The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 2/Bloodless Revolution in Bohemia

Bloodless Revolution in Bohemia.

Early in the day of October 28th, the situation in Prague still appeared normal. But as soon as the news came that Vienna threw up the sponge and Andrassy submitted to Wilson, the whole Prague rose up. Streets became crowded, soldiers and officers tore off the Austrian cockades from their caps and tread on them or threw them into the Vltava. Everybody was cheering for Masaryk, Wilson and the Allies.

In the midst of this excitement placards appeared containing the following proclamation:

To the Czechoslovak People:

Your independence has become a reality. The Czechoslovak State entered today into the ranks of independent cultured states of the world. The National Committee|, which enjoys the confidence of all the Czechoslovak people, took over into its hands the administration of the state as the only authorized and responsible factor.

Czechoslovak people, whatever you do, you do it from this moment as a new, free member of the great forum of independent free states. In these moments new acts introduce a new chapter in your history which promises to be a glorious one.

You will not disappoint the expectations of the whole world, which remembers your glorious history that has now culminated in the immortal exploits of the Czechoslovak Legions on the Western battlefields and in Siberia. The whole world watches your first steps into the new life, your entrance into the promised land. Let your shield remain unspotted, as i the shield of your national army, the Czechoslovak Legins. Do not forget national discipline, but remember always that you are citizens of a new state and that you have not merely rights, but also duties.

At the opening of the great undertaking your National Committee, from now on your government, lays the charge upon you that your conduct and your behavior be worthy of this great moment. Our liberators, Masaryk and Wilson, must not be disappointed in their belief that they won liberty for a people that knows how to rule itself. These great days must not be marred by a single ugly act, not one of you shall commit any deed that would throw a shadow on the pure name of your nation. All of you must unconditionally be regardful of what is sacred to another. Personal liberty and private property must not be touched.

Obey unconditionally the order of the National Committee.

Prague, October 28, 1918.

For the Czechoslovak Council.

Dr. Fr. Soukup Geo. Stříbrný

Anton Švehla Dr. Alois Rašín.

 

At the same time the first law, published by authority of the new Government, appeared on the streets. Its text follows:

The Independent Czechoslovak State has been born. In order to maintain continuity of the existing legal order with the new order, so that confusion may be avoided and transition provided to the new public life, the National Committee in the name of the Czechoslovak Nation, as the holder of state sovereignty, orders:

Sec. 1. The form of government of the Czechoslovak state will be determined by the National Assembly together with the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris, as the organs of the unanimous will of the nation. Until this is done, the state sovereignty within the state is exercised by the National Committee.

Sec. 2. All existing provincial and imperial laws and decrees remain provisionally in force.

Sec. 3. All autonomous, state and district governmental offices, all state, provincial, district, county and municipal institutions are subordinate to the National Council. They shall go on for the time being with their work and transact their business in accordance with existing laws and decrees.

Sec. 4. These laws go into effect immediately.

Sec. 5. The executive of the National Committee is charged with carrying out these laws.

Prague, October 28, 1918.

Anton Švehla Geo. Stříbrný	Dr. Alois Rašín Dr. Fr. Soukup,
Dr. Vávro Šrobár.

At noon Švehla, Soukup, Rašín and Stříbrný went to the Governor’s palace, but did not find Count Coudenhove in. They informed his deputy Kosina that the National Council took over public administration. The same announcement was made to Count Schonborn, president of the Provincial Administrative Commission. They told him also that the Committee took over the halls of the Bohemian Diet for its sessions. The War Food Commision was taken over at the same time and deputy Vyškovský. Dr. Němec, editor Svočil and Alois Jirásek were placed in charge.

When the four delegates of the Committee returned from the left bank of the Vltava, they were welcomed with a storm of applause by the people, and each of the four pronounced a speech in which they greeted the arrival of the great day and exhorted the people to maintain order. The next step taken by the National Committee was an order to stop all traffic to German Austria and to Germany, the mo tive being to prevent the export of food from the country.

Dr. Scheiner, the last president of the Czech Sokols, was appointed military commander, and Sokols were charged with the maintenance of order. The whole machinery of public administration, including the railways, posts and telegraphs, was now at the disposal of the new Government.

Naturally the day was observed by the entire city as a day of rejoicing. Factories and stores were closed and from noon till late at night the streets were jammed with crowds. No fares were collected on the street cars, though the cars could only crawl along on account of the constant processions. Before the Hus monument a military band played “Kde Domov Můj” and the Marseillaise; an empty funeral car was stopped. Austria was written on one side and Germany on the other, and the mob with band followed the car to the St. Václav Square, where an officer lined up a guard of soldiers, called out “attention,” while the band played the Czech hymn, and thus they buried the Central Powers. On the base of the St. Václav monument a placard was placed with the inscription: Long live the Czechoslovak Republic. Incidents like these were without number.

At nine o’clock in the evening the Austrian commander, Lieut. Field-Marshall Kestranek appeared at the offices of the National Committee and placed himself under orders of the new authority. Half an hour later the 28th Regiment, composed of recruits from Prague, arrived at the depot upon orders previously issued by the Committee and was received with enthusiasm. Doubt had been felt, whether the Magyar garrison of Prague would accept the new order of things, and machine guns were installed in houses opposite their barracks. But the Magyars desired only to return to Hungary and left Prague on November 1st. . The last units of German soldiers left the city the following day. General Kestranek was later arrested, because he attempted to destroy some important documents. But during the entire course of the sudden revolution there were no riots and not a single life was lost.

The first care of the new government was to establish its authority over the entire territory of the new state. Opposition was expected from the German minority in northern Bohemia and Moravia, where the Germans began to organize their own national council with headquarters at Reichenberg. But the prompt action of the new government in occupying with their troops all the important German centers was crowned with complete success. Brno, the capital of Moravia, Opava, the capital of Silesia, Olomouc and Jihlava in Moravia, Lípa, Litoměřice and Rumburg in Bohemia, all gave in without armed conflict. It was almost surprising, how readily the Germans were reconciled to the overthrow of their rule. When the announcement was made in the German National Theatre in Prague that the Czechoslovak National Committee took over the government, the audience accepted it with cheers. The German manufacturers of northern Bohemia realized that there could be no separate German-Bohemian state, for the districts in which Germans are in the majority form narrow disconnected belts between purely Czech territory and Germany; and joining Germany did not appeal to them for economic reasons. German peasants and workingmen have no quarrel with the Czechs and know quite well that they will receive fair treatment in the new state. Only the professional politicians have not yet become reconciled to the new order. A more difficult problem facing the new Czechoslovak government was the question of the Slovaks. Even before the revolution Slovaks had representatives on the National Committee. When news came to Slovakia of the Prague overturn, a meeting was hurriedly called together by the existing Slovak National Council. Representatives of all the principal Slovak cities and towns gathered at Turč. St. Martin on Oct. 30; they issued the following declaration:

Representatives of all the Slovak political parties, assembled on October 30, 1918, in Turč. St. Martin and organized into the National Council of the Slovak branch of the indivisible Czechoslovak nation, take their stand on the principle of the right of nations to self-determination, accepted by the whole world. The National Council declares that it alone is entitled to speak and act in the name of the Czechoslovak nation living on Hungarian territory.

We deny this right to the Hungarian government which for decades considered it its chief task to suppress everything Slovak, did not erect a single school for our nation nor permitted us to have our own schools, did not admit Slovaks into the public administration and beggared our people economically and preyed on it by its medieval, feudal constitution and politics.

We deny the right to speak in the name of the Slovak people to those representative bodies which came forth from narrow electoral provisions contrary to the will of the people and consist of men who violate the law by preventing the use of a single Slovak word even in the assemblies of purely Slovak counties.

We deny this right to such public meetings which pass resolutions under foreign pressure. In the name of the Slovak nation in Slovakia only the Slovak National Council is entitled to speak.

The National Council of the Czechoslovak nation dwelling in Hungary declares:

1. The Slovak nation, both in respect of language and of cultural history, is a part of the unitary Czechoslovak nation. In all the cultural struggles, which had been fought by the Czech nation and which made it known all over the world, the Slovak branch had its share.

2. For this Czechoslovak nation we also demand the full right of self-determination on the basis of full independence. On this basis we signify our agreement with the newly established international situation, formulated on October 18, 1918, by President Wilson and accepted on Oct. 27, 1918, by the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister.

3. We demand the immediate conclusion of peace, on humanitarian and Christian principles, so that peace might be permanent and prevent by international guarantees further war and further armaments. We are convinced that our striving and gifted Slovak nation which in spite of un speakable oppression reached such a degree of national culture will not be excluded from the blessings of peace and from the league of nations, but that it may be enabled to develop according to its own individuality and make its own contribution to the general progress of mankind.

Given at the session of the Slovak National Council at Turč. St. Martin, October 30, 1918.

Karol A. Medvecký,	Matuš Dula
Secretary	President.

 

On the following day, at nine o’clock in the evening, three delegates of the Slovak National Council arrived in Prague. They were Ivan Derer, Fedar Houdek and Jos. Hanzalik. They were welcomed officially by representatives of the Czechoslovak National Committee and by enthusiastic crowds. The two branches of the Czechoslovak nation were thus formally united.

There was left the problem of taking possession of the Slovak territory. The Magyars held on to what they ruled with more tenacity than the Germans did in Austria. The Hungarian National Council under the presidency of Count Michael Karolyi was just as unwilling to give the oppressed nations of Hungary their liberty, as were the governments that ruled before him in the name of the Hungarian king. The Czechoslovak National Council saw that it would be necessary to occupy the unredeemed portion of the new state by armed force. Disbanding Czech soldiers from the former Austrian army were reformed, new classes of recruits called out, and in addition 36,000 Serbian prisoners of war in Bohemia declared their willing ness to serve in the Czechoslovak army, until it was possible to transport them home. Whether the 40.000 Czechoslovak soldiers serving with the Italians, had as yet returned home, is at this time not known. In any case the government of Prague disposes of strong and well organized forces with the best morale in the world and is proceeding to occupy Slovakia. It may be that will result in a brief war with Karolyi’s forces, although no doubt the French garrison at Budapest will prevent it. The Czechoslovaks have no desire to make war on the Magyars, though the injuries they have suffered at their hands cry to heaven for vengeance. But they will undoubtedly take over all the territory which by the will of the people and the solemn decision of the Allies belongs to the new state.

On October 23, before Austrian rule was formally expelled from Bohemia, a delegation of the Czechoslovak National Committee proceeded from Prague to Switzerland to meet for the first time in four years the leaders of the movement abroad who had brought the cause of liberty to victory. The committee, the supreme organ of the nation, was represented by Dr. Karel Kramář, its president, and Václav Klofáč, its vice-president. The Czech Deputies’ Club was represented by Frant. Staněk, president, Gustav Haberman and Anton Kalina, vice-presidents, and Dr. Přemysl Šlámal. With them went also a representative of the Czech financial interests, banker Jar. Preiss. They were met by Dr. Edward Beneš, foreign minister of the Czechoslovak government, recognized by the Allies; he was accompanied by two Slovak co-workers in the cause of independence. Dr. Ivan Markovič, editor of the “Czechoslovak Independence”, and Dr. Stephen Osuský, diplomatic representative in London. How touching was the first meeting of the men who all during the war had pursued the same aims on different stages, and how much they had to tell each other, may be left to imagination. Complete harmony prevailed at the meeting, and all the acts of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris were formally ratified by the authorized representatives of the people at home. It was agreed also that the principles laid down in the recently issued declaration of independence should be the foundation of the new state and especially that the state should be a republic. Masaryk was unanimously agreed upon as the only possible man for the first president of the republic and his colleagues. Dr. Beneš and Gen. Štefanik, were confirmed in their offices of minister of foreign affairs and of war respectively. While at Geneva the assembled delegates heard of the successful accomplishment of the revolution in Prague, and Kramář and his associates hastened to return home.

They were received at the station royally. Preparations had been made in the meantime for the calling of a national assembly; how it was selected is not yet known. Its first session was held on October 12th. It voted as its first act that the new state should have a republican form of government, and elected Masaryk formally as the first president of the republic.

Pending Masaryk’s arrival the ministry was composed of the following persons: Dr. Karel Kramář, premier; Dr. Edward Beneš, minister of foreign affairs; Gustav Habrman, minister of justice; Francis Staněk, minister of public works; Václav Klofáč, minister of home defense; George Stříbrný, minister of posts and telegraphs; Dr. Francis Soupuk, minister of public instruction; Dr. Adolf Stránský, minister of commerce; Dr. Alois Rašín, minister of finances; Charles Prášek, minister of agriculture; Moric Hruban, minister without portfolio; Leo Winter, minister of social welfare; Dr. Isidore Zahradník, minister of railroads; Gen. Milan Štefanik, minister of war; Dr. Vavro Šrobár, minister of public health; Anton Švehla, minister of the interior.

Francis Tomášek was elected president of the National Assembly, and Francis Udržal, Anton Hajn, Adolph Konečný and Matthew Dula were elected vice-presidents.

These men are representatives of all the parties and tendencies among the Czechs and Slovaks, from the extreme right to social democrats. It is a true coalition ministry. Until final settlement is made of all the war problems and the new state is secure ly established, party lines are shoved aside. And it may be confidently expected that Masaryk, with his tremendous hold over the people, will see to it that partisanship, and above all the all-important social problems, shall not be permitted to cause violence and that the splendid record of the Czechoslovaks during he war shall not be marred by any excesses.