MASARYK, TOMÁS GARRIGUE. — Czech politician and sociologist, b. March 7, 1850 at Hodonín (Moravia), d. Sept. 14, 1937 at Lány (Bohemia). His name is linked to the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic.
In Dec. 1914 he left Austria and joined the Entente camp, carrying on propaganda for the rise of an independent Czechoslovak state and organizing into “legions” the numerous prisoners, deserters, and volunteers of Czech and Slovak nationality. He also stayed in Russia (1917) with the aim of bringing back to the West the many Czechoslovak legionaries, who were threatened with being cut off from return by the Bolshevik revolution. He was proclaimed president of the new state on Nov. 14, 1918 and then reelected.
The figure of M. 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 within the new state various ethnic groups: more than three million Germans, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, and the Slovaks, who, although of Slavic stock, were largely hostile to Czech predominance and to centralism. In the name of his democratic principles, he opposed every form of antisemitism, totalitarian conceptions, and romantic forms of patriotism (consider his campaign to expose the falsity of certain alleged ancient political documents, the work of a forger-poet). His fundamentally positivistic and humanitarian mentality was influenced by various aspects of Protestantism and in particular by several Anglo-Saxon thinkers. His polemical anti-Catholic stances stem from these peculiar aspects of his culture and from the traditions that emerged, characteristic of many exponents of the Czechoslovak 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, in particular, are to be noted: *Blais Pascal, vita e filosofia* (1883); *Suicidio, fenomeno sociale frequente della moderna civiltà* (1881); *Questione ceca* (1895); *Giovanni Hus, il nostro risorgimento e la nostra riforma* (1896); *Havlíček, sforzi e desideri della nostra rinascita* (1896); *Poligamia e monogamia* (1899); *Gli ideali umanitari* (1899); *Russia ed Europa, il mondo e gli Slavi* (1913); *La rivoluzione mondiale* (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. Human beings as such must strive to resemble God by reforming their own heart, reason, thoughts, and customs, perfecting themselves, proceeding from the difficult to the more difficult—that is, from good to better—and not stopping at merely passing from evil to good. This reform will be achieved only by loving oneself beyond measure, without forgetting, however, that loving oneself means cultivating one’s own intelligence, fostering virtue, thereby creating an individual and scientific religion that dispenses with every tradition and every authority.
M. hoped for the advent of humanitarianism, that is, of a religious-ethical era in which only “homo homini frater” would have value. The attainment of this ideal is based on evolution and not on revolution. State, Fatherland, Church, Nation are found along the evolutionary path as temporary stages and are defined as phenomena of society.