MASARYK, TOMÁŠ GARRIGUE. — Czech politician and sociologist, born on 7 March 1850 at Hodonín (Moravia), died on 14 September 1937 at Lány (Bohemia). His name is linked to the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic.
In December 1914 he left Austria and joined the Entente, where he conducted propaganda for the creation of an independent Czechoslovak State and for organizing the numerous Czech-
slovak prisoners, deserters, and volunteers into “legions.” He also stayed in Russia (1917) in order to bring the numerous Czechoslovak legionaries back to the West, as they were threatened with having their return route closed by the Bolshevik Revolution. He was proclaimed president of the new State on 14 November 1918 and was subsequently re-elected.
M.’s figure is identified with a significant phase of the Czech national revival. Under his leadership, the “legal” struggle within the framework of the Austrian Empire became a revolutionary struggle for an independent State. In the name of a Czech nationalist conception, he wished to include different ethnic groups in the new State: more than three million Germans, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, and the Slovaks, who, although of Slavic stock, were for the most part hostile to Czech predominance and centralism. In the name of his democratic principles, he opposed every form of anti-Semitism, totalitarian conceptions, and romantic forms of patriotism (one may consider his campaign to expose the falsity of certain purported ancient political documents, the work of a forger-poet). His fundamentally positivistic and humanitarian mentality underwent various influences from Protestantism and, in particular, from several Anglo-Saxon thinkers. His anti-Catholic polemical tendencies stem from these distinctive aspects of his culture and from the Hussite traditions characteristic of many representatives of the Czechoslovak national revival. M. was not a philosopher in the full sense of the word, but as a thinker he wrote several books of lively interest. Among these, the following deserve particular mention: Blais Pascal, Life and Philosophy (1883); Suicide, a Frequent Social Phenomenon of Modern Civilization (1881); The Czech Question (1895); John Hus, Our National Revival and Our Reformation (1896); Havlíček, the Splendors and Desires of Our Rebirth (1896); Polygamy and Monogamy (1899); Humanitarian Ideals (1899); Russia and Europe, the World and the Slavs (1913); The World Revolution (1925).
T. G. M. places at the center of his “Weltanschauung” the human being who does not expect miracles from God, in whom he believes and of whom he is an “indispensable” collaborator. The human being as such must seek to resemble God, reforming his own heart, reason, thoughts, and customs, perfecting himself, proceeding from the difficult to the more difficult—that is, from good to better—and not stopping at the mere transition from evil to good. This reform will be achieved only by loving oneself beyond all measure, without forgetting, however, that loving oneself means caring for one’s intelligence and cultivating virtue, thereby creating an individual and scientific religion that disregards every tradition and every authority.
M. looks forward to the advent of humanitarianism, that is, of a religious-ethical era in which only “homo homini frater” will have value. The attainment of this ideal is based on evolution and not on revolution. State, Fatherland, Church, and Nation are found along the evolutionary path as temporary phases and are defined as phenomena of society.
#### MASBOTEI: V. EMEROBATTISTI.