War I (partly because they were required to sign an oath of allegiance). The authorities refused to grant Czechoslovak citizenship to a disproportionate number of Hungarians; later, ‘Jewish’ was also introduced as a separate nationality, which led to a further decrease in the number of Hungarians. Slovak sources usually do not deny that many Hungarian teachers and civil clerks left for Hungary, the numbers however are unclear and they basically left because they have lost their previous jobs. These teachers and civil servants are classified as being „expelled“ from Czechoslovakia by some Hungarian sources. There are many examples of Hungarians who were forced to leave their homes in what is now Slovakia (two famous ones are the families of Bela Hamvas, and of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi). The high number of refugees (and even more from Romania) necessitated entire new housing projects in Budapest (Mária-Valéria telep, Pongrácz-telep), which gave shelter to refugees numbering at least in the ten-thousands.

WWII and post-WWII

In 1939 Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Slovakia became independent, while the mainly Hungarian-populated southern parts of Slovakia were annexed by Hungary under the First Vienna Award after pressure from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Some 100 000 Slovaks and Czechs were expelled from southern Slovakia at the beginning of WWII and Slovaks in this area faced atrocities (see First Vienna Award for details). Czechia, on the other hand, was completely occupied by Nazi Germany and subject to Nazi persecution (see Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia).

At the end of WWII, in 1945, Czechoslovakia was recreated and some politicians aimed to completely remove the “war criminal” German and Hungarian minorities from the territory of Czechoslovkia. They were considered "war criminals" because representatives of those two minorities, such as Konrad Henlein or János Eszterházy and their two mother countries were instrumental in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia before WWII. In line with the above Czechoslovak view, in the decree #33, in 1945, President E. Beneš revoked the citizenship of Germans and Hungarians, except those with an active anti-fascist past (for more details see www.cla.sk/projects/TheBeneš Decrees and Beneš Decrees).

The citizenship and all rights were legally restored for Hungarians three years later, in 1948. The following happened in the meantime (1945-1948):

• Some 30 000 Hungarians left southern Slovakia (previously occupied by Hungary under the Vienna Award) immediately at the end of WWII
• While the Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia, the allies prevented an unilateral expulsion of Hungarians, but agreed to a bilateral population exchange between Czechoslovakia and Hungary (which was rejected by Hungary initially). This population exchange proceeded by an agreement, whereby 55 487/74 407/89 660 Hungarians from Slovakia were exchanged for 71 787/73 200 Slovaks from Hungary (including 6 000 voluntary moves; the slash separates numbers according to various sources e.g.). Slovaks leaving Hungary were volunteers but Hungarians leaving Czechoslovakia were mainly forced.
• The result of the expulsion of Germans from Czechia was a desperate need of work force, especially farmers, in the part of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. As a result, the Czechoslovak government resettled more than 100 000 Slovaks and c. 44 129 Hungarians from Slovakia to the Sudentenland between 1945 and 1947. The above 44 129 Hungarians were resettled voluntarily first (2 489 persons, they received houses, good pays and citizenship), later on, from November 19, 1946 to September 30, 1946, they were resettled by force (41 666 persons, under the same conditions as the voluntary group). However, these Hungarians started to turn back to Slovakia (18 536 have returned by late 1948), which caused conflicts, since their original houses were inhabited by others already,so that the government decided to transport all the Hungarians back to Slovakia in an organized way. 24 565 Hungarians were brought back to Slovakia in early 1949 and the remaining 1 028 Hungarians preferred to stay in Czechia.
• Those Hungarians in Slovakia that could provide documentary evidence that they either have been registered as Slovak in 1930 and/or could prove otherwise that they have Slovak or Slavic ancestors, were given the possibility to have their nationality officially changed to Slovak. This operation received the official name re-Slovakization. Since persons of Hungarian nationality were deprived of many rights at that time (see above), as much as some 400 000 (sources differ) persons applied and 344 609 persons received a re-Slovakization certificate and thereby Czechoslovak citizenship (in other words 344 609 Hungarians were able to prove that they have Slovak ancestors or have been Slovaks previously). The re-Slovakization Commission ceased as at December 1948. When Czechoslovak citizenship was restored for Hungarians in 1948, the "re-Slovakized" persons gradually readopted Hungarian nationality.

After 1948

Statistics

In the 1950s census the number of Hungarians in Slovakia decreased by 240 000 (or 160 000 if we subtract the post-WWII population exchange) in comparison to 1930 and in the 1961 census it increased again by 164 244 (to 518 776). The low number in the 1950 census is due to the above mentioned re-Slovakization, the higher number in the 1961 census is due to the fact that the re-Slovakization was cancelled. The difference between the 1930 and the 1961 census is c. 50 000 Hungarians, which implies that after subtracting the 80 000 Hungarians exhanged within the population exchange after WWII, the number of Hungarians [except those exchanged within the population exchange] increased by c. 30 000 between 1930 and 1961 in Slovakia.

The further development of the number of Hungarians in Slovakia was as follows: the number of Hungarians in Slovakia increased from 518 782 in 1961 to 567 296 in 1991, while the number of Hungarians in Hungary itself decreased (see Demographics of Hungary). The number of Hungarians in Slovakia decreased after decades between 1991 and 2001, but this was due to the introduction of new categories in the last censi (Roma, Moravians etc.; many previous Hungarians are Roma now) and also to the negative demographic development of the Hungarian nationality (which became visible in Hungary itself decades earlier). As a proof for the latter: cf. the natality and mortality numbers of Slovaks and Hungarians in Slovakia (per 1000 persons; natality is the first, mortality the second number):

• Slovaks: 1980-1984: 18.8 / 9.9, 1985-1989: 16.5 / 10.0, 1990-1994: 14.6 / 10.0
• Magyars: 1980-1984: 15.6 / 11.0, 1985-1989: 14.0 / 10.7, 1990-1994: 12.1 / 10.9

Institutions

Czechoslovakia (being a Communist country at that time) financed the following purely Hungarian institutions for the Hungarians in Czechoslovakia as of early 1989: 386 kindergartens, 131 elementary schools, 98 secondary schools, 2 theatres, 1 special Hungarian language publishing house (6 publishing houses also publishing Hungarian literature) and 24 newspapers and journals. The only Hungarian-language university outside Hungary was opened at the beginning of the 21st century in Slovakia - the J. Selye University.

According to The Minorities at Risk Project:

During the communist regime, Slovak nationalism was largely kept in check by the strongly centralist Prague regime. The 1968 switch to a federal arrangement gave greater scope to Slovak nationalism, however. New policies of assimilation included progressive Slovakization of education, elimination of Hungarian place-names from signs, bans on using Hungarian in administrative dealings and in institutions and workplaces, and pressure to Slovakize Hungarian names. Nonetheless, the most significant exclusionary factor in Hungarians’ social situation under the communist regime was most likely their own refusal to integrate into the Czechoslovak system and to learn the language. Without a fluency in the official language, their economic and political opportunities were severely limited.

However, Slovak sources assert that this is not true, they claim that:

• the federalisation was only notional (see e.g. Slovak Socialist Republic)
• no change to the minority laws occurred with respect to the year 1968
• during this time the number of Hungarian language schools and Hungarian-speaking people increased in Slovakia. (see above)
• the signs have always been bilingual and an attempt to change this in the 1990s lead to protests
• the names did not have to be Slovakized, it was only required that they have the Indoeuropean word order (first name first, second name next) to prevent confusion

Since independence of Slovakia

Independence of Slovakia from the former Czecho-Slovakia increased the hardship faced by the Hungarian minority. The 1992 Slovak constitution is derived from the concept of the Slovak nation state. However, the Preambule of the Constitution cite Slovaks and ethnic minorities as the constituency. Moreover, the rights of the diverse minorities are protected by the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, and various other legally binding documents. The Hungarian minority enjoys the special rights due to the Basic Treaty of Friendship between Slovakia and Hungary. It is also represented in the parliament by its own political party SMK, which was part of the government coalition from 1998 to 2006. In the same period, Pál Csáky from SMK was the deputy prime minister for the minority rights. He was criticized for allocating most of the government resources to the Hungarian minority, ignoring other minorities, such as Roma people. Similar criticism was raised after the Assembly of the Nitra Region (controlled by SMK) gave the Hungarian schools in the region much more money per pupil than it gave the Slovak schools.

Nevertheless, the period between 1993 and 1998 was not completely unproblematic. According to Miklós Duray, a nationalist politician of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition:

"The oppression of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia gained momentum with the formation of the Slovak state in 1993, increasing even more sharply since Vladimir Meciar came to power for the third time in December of 1994."

1. An official language law was promulgated providing the legal framework for the official use of the Slovak language not only in official communications but also in everyday commerce, in the administration of religious bodies, and even in the realm of what is normally considered private interaction, for example, communications between patient and physician.

2. Administrative division of Slovakia were geographically modified in a clear case of gerrymandering. The administrative system governed by laws created in 1991, included 17 regions and 2 regions with a majority Hungarian population. The 1996 law eliminated this system of administration. SMK asked in vain for the creation of a Hungarian majority Komárno county. Although a territorial unit of this name existed before 1918, the borders proposed by SMK were significantly different. The proposed region would have encompassed a very long slice of southern Slovakia, with the explicit aim to create an administrative unit with ethnic-Hungarian majority. Hungarian minority politicians and intellectuals thought that such kind of administrative unit is essential for the long-term survival of the Hungarian minority. The Slovak government refused to draw any administrative border along ethnic lines.

In the reorganized system only 2 districts have a Hungarian majority population. Furthermore, 8 regions were created, 5 with Hungarian populations in the 10 to 30 per cent range. After the regions became autonomous in 2002, SMK was able to take power in the Nitra Region and it became part of the rulling coalition in several other regions.

3. On March 12, 1997 (i.e. under Mečiar's government), the Undersecretary of Education sent a circular to the heads of the school districts making known the following regulations:

In Hungarian schools the Slovak language should be taught exclusively by native speakers. The same exclusion criteria applies to non-Slovak schools in the teaching of geography and history. (The Undersecretary modified the language of this regulation later by changing the term "exclusively" for "mainly".)

This measure was immediately changed by the Mikuláš Dzurinda government (1998).

In communities where the Hungarian community exceeds 40% of the total population the teachers of Slovak schools receive supplementary pay.

According to an unofficial website, which is run by a group of immigrants in Canada and definitely not very up to date, all communities which include a Hungarians population and where there is no school or there is no Slovak school, wherever possible a Slovak school should be opened, but not a Hungarian one.

After the parliamentary elections in 2006, the nationalist party of Ján Slota became member of the ruling coalition led by Robert Fico. In August a few incidents motivated by ethnic hatred caused diplomatic tensions between the countries. Mainstream Hungarian and Slovak media blamed Slota's anti-Hungarian statements from the early summer to worsen ethnic relations. See details: Anti-Hungarian sentiment.

External links

• Discrimination of Hungarians in Slovakia according to the Slovakia.org website