National Minorities Under Communism: The Case of Czechoslovakia

Abstract

After its establishment in 1918–1919, Czechoslovakia was a multinational state and some of its minorities protested against their being included into it. The nationality problem was related to the collapse of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1938 and the loss of some of its territories to Germany, Poland, and Hungary. It may be pointed out that the 1920 Constitution did not recognize a separate Slovak national identity and that the Czechs and Slovaks were termed “Czechoslovaks.” The post-Munich Second Republic recognized a separate Slovak nationality; however, the state came to its end in March 1939. In 1945, after its reestablishment as a national state of the Czechs and Slovaks, the country's government attempted to liquidate the national minorities' problem in a drastic manner by transfer (expulsion) of Germans and Hungarians.

Schindler's Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers

“…These efforts were frustrated militarily: Czech troops seized control of Bohemia. 52 The incorporation of millions of Germans into Czechoslovakia and Poland was acknowledged by Woodrow Wilson's secretary of state to have been a "striking example of the abandonment of the principle" of self-determination, as was the prohibition on German unification with Austria at Versailles. 53 Although ensuring the viability of the new states was usually the justification given for abandoning this principle, those involved in drafting the treaties knew better.…”