Czechoslovakia

CZECHOSLOVAKIA. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - The Czechoslovak State was born in Oct. 1918 from the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and was organized as a unitary, representative republic, formed of the following countries: Bohemia (52,062 sq. km.) with 6,700,000 inhabitants, Moravia (22,221 sq. km.) and Silesia (4,271 sq. km.) with 3,300,000 inhabitants, formerly Austrian territories; Slovakia (49,006 sq. km.) with 3,000,000 inhabitants and Carpathian Ruthenia, also called Subcarpathian Russia (Carpathian Ruthenia, 12,617 sq. km.) with 600,000 inhabitants, belonging to the Crown of Hungary, and a small strip of German Upper Silesia (316 sq. km.). When its independence was proclaimed, C. thus embraced 140,493 sq. km. with 13,600,000 inhabitants, which, at the beginning of 1938, had risen to 14,700,000, and was undoubtedly, among all the new States formed from the collapse of the dual monarchy, the one economically most sound and vital.

The German defeat in the Second World War brought about, in May 1945, the reconstitution of the Czechoslovak State within the frontiers of 1937; but in July of the same year the U.S.S.R., whose troops occupied the country, annexed Carpathian Ruthenia (12,617 sq. km. with 725,000 inhabitants) to Ukraine, so that the Republic of C. today extends over 127,765 sq. km. with 13,000,000 inhabitants. The ethnic composition of the State has been profoundly changed, following the losses of war and the expulsion of the Germans, but there are not yet fully reliable figures on the matter.

The geographical structure of the Czechoslovak State brings out its character of transition between the heavily industrialized countries of Central Europe and those still typically agricultural of Eastern Europe. The great variety of conditions of the natural and historical regions that compose it - in Bohemia only 36% of the population devotes itself to agriculture, while industry is far less developed, and of quite another character (craft industry), in Moravia and Silesia, and Slovakia is outright an agricultural country — guarantees C. a certain economic solidity, as proved by the fact that, scarcely had the whirlwind of war passed, the equilibrium tends rapidly to re-establish itself and the economic balance has again become active. It is not, however, easy to foresee what consequences may arise from the insertion of the Czechoslovak State into the Soviet political-economic system.

Within its new borders, C. substantially retains its excellent industrial equipment, which benefits, in a convulsed Europe, from the elimination of German competition. The density of the population (105 inhabitants per sq. km. in 1946) has grown compared with the pre-war period; the capital, Prague, has become a metropolis (almost a million inhabitants at the same date) and 4 urban centers today exceed 100,000 inhabitants: Brno (267), capital of Moravia, Moravská Ostrava (176), Bratislava (or Pressburg, 138), formerly capital of the independent Slovak state, and Plzeň in Bohemia.

The population is in great majority (more than two thirds) Catholic of the Latin rite. The other Christian churches gather 15% of it, the Israelites 2.6%, those without religion 5.2%. These figures are prior to the Second World War.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. HISTORY

The history of C. begins with 28 Oct. 1918, when civil and military powers were assumed by the "National Committee": from the defeat of the Central Powers and the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the Czechoslovak Republic had in fact arisen. Numerous Czechoslovak "legionaries" had fought alongside the troops of the Entente, and the new State thus found itself among the victors.

The new State had to overcome from the outset no small amount of resistance, constituted by the large German and Magyar minorities included within its frontiers: oppositions also took shape among the Slovak population, due in part to autonomist tendencies, in part to political and religious motives. Strong social unrest was caused by the particular post-war situation and by economic difficulties connected with the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In a short time, however, the democratic regime grew stronger. Communist extremism gradually diminished, and even the important non-native minorities became integrated, at least in part, into the political life of the State, participating in the government.

Masaryk and Beneš were the most distinguished figures in Czechoslovak political life. The Czech national movement was nevertheless permeated, in certain of its currents, with anti-Catholic tendencies: Hussite traditions, historical reminiscences and elements of contingent politics converged in this attitude. Thus there arose a strong tension between the Holy See and the Czechoslovak government, following the latter's participation in the commemorations of Hus (1925).

In a democratic climate, strongly permeated with socialist reformism and laicism, C., supported by the French alliance and economically prosperous thanks to the country's considerable wealth, passed through a long period of peace. This situation was profoundly transformed with the resurgence of German power and the rapid rise of National Socialism.

The gradual retreat of French policy in Eastern Europe was not compensated by Czechoslovakia's new friendship with the U.S.S.R., which was preoccupied above all with its own particular problems. In the territories inhabited by a German population, a violent agitation for annexation to the Greater Reich began under the leadership of K. Henlein. In Slovakia too, opposition to the Prague government became ever harsher and more intransigent. In the autumn of 1938, following the Munich agreements and their developments, C., from a multinational State, had become a State composed of Czechs and Slovaks: Germany occupied almost all the territories inhabited by Germans; Hungary pushed its frontiers northward and on 4 Apr. 1939 annexed the whole of Carpathian Ruthenia. Poland too annexed a piece of Silesia.

The C. that emerged from the Munich agreements, however, had a short life. A few local incidents between Czechs and Germans served Hitler as a pretext to strike C. its final blow, while the pro-Nazi currents in Slovakia openly tended to create an independent Slovak State. Hitler meanwhile summoned the president of the Czechoslovak Republic, E. Hácha: the weak president found himself obliged to place "spontaneously" the destiny of the Czech people in the hands of the German Führer. On 15 March 1939 German troops occupied the Czech capital. At the same time Slovakia, under the leadership of Tiso, Tuka and Mach, became an independent State under German protectorate.

Czechoslovak resistance against Nazi domination was very intense; the communists, who had remained completely passive at first, passed actively to action after the end of German-Soviet friendship and after the German attack on Russia. As the Russians drew near to Czechoslovak territory, a violent insurrection broke out in Slovakia, which was nevertheless able to be suppressed. Under Nazi domination there took place harsh political and racial persecutions as well as ferocious reprisals: particularly famous was the destruction of Lidice, with almost all its inhabitants.

The Czechoslovak government expelled almost entirely the Germans and Hungarians living in its territory. Under the high direction of Beneš a coalition government was created.

For some time it seemed that, on the level of foreign and domestic policy, the Czechoslovak government might maintain itself in a certain way halfway between Russia and the West. Russian pressure, however, became ever more tight and culminated in the intimation to C. not to adhere to the Marshall Plan. The communists gradually seized all the main levers of command, under the pretext of "defending democracy." The elections of 1946 had left the communists in a clear minority (they were indeed resoundingly defeated in Slovakia). But in Feb. 1948 they violently seized power: this act of force coincided approximately with the tragic death, in mysterious circumstances, of the son of the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic, Jan Masaryk.

Once a totalitarian regime was established, the opposition parties were suppressed and C. entered integrally into the political climate of Eastern Europe. A violent anti-religious campaign was unleashed against the Church. Already in 1925 the honors decreed to the heretic John Hus had created difficulties between the government of the republic and the Holy See, later smoothed over in 1928 by means of a Modus vivendi accepted by both parties (cf. AAS, 20 [1928], pp. 65-66). But now the totalitarian government not only violated the Modus vivendi, but went and goes much further with the nationalization of schools, the suppression of the Catholic press, the oppression of genuine Catholic Action, organizing another schismatic one. Against these and other violations of the rights of the Church the voice of the entire episcopate was raised, especially against the thinly veiled attempt to provoke a religious schism. The schismatic Catholic Action was condemned by the Holy See on 20 June 1949 (AAS, 41 [1949]). C. now has two metropolitan sees (Prague and Olomouc) and 10 episcopal sees (Budějovice, Hradec Kralové, Litoměřice, Brno, Neosolio, Nitra, Prešov of the Ruthenians, Scepusio, Cassovia, Rosnavia). In addition there are two apostolic administrations, that of Tirnavia and that of the parishes of the diocese of Szatmár situated in Slovakia.

Wolf Giusti

III. CZECH LITERATURE

The oldest Czech literary documents date from the Christian era. Under the Moravian prince Rastislav, Constantine and Methodius arrived from Byzantium, bringing Eastern customs and the Slavonic-ecclesiastical language (a Bulgarian dialect of the region of Thessalonica). Constantine created the Glagolitic alphabet on the basis of the Greek minuscule, and thirty years later Methodius' disciples created the Cyrillic on the basis of the Greek majuscule. Of the translations of liturgical books and parts of Scripture into Old Slavonic, the Kyjevské listy (from the place where they were found) survive, a Slavonic translation of Latin Mass books. The so-called Pražské zlomky, a translation of a Greek Mass book, date back to the 11th century (monastery of Sázava). The Czech origin of these documents is indicated by certain Bohemisms (e.g. the Czech e instead of the Old Slavonic št.: noc instead of nošt). After the death of Methodius (885) his disciples were persecuted and moved to Croatia and Bulgaria. The Slavonic liturgy gradually disappeared and was maintained only in the cloister of Sázava. Subsequently, under Western influence, Latin became in Bohemia not only the liturgical language but also the scholastic and literary one. In Latin is written the Kronika of Kosmas, dean of the Prague chapter (d. 1125), a narrative of the events that occurred from the tower of Babel to the author's time; Kosmas is inspired by the style of the Roman annalists and inserts, in the manner of Livy, invented speeches. The first attempts at a literature in Czech were the glosses to church texts and the hymns Hospodine, pomilui ny ("Lord, have mercy on us"), which according to Jakobson dates back to the 11th century, and the Píseň Svatováclavská (of more recent date, addressed to the patron of the Czech land). One of the central works of the Czech Middle Ages is the Alexandrie. Following the French (Walter of Châtillon) and German (Ulrich von Eschenbach) models, an unknown author composed around 1310 a Czech Alexandrie. He made Alexander a Christian king in struggle against the infidels, and his warriors a chivalric host in the spirit of the crusaders. Another chronicle of great interest is that of Dalimil, which reveals a patriotic impulse against the Germanization of the country attempted by the last Přemyslids.

The German element had penetrated public life and the court: Wenceslaus II himself versified in German. The author of the chronicle (Dalimil is a fictitious name) wishes to admonish with examples from the past the nobility of his time and has Czech princes utter patriotic tirades. Despite his own distrust of foreign customs, he wrote his chronicle in verse, following the example of the German ones. The medieval Czech drama likewise arises from the rites of the church. The dialogues of the Gospels were performed in dramatic form. Several fragments have survived, among them the drama of the three Marys, the dramas of the Passion and, in the profane genre, the Mastičkář (The Quack) in which a charlatan offers ointments and praises them in fairground fashion (a parody of the quackeries of certain doctors, perhaps composed under French influences).

The era of Charles IV (1346-78) marked the summit of Bohemian Gothic culture. He founded the university (1348), favored the arts and the "dear Czech language." From this period are the didactic composition in verse Nová rada (New Council) by Smil Flaška z Pardubic and the anonymous debate Podkoni a žák (The Squire and the Scholar). The sovereign's interest in the past spurred many annalists to work, and Charles IV himself wrote his biography in Latin. One of the first students of the Prague university, Tomáš Štítný ze Štítného (1335-1405), wrote on religious subjects, no longer in Latin but in a Czech colored with popular expressions, in an attempt to popularize Christian doctrine. His work Reží becední (Digressions), for example, has the form of a conversation between father and son and treats of God, the secrets of the faith, redemption, and repentance. Most of Štítný's writings, so medieval and typically scholastic, are derived or translated from Latin texts. He, with his ethical and preaching warmth, prepares the way for Hus. John Hus (1369-1415) wrote theological treatises in Latin that are fundamentally paraphrases of the radical theories of Wyclif, but he is more important as a writer in the Czech language. He reformed orthography, took an interest in Bohemian religious song, introducing it into the churches, and gave the example of the new written language, founded on the living speech of the people. After the death of Hus, the ascetic spirit of his followers assigned to literature religious and educational tasks. The Bible and moralizing writings and marginal notes became the center of interest. The Hussites cultivated, in the footsteps of Hus, religious song. From this era is the chorale Kdož jste Boží bojovnici (Ye who are warriors of God) which is usually attributed to the leader Jan Žižka z Troenova. A great figure of a reforming utopian was Petr Chelčický (d. 1460), author of Postila and Siet' viry pravé (Net of the true faith). The good Christian, according to Chelčický, does not fight, not even to defend himself, and rejects science as a diabolical invention. Chelčický wants a return to evangelical simplicity, is against the union of temporal and spiritual powers, proclaims non-resistance to evil, condemning even the Hussite wars. In his thought some have wished to see a foreshadowing of Tolstoyan theories. With his radicalism of rural background, Chelčický shows distrust of merchants and exalts the work of the peasant.

Later humanism brought Bohemia back onto the European plane, out of the isolation in which the Hussite movement had closed it. An example of typically Bohemian humanism was Viktorin Kornel ze Všehrd (d. 1520).

In the era of Ferdinand I and Maximilian II (1526-1576) there distinguished themselves Václav Hájek z Libočan (d. 1558), author of a chronicle of Catholic orientation, full of imaginary zones and fictitious events, a book that was one of the favorite readings of the romantics, and Jan Blahoslav (1523-71), who translated the New Testament, occupied himself with grammar, and wrote the first Czech theoretical book on song. From the era of Rudolf II

(1576-1620) the Kralická Bible should be mentioned, a translation by scholars, in which the written language was codified in a happy balance of popular speech and literary models. The historian and publisher Daniel Adam z Veleslavína (d. 1599) wrote instead in a Latinizing style, still under the influence of humanism. After the battle of the White Mountain (8 Nov. 1620) Bohemian literature passed through a period of crisis. Jan Amos Komensky (1592-1670) lived and worked in exile, and his writings can be divided into two groups: treatises of religious content (such as Labyrint světa a ráj srdce) and pedagogical works. Komenský wanted to unite all the disciplines and human knowledge hitherto dispersed into an organic whole of encyclopedic character, which he called pansophia. In the time of the Thirty Years' War, Komenský dreamed of the harmony of all peoples and world peace. Among the priests who set themselves the goal of bringing Bohemia back into the bosom of the Church there were some of patriotic tendency, such as the Jesuit Bohuslav Balbín (d. 1688), a benefactor of the Czech language. Other priests of the Society of Jesus should also be remembered in the field of popular religious poetry (B. Bridel, F. Kadlinský), the homiletic works of Fabián Veselý and Leopoldo Fabricius and later the new edition of the Bible, called "Bible svatováclavská" through the work of the Jesuits M. Šteyer, J. Konstanc and J. Barner. For the higher classes Czech became a dead language. The "šlechta" (nobility) used German and the learned used German or Latin; only the peasants preserved their own idiom.

The "awakening" began toward the end of the 18th century, when Joseph II "opened the windows of the im-

"empire" to the Enlightenment and reformist tendencies. The first significant figure of the Czech revival is Josef Dobrovský (1753-1829), philologist, patriarch of Slavic studies, author of the Ausführliches Lehrgebäude der böhmischen Sprache, of the Deutschböhmisches Wörterbuch, and of the Geschichte der böhmischen Sprache und Literatur. He wrote above all in German and in Latin and, as a true Enlightenment thinker, showed himself skeptical about the future of the Bohemian language, convinced that Czech culture was merely a monument of the past, worthy of scientific investigation, but by then incapable of creating a literature of European standing. For this reason he was called the Half-

Bohemian (Poločech) and "slavisierender Deutsche" by the Romantic generation, which recognized its leader in Josef Jungmann (1773-1847), who, with his translations of Milton and Chateaubriand, laid the foundations of the poetic language and of the new Czech prose and compiled a Bohemian-German dictionary in five volumes.

Of the first Romantic school, mention is made of Matěj Milota Zdirad Polák, author of the descriptive poem Vznešenost přírody

(La sublimità della natura); Jan Kollár (1793-1852), who in composing the poem Slávy dcera (The Daughter of Slava) in sonnets was inspired by Dante and Petrarch, feigning a journey through the old lands inhabited by the Slavs as far as an imaginary heaven and a Slavic Acheron; František Ladislav Čelakovský (1799-1862), who collected, following the Herderian model, folk songs of all the Slavic countries in three volumes and created, on the pattern of the folk song, admirable lyrical miniatures in Ohlas písní ruských (Echo of Russian Songs) and in Ohlas písní českých (Echo of Czech Songs); Václav Hanka (1791-1861), who contrived, together with Josef Linda (d. 1834), a colossal forgery of "manuscripts" (Rukopis Králové-dvorský a Zelenohorský), attributed to very distant epochs (the times of Samo, the supposed defeat of the Tatars near Olomouc, etc.). An archaeologist of great stature was the Slovak Pavel Josef Šafářík (1795-1861), who with the Slovanské starožitnosti founded Slavic archaeology, also preparing the ground for historians, of whom František Palacký (1798-1876) was the champion, author of Dějiny národu českého v Čechách i v Moravě (History of the Czech People in Bohemia and Moravia), in which the spirit of the Enlightenment blends with Romantic enthusiasms. Among the many followers of Čelakovský, imitators of the folk song, one recalls Josef Jaroslav Langer, who in the satires Bohdanecký rukopis (The Bohdaneč Manuscript) and Den v Kocourkově (A Day in Kocourkov) mocked his native country and its provincial customs. Among the Catholics of the era of the Revival are to be remembered F. J. Vavák, F. M. Pálcl, and the priests B. M. Kulda, B. Jablonský and F. Sušil, a great biblical exegete and collector of Moravian folk songs. Romantic drama boasts in Bohemia the names of Václav Klement Klicpera (d. 1859) and Josef Kajetán Tyl (1808-56). The major poet of the first quarter of the century is Karel Hynek Mácha (1810-1836), who was influenced by Byron and marked with the poem Máj (May), rich in melodic suggestions and dramatic tension, the beginning of the new Czech poetry. The first Czech journalist of national significance was Karel Havlíček Borovský (1821-56), who created Bohemian political satire in the three poems Křest svatého Vladimíra (The Baptism of St. Vladimir), Tyrolské Elegie (Tyrolean Elegies) and Král Lávra (King Lavra). On the path opened by Čelakovský moved Karel Jaromír Erben (1811-70) in his Kytice (The Bouquet), a collection of ballads that draw on Slavic mythology and the Christian morality of the people.

The first great Bohemian woman writer was Božena Němcová (1820-62), who, besides valuable folklore works and various tales, composed the enchanting family chronicle Babička (The Grandmother), a series of pictures of popular life and nature. In 1858 a new poetic generation gathered around the almanac "Máj": among its members were

Vítězslav Hálek (1835-74), who sang in Večerní písně (Evening Songs) the woman he loved and described the Bohemian countryside in many tales; Jan Neruda (1834-91), not only a humorist and writer of sketches on the life of Malá Strana, the old Prague quarter, but a poet of tragic tones and cosmic visions; Adolf Heyduk (1835-1923), author of gypsy melodies and epic songs. In the same period wrote in prose Gustav Pfleger Moravský (d. 1875), Jakub Arbes (1840-1914), creator of the "romanetto", a genre that stands between the horror tale and the fantastic story in the manner of Verne, Antal Stašek (1843-1931) and Karolína Světlá (1830-99), who devoted herself to the rural novel. In the second half of the century four poets worthy of note established themselves: Svatopluk Čech (1846-1908), who composed epic poems, patriotic and political lyrics (with a Slavic "progressive" and vaguely socialist background); Josef Václav Sládek (1845-1912), who oriented himself toward modern English poetry; Julius Zeyer (1841-1901), who, for his dramas, short stories and poems, drew on Neo-Latin, Slavic, Nordic and Oriental sources; Jaroslav Vrchlický (1853-1912), who accomplished the work of several generations with countless translations, lyrics, epic songs and dramas. To the historical novel turned at that time in Bohemia Václav Beneš Třebízský (d. 1884), Alois Jirásek (1851-1930), Zikmund Winter (d. 1912). The tale with a rural and village subject had as its representatives Karel V. Rais (d. 1926), Karel Klostermann (d. 1923), Alois Mrštík (d. 1925). At the beginning of the twentieth century established themselves

Josef Svatopluk Machar (1864-1942), author of Confiteor and Tristium Vindobona, bitterly anticlerical, oscillating between nationalist and socialist inspirations, and Petr Bezruč (1867), who sang with epic vigor the misery and mourning of the Silesian land; in prose Josef Holeček (1853-1929), creator of the epic Naši (Our People), Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod (1860-1927), author of social novels, the Catholic priests V. Kosmák, J. Š. Baar and S. Bouška, the first two authors of novels and realistic prose taken from the life of country parish priests and from the rural environment, and the last also a translator and poet. The principal names of Bohemian decadentism were those of the poets Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic (d. 1871) and Karel Hlaváček (d. 1898). Symbolism was represented by the mystic Otakar Březina (1868-1929) and impressionism by Antonín Sova, poet of the landscape of southern Bohemia. In the first decades of the twentieth century established themselves the initiator of the new Czech criticism F. X. Šalda (1867-1937), the poets Viktor Dyk (1877-1931), Stanislav Kazimír Neumann (1875-1947), Karel Toman (1877-1946), Otakar Theer (d. 1917), the narrator Božena Benešová (1873-1936). After the First World War avant-garde tendencies spread, such as "poetism" (echoing surrealism), represented especially by Vítězslav Nezval and Jaroslav Seifert. Among the other poets of European stature who established themselves in the last decades, worthy of mention are Jiří Wolker (1900-24), Josef Hora (d. 1945), František Halas, Vladimír Holan. Among the prose writers: Jaroslav Hašek, the bizarre author of the adventures of the "Good Soldier Švejk", Karel Čapek (1890-1938), writer of utopian novels, detective stories and travel impressions, Vladislav Vančura (1891-1943), who bases his novels on the cult of the word and goes back to the prose model of the humanists, and finally the Catholic writer of broad scope Jaroslav Durych (b. 1886). Among the contemporaries, some representatives of the Catholic current deserve to be named; in the field of poetry: Josef Zahradníček, Jakub Deml, Jan Dckulil, Jan Lazecký, Václav Renč, Albert Vyskočil; in the field of prose: Karel Šulc, Jan Čep.

Angelo Maria Ripollino

IV. SLOVAK LITERATURE

Slovak literature is recent, in that a true and proper literary language begins only with A. Bernolák (1762-1813), a Catholic priest. Bernolák fixed the fundamental rules of Slovak orthography in a study entitled Linguae slavicae per regnum Hungariae usitatae compendiosa simul et facilis ortographia (1787). Bernolák founded at Trnava (1795) a literary association, the Erudita societas slovacca, around which the entire Catholic cultural and spiritual world gathered. The detachment of the Slovak literary language from the Czech one signified the detachment of the great majority of the population, which was made up of Catholics. A determined will to draw closer to the people lay at the basis of this assertion of linguistic and national autonomy. The first Slovak poet, Jan Hollý (v.; 1785-1849), was a priest: he was also a good translator of the Aeneid and wrote poems permeated with Pan-Slavic ideas.

At the origin of the Slovak linguistic secession there also emerged the will to defend themselves against governmental attempts at Magyarization, the intention of asserting a "Slovak" consciousness, in the face of a "Czechoslovak" conception held to be abstract and not corresponding to historical, moral and linguistic reality.

A characteristic exponent of the Slovak literary "revival" may be considered L'udevít Štúr (1815-1856). The language he used departs from that of Bernolák. With his poetry several inspirations drawn from folk songs became established; to this accent of romanticism with a predominantly folkloric background there is counterbalanced another romanticism with a historico-political background: in short, with Štúr and his disciples, the penetration into Slovakia of Russian "Slavophile" ideas begins: the Slavic world in general and Russia in particular are set in opposition to the West; in the Slavic world they wish to see youthful creative freshness, religious depth, a peaceful and democratic spirit; in the footsteps of Herder, a radiant future is foretold for the Slavic world, while the West, on the other hand, appears to these enthusiastic "Slavs," through hasty romantic schematizations of Russo-schismatic origin, as more or less irreparably fallen into hedonism and materialism. Even in the face of the Western and "European" Prague, an attempt is made to emphasize an accent of more marked Slavic autochthonism. Among Štúr's disciples and followers, Samo Chalupka (1812-83) deserves to be particularly remembered. The restless Janko Král (1822-76) was sometimes able to be a noteworthy poet, an exponent of typically nineteenth-century patriotic and revolutionary tendencies and also characteristic for certain "avant-garde" touches in his lyric poetry, which appeared, in a certain sense, "pre-impressionistic." Jan Botto (1829-1881) achieved great fame as the author of a short poem entitled Smrt' Jánosíková (The Death of Jánosík). In the exaltation of Jánosík (a romantically idealized brigand), Botto was able happily to fuse various touches of folk poetry. Andrea Sládkovič (pseudonym of Braxatoris, 1820-72), although linking himself to some tendency of Štúr, felt with vigor and originality the Slovak landscape and folk traditions, going beyond the limits of folklorism and of a provincial art. Svetozar Hurban Vajanský (1847-1916), an interesting and sometimes paradoxical figure as a politician and writer, on the other hand emphasizes, by taking them up again and in a certain sense modernizing them, Štúr's Slavophile touches: enthusiastic, an admirer of tsarist Russia, he did not spare his barbs against democratic and bourgeois Prague. In his stories of Slovak life there is no lack of vigorous touches. Among Catholics, particular mention deserves to be made of the literary and cultural movement headed by F. R. Osvald (v.), which links itself in a certain sense to Bernolák. Particular importance in modern Slovak literature, however, belongs to two writers: Pavel Ország Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) and Martin Kukučín (1860-1928). The former had to his credit a broad horizon of Western culture and was moreover a passionate devotee of Dante. Among his writings are remembered a robust and lively epic-lyric work: Hájnikova žena (The Forester's Wife), as well as his religious songs. Martin Kukučín (pseudonym of Matteo Bencúr) is the most notable of Slovak novelists and short-story writers: his novels reflect, with European sensibility, characteristic aspects of Slovak life. One of his demanding novels is inspired by Dalmatian life.

A notable cultural activity (literary, artistic, linguistic, folkloristic) was carried on for several decades by the Matica Slovenská, the principal center of the Slovak national awakening, with its seat at Turčiansky Svätý Martin. The Matica Slovenská underwent particular development after the formation of the Czechoslovak state (1918). Particular importance, in the field of Catholic culture, was exercised by the association of St. Adalbert (Spolok Svätého Vojtecha), founded in 1870.

In the period between the two world wars, Milo Urban, born in 1904, acquired notable fame, as the author of a work of broad scope, Živý bič (The Living Whip), a narrative of the life of a Slovak village during the First World War. Already after 1918 a Marxist tendency began to take shape in part of Slovak literature. To the Slavic "fathers"

To the "Slavophile fathers" corresponded the "sons," admirers of the new communist Russia. Among these writers, Laco Novomesky should be remembered, in whose poetry echoes of French Surrealism are also reflected. Other writers worthy of attention are Krasko, Răzus, Roy, Jesensky Tajovsky, Hronsky. In the Catholic field, I. Somolický, T. Milkin, A. Radlinský are remembered; in the most recent period, J. Silan, I. Hlbina, R. Dilong. Slovak cultural life continued to develop along its main currents, in a climate of intensely felt religious values, conscious of tradition.

The end of the Second World War was, however, to have strong repercussions also on the literary and cultural life of Slovakia. The Marxist current, while remaining in the minority, grew stronger, succeeding in immediately occupying important directive positions in the scholastic, cultural and journalistic fields. This position of predominance has been further strengthened in recent times, following the political events that brought C. into the Soviet orbit. As a result of communist pressure, which ended up extinguishing all independent literary tendencies, numerous Czech and Slovak writers were forced to abandon their homeland. Among the latter are remembered the already mentioned Hronsky, who, during his stay in Italy, drew artistic inspiration from the Roman environment, F. Hrušovský, M. Šprinc, K. Strmeň, S. Mečiar. In the United States various Slovak literary publications see the light.

V. ART

Evidence of the most ancient artistic manifestations in the territory of the Czechoslovak Republic dates from the coming of Christianity. However, of the first Latin mission, coming from the West, as also of the mission of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, which arrived from the East in 863, no artistic monuments remain, but only literary mentions of churches probably built of wood. It seems that the first masonry church was erected (between 926 and 929) by Prince St. Wenceslas: a round church, relatively large, with four apses. This building, an important monument of Carolingian architecture, represented for the country not only the church of the holy prince's residence, but also the resting place of his remains, and finally, after 973, the cathedral of the bishop of Prague, the prototype of the Christian church. Indeed, in the following period the churches of the feudal lords were erected on that model, and later also those of the villages. Toward the end of the 10th century, with the founding of the monastery of St. George, the first three-naved church with tribunes arose in Prague. The further development of Romanesque architecture enriched the Bohemian territory not only with centrally planned churches, but also with churches of one or three naves, often of considerable extent.

In Slovakia too, in the 12th century, a very considerable number of churches arose in which the characteristics of the Romanesque age are imprinted. Romanesque art continued to dominate there during the following century as well.

Toward the middle of the 13th century the pioneers of Gothic architecture, the Cistercian monks, arrived in the territory. And after 1300 Gothic forms came to be commonly used both in the churches governed by the Mendicant Orders and in the others that were being built in the cities. In Bohemia the apogee of the Gothic is represented by the construction of the cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague. Charles IV entrusted this undertaking in 1344 to the French architect Matthias of Arras and, after his death, in 1352 to Peter Parler, who brought the flamboyant style into his building. This style reaches its culmination in the church of St. Barbara at Kutná Hora, and was used until the middle of the 16th century; indeed, even at the end of that century buildings in late Gothic style were still arising. In Slovakia Gothic architecture triumphs in the church of St. Elizabeth at Košice (15th century).

Sculpture, whose most ancient manifestations in Bohemia go back to the 12th century, there reached a very notable level in the second half of the 14th century, especially through the work of the masters who worked at the cathedral of Prague. Their work includes the statue of St. Wenceslas, the tombs of the kings of Bohemia and the busts in the triforium of the Cathedral.

The most ancient examples of painting also appear in Bohemia in the 12th century; in the 14th century Italian and French influences penetrated the territory, which the artists elaborated according to a local taste documented by panel paintings, among which particularly notable are those of the Master of Vyšší Brod (mid-14th century) and of Třeboň (ca. 1380), and by wall paintings at Karlštejn (ca. 1365) and in the monastery of Emmaus in Prague. However, from the beginnings of the 11th century one witnesses in Bohemian territory the development of illumination. Excellent documents are the Evangeliary of the coronation of King Vratislav of 1085 and the Psalter of the monastery of Ostrov of the 12th century. Particularly notable are also the Passional of the abbess Kunhuta (ca. 1320), the splendid manuscripts of Bishop John of Středa, those of Archbishop Ernest of Pardubice (mid-14th century) and the manuscripts of King Wenceslas IV (beginning of the 15th century).

In the time of King Charles IV, during the second half of the 14th century, the arts had a very broad development in Bohemia; this, however, was brusquely interrupted in 1420 by the Hussite wars, during which there were frequent outbreaks of true iconoclasm.

Once peace returned, a period of reflowering of the late Gothic style followed, until at the beginnings of the 17th century the first manifestations of the Baroque style appeared. The merit of its extraordinary diffusion belongs above all to the Italian architects who worked in the region, such as those belonging to the families of the Luraghi and the Orsi, and to the architects of the Order of the Jesuits. Essentially through their work, after the battle of the White Mountain (in 1620), the new churches and the new colleges arose. Among the particularly significant artists of that period is to be remembered the Romanized architect Gianbattista Mathey (1630-95). To the flowering of sacred architecture in the Baroque period contributed above all also Christoph Dientzenhofer (v.; d. 1722) and his son Kilian Ignaz (v.; 1690-1751), who, however, after an initial period in which he linked himself to Guarini, adopted Borrominesque forms. A curious interpretation of Gothic forms is offered by Giovanni Santini (1667-1723). In the crowd of excellent sculptors of the Baroque period are to be noted Ferdinand Maximilian Brokoff (1688-1731) and Matthias Bernard Braun (1684-1738). Among the painters are remembered in Bohemia Karel Škréta, trained in Italy (1610-74), Peter Brandl (1668-1735), and the frescoist Wenceslas Lawrence Rainer (1689-1743), in Moravia John George Etgens (1693-1754), and Joseph John Winchelter (1743-1807).

In Slovakia there meanwhile worked a series of masters, among them the sculptor Georg Raphael Donner (v.), whose activity took place there between 1728-39.

The Nazarene school found its most conspicuous representative in the painter F. Tkadlik (1786-1840) and had a certain influence on the work of the sculptor Václav Levy (1820-70), trained in Rome. The greatest Bohemian painter of the past century, Joseph Mánes (1820-71) contributed to the decoration of the churches, and the most celebrated sculptor of this epoch, Joseph Wenceslas Myslbek (1844-1922), modeled the monumental group of St. Wenceslas in the main square of Prague, a Crucifix, of exquisite realism, and the magnificent kneeling figure of Card. Schwarzenberg.

Francis Kysela (1881-1941) in his time began the storied stained-glass windows of the cathedral of Prague, continued later by Max Švabinský, who is among the best-known living Czechoslovak artists (b. 1873). In the decorative arts J. Fantan was prolific, in sacred painting Felix Jenewein (1857-1905). Among modern architects Camillo Hilbert (1869-1932) acquired a name in the field of sacred art; lastly Joseph Grčár (1880-1945), inspired by modern constructivism, designed the church of St. Wenceslas in Prague. The name of the sculptor Ignaz Weirich (1856-1916) is well known also in Rome.

Josef Cibulka

VI. SCHOOL SYSTEM

In the years 1918-38 the school was divided into Czech, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Polish and Ruthenian. The ideas of Comenius (v.) did not lie at the basis of education in their entirety, inasmuch as religious education, the cornerstone of Comenius's system, was reduced to a secondary and non-compulsory subject. Thus a gap arose which it was thought to fill with the teaching of the "doctrine of civil life," which set out to form the pupil morally and politically in the first three grades of school. There was no single textbook for this teaching, and wide freedom was granted in the choice of the material to be taught. The study of experimental psychology was encouraged, and an "Institute of Human Labor" was created, whose task was to investigate the effectiveness of selection methods in secondary schools. The secondary school was to select the future ruling class, while also forming character. In order to see the pupil's character more clearly, camps lasting 5 days were set up in Prague and Brno, where the pupil was examined from every side. An attempt was made to establish inclinations as well by means of psycho-technical tests. Prague housed a Ukrainian University for Ukrainians in exile. Mukačevo, Užhorod and Malý Berezný were the centers of the Uniate Church, which set out to educate the intellectuals and the clergy, who one day were to be the promoters of the rebirth of the Ukrainian people in Russia and Poland. The school was not to lose its contact with the family, and for this reason "student committees" and "parents' councils" were instituted; so as not to lose contact with the world of manual labor, the latter became a principal subject of instruction in the first two grades of school. In the years 1945-49 the school abandoned the previous orientation to become more and more, politically, a partisan school. Communist doctrine gained ever more ground. The popularization of education was carried out, the Russian language was introduced in all grades of school, a total renewal of school textbooks is envisaged, and the reprinting of the old texts is provisional. Particular care was given to preschool education, which was divided into nursery schools from 6 weeks to 3 years and kindergarten from 3 years to 7 years; compulsory school attendance was extended to the age of 15 (v. BOEMIA; SLOVACCHIA). - See Tavy. LXXIII-LXXIV. Miroslav Štampf