Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
The dissolution of Czechoslovakia
(Czech: Rozdělení Československa, Slovak: Rozdelenie Česko-Slovenska) took
effect on December 31, 1992, and was the self-determined split of the federal
republic of Czechoslovakia into the independent countries of the Czech Republic
and Slovakia. Both mirrored the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak
Socialist Republic, which had been created in 1969 as the constituent states of
the Czechoslovak Federal Republic. It is sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce,
a reference to the bloodless Velvet Revolution of 1989, which had led to the
end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
Background Czechoslovakia
was created with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I.
In 1918, a meeting took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, at
which the future Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and other Czech
and Slovak representatives signed the Pittsburgh Agreement, which promised a
common state consisting of two equal nations: Slovaks and Czechs. Soon
afterward, he and Edvard Beneš violated the agreement by pushing for greater
unity and a single nation. Some Slovaks were not in favour of that
change, and in March 1939, with pressure from Adolf Hitler, the First Slovak
Republic was created as a satellite state of Germany with limited sovereignty.
The alignment with the Soviet Union after World War II oversaw the reunification
into the Third Czechoslovak Republic. In 1968, the Constitutional Law of
Federation reinstated an official federal structure of the 1917 type, but
during the Normalization Period in the 1970s, Gustáv Husák, despite being a
Slovak himself, returned most of control to Prague. That approach encouraged a
regrowth of separatism after the fall of communism.
Partition into two entities By
1991, the Czech Republic's GDP per capita was some 20% higher than Slovakia's.
Transfer payments from the Czech budget to Slovakia, which had been the rule in
the past, were stopped in January 1991. Many Czechs and Slovaks desired the
continued existence of a federal Czechoslovakia. Some major Slovak parties,
however, advocated a looser form of coexistence[citation needed] and the Slovak
National Party sought complete independence and sovereignty. For a few years,
political parties re-emerged, but Czech parties had little or no presence in Slovakia
and vice versa. To have a functioning state, the government demanded continued
control from Prague, but Slovaks continued to ask for decentralisation.
In 1992, the Czech Republic
elected Václav Klaus and others, who demanded either an even tighter federation
("viable federation") or two independent states. Vladimír Mečiar and
other leading Slovak politicians wanted a kind of confederation. Both sides
opened frequent and intense negotiations in June. On July 17, the Slovak
parliament adopted the declaration of independence of the Slovak nation. Six
days later, Klaus and Mečiar agreed to dissolve Czechoslovakia at a meeting in
Bratislava. Czechoslovak President Václav Havel resigned, rather than oversee
the dissolution, which he had opposed. In a September 1992 opinion poll, only 37% of
Slovaks and 36% of Czechs favoured dissolution.
The goal of negotiations switched
to achieving a peaceful division. Peaceful division was prioritized as the
process ran in parallel with the violent breakup of Yugoslavia (another
socialist, Slavic federal state created after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary).
On November 13, the Federal Assembly passed Constitution Act 541, which settled
the division of property between the Czech lands and Slovakia. With
Constitution Act 542, passed on November 25, they agreed to the dissolution of
Czechoslovakia as of December 31, 1992.
The partition occurred without
violence and so was thus said to be "velvet", much like the
"Velvet Revolution", which had preceded it and had been accomplished
by massive peaceful demonstrations and actions. In contrast, other post-communist
breakups (such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) involved violent conflict.
Czechoslovakia is the only former Eastern Bloc state that had an
entirely-peaceful breakup. In the following years, as Slovakia's economy
struggled, Slovaks began to describe the dissolution as a "sandpaper
divorce".
Causes A number of reasons
have been given for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, with the main debates
focusing on whether dissolution was inevitable or whether dissolution occurred
in conjunction with or even in contrast to the events that occurred between the
Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the end of the joined state in 1992 Those
who argue from the inevitability stance tend to point to the differences
between the two nations, which date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to
other issues. There are differences between the Czechs and Slovaks, such as
problems with the shared state during communism, the success of the state in
the Czech lands, its failure in the Slovak lands that still resulted in the
adoption of communism since the Czechs were more influential in the running of
the state than Slovaks, and the 1968 constitution with its minority veto. Those
who argue that events between 1989 and 1992 led to the dissolution point to
international factors such as the breakaway of the Soviet satellite nations,
the lack of unified media between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and most
importantly the actions of the political leaders of both nations like the
disagreements between Prime Ministers Klaus and Mečiar.
Legal aspects
National symbols Since the
coat of arms of Czechoslovakia was a composition of those of the historic
geographic areas forming the country, each republic simply kept its own symbol:
the Czechs the lion and the Slovaks the double cross. The same principle was
applied to the two-part bilingual Czechoslovak national anthem that comprised
two separate pieces of music, the Czech stanza Kde domov můj and the Slovak
stanza Nad Tatrou sa blýska. Disputes occurred only with respect to the
Czechoslovak flag. During the 1992 negotiations on the details of dissolution
of Czechoslovakia, as demanded by Vladimír Mečiar and Václav Klaus, a clause
forbidding the use of the state symbols of Czechoslovakia by its successor
states was inserted into the constitutional law on the dissolution of
Czechoslovakia. From 1990 to 1992, the red and white flag of Bohemia
(differing from the Polish flag only by the proportion of the colours)
officially served as the flag of the Czech Republic. Eventually, after a search
for new symbols, the Czech Republic unilaterally decided to ignore the
constitutional law on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (Article 3 of Law
542/1992 stated that the "Czech Republic and Slovak Republic shall not use
the national symbols of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic after its
dissolution.") and to keep the Czechoslovak flag, with an altered meaning.
Slovakia, meanwhile, adopted its traditional flag; however, just before
independence, on September 3, 1992, the coat of arms was added in order to
prevent confusion with the similar flags of Russia and Slovenia.
Territory The national
territory was divided along the existing internal borders, but the border was
not clearly defined at some points and, in some areas, the border cut across
streets, access roads and communities that had coexisted for centuries. The
most serious issues occurred around the following areas: U Sabotů or
Šance (cs:Šance (Vrbovce)) – historically part of Moravia, awarded to Slovakia
in 1997. Sidonie or Sidónia (cs:Sidonie) – historically part of Hungary
(which contained all present-day Slovak territory until 1918), awarded to the
Czech Republic in 1997. Kasárna (cs:Kasárna (Makov)) recreational area –
historically Moravian, disputed between Moravia and Hungary since the 16th
century, formally part of Hungary since 1734; accessible by car only from the
Czech side until early 2000s; remained in Slovakia despite heavy objections
from the mostly-Czech property owners, whose real estate effectively fell into
a foreign country. The new countries were able to solve the difficulties
via mutual negotiations, financial compensation and then an international
treaty covering the border modifications. People living or owning
property in the border area, however, continued to experience practical
problems until both new countries entered the Schengen Agreement Area in 2007,
rendering the border less significant.
Division of national property Most
federal assets were divided in a ratio of two to one, the approximate ratio
between the Czech and Slovak population in Czechoslovakia, including army
equipment, rail and airliner infrastructure. Some minor disputes, such as gold
reserves stored in Prague and federal know-how valuation, lasted for a few
years after the dissolution.
Currency division Initially,
the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak koruna, remained in use by both
countries. Czech fears of an economic loss caused the adoption of two national
currencies as early as February 8, 1993. At the beginning, the currencies had
an equal exchange rate, but the value of the Slovak koruna was then usually
lower than that of the Czech koruna (in 2004, around 25–27% lower). On August
2, 1993, both currencies were distinguished by different stamps that were first
affixed to and then printed on old Czechoslovak koruna banknotes. On January 1, 2009, Slovakia adopted the
euro as its currency with an exchange rate of 30.126 SK/€, and the €2
commemorative coin for 2009, Slovakia's first, featured the 20th anniversary of
the Velvet Revolution in remembrance of the common struggle of the
Czechoslovaks for democracy. By a quirk
of fate, the welcoming speech on the behalf of the European Union on the
occasion of Slovakia's entry to the eurozone was delivered by Mirek Topolánek,
the prime minister of the presiding country, the Czech Republic, naturally in
his native language, but the other guest speakers used English. The Czech
Republic continues to use the Czech koruna, or crown.
International law Neither
the Czech Republic nor Slovakia sought recognition as the sole successor state
to Czechoslovakia. This can be contrasted to the Dissolution of the Soviet
Union, when the Russian Federation was recognised as successor state to not
only the Russian SFSR but also the Soviet Union itself. Therefore,
Czechoslovakia's membership in the United Nations ceased upon the dissolution
of the country, but on January 19, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were
admitted as new, separate states. With respect to other international
treaties, the Czechs and the Slovaks agreed to honour the treaty obligations of
Czechoslovakia. The Slovaks transmitted a letter to the Secretary General of
the United Nations on May 19, 1993, to express their intent to remain a party
to all treaties signed and ratified by Czechoslovakia and to ratify treaties
signed but not ratified before dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The letter
acknowledged that under international law, all treaties signed and ratified by
Czechoslovakia would remain in force. For example, both countries are recognised
as signatories of the Antarctic Treaty from the date that Czechoslovakia had
signed the agreement in 1962. Both countries have ratified the Vienna
Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties, but it was not a
factor in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia since it did not come into force
until 1996.
Aftermath
Economy The dissolution
had some negative impact on the two economies, especially in 1993, as
traditional links were severed to accommodate the bureaucracy of international
trade, but the impact was considerably less than expected by many people. A
customs union between the Czech Republic and Slovakia remained in place from
the dissolution until May 1, 2004, when both countries entered the European
Union. Many Czechs hoped that dissolution would quickly start an era of
high economic growth in the Czech Republic, which no longer had to sponsor the
"less-developed Slovakia". Similarly, others looked forward to an
independent unexploited Slovakia that might become a new "economic
tiger". According to The Prague Post, "Slovak GDP reached 95
percent of the Czech GDP, and it is likely to draw level with it. The Slovak
gross national product (GNP), which includes citizens' incomes abroad and
deducts the money multinational companies move out of the country, is higher
than the Czech one. Old-age pensions are more or less at the same level in both
countries, and the consumption per capita is slightly higher in Slovakia.
However, salaries are 10 percent lower on average in Slovakia than in the Czech
Republic". However, Martin Filko, the head of the Institute of
Financial Policy of the Slovak Finance Ministry, pointed out that Slovakia is
among the EU countries whose salaries form the lowest portion of their GDP. In
other words, some of people's incomes come from sources other than their main
employment, which reduces the real difference between the Czech and the Slovak
salaries. Slovaks have become a more integral part of the EU because of their
adoption of the euro and are more resolved to take part in the banking and
fiscal unions. In the Czech Republic, the right wing opened the economy, and
the left wing privatised banks and attracted foreign investors. Until
2005, the GDP of the two countries was growing at a similar rate. However, from
2005 to 2008, the Slovak economy grew faster than the Czech economy. Economists
agree that this growth was caused by the right-wing reforms of the Mikuláš
Dzurinda government and the promise to adopt the euro, which attracted
investors. When the left-wing populist Robert Fico replaced Dzurinda as
Slovak prime minister after eight years in 2006, he reduced the right-wing
reforms only moderately, but he did not abolish them, unlike the Czech Social
Democrats (ČSSD). Meanwhile, the Czechs had three ČSSD prime ministers
in four years (2002–06), followed by a shaky centre-right cabinet, which cut
and simplified taxes but failed to push through other reforms and did not want
to adopt the euro because of the financial crisis and the Civic Democrats'
ideological stance.
Citizenship Since
federalisation in 1968, Czechoslovakia had divided citizenship, either of the
Czech Socialist Republic or of the Slovak Socialist Republic, the word
Socialist being dropped from both names shortly after the Velvet Revolution.
That distinction, however, had little effect on citizens' life. On January 1,
1993, all Czechoslovak citizens automatically became citizens either of the
Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic, based on their previous citizenship,
permanent residence address, birthplace, family ties, job and other criteria.
Additionally, people had one year's time to claim the other citizenship under
certain conditions. Slovak legislation allowed dual citizenship until
2010, when it was abolished (see Citizenship Act (Slovakia)). Only a handful of people have exercised that
right, but its significance is lessened by both nations' membership in the EU
as the freedom of movement for workers, a policy that guarantees EU citizens
the right to work and to live anywhere in the Union. In the case of movement
between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the policy took effect from 2004. By
contrast, the Czech Republic has prohibited dual citizenship for naturalized
citizens and requires them to give up existing citizenship(s) prior to
receiving citizenship of the Czech Republic. That requirement can be waived
only if giving up an existing citizenship might put the applicant or their
relatives in danger of persecution in their homeland, which was not the case of
applicants from Slovakia. That situation changed with the new Citizenship Act
of 2013 (186/2013 Sb.), in force since January 1, 2014. However, most Slovak
citizens are still unable to become dual citizens of both the Czech Republic
and Slovakia since they automatically lose Slovak citizenship upon voluntarily
acquiring another one. Exempt from that law are only Slovak citizens who obtain
a foreign citizenship by virtue of marriage with a foreign national. Some
Slovak politicians have speculated in the media about softening the Citizenship
Act, but no change has yet materialised as of January 2015. People of
both countries were allowed to cross the border without a passport and were
allowed to work anywhere without the need to obtain an official permit. Border
checks were completely removed on December 21, 2007, when both countries joined
the Schengen Agreement. Under the current European regulations, citizens
of either country are entitled to the diplomatic protection of any other EU
country and so both have been considering merging their embassies, together
with nations of the Visegrád Group, to reduce costs.
Roma people One of the
problems not solved during dissolution was the question of a large number of
Romani living in the Czech Republic born and officially registered in today's
Slovakia. Most of them did not re-register their official place of stay during
the months before dissolution and so the question of their citizenship was left
open. The 1992 Czech Nationality Act allowed a grant of automatic citizenship
only to those who were born on Czech territory. For others, the right to
citizenship required proof of a five-year period of residence, an "unobjectionable"
criminal record, significant fees and a complicated bureaucratic process, which
reportedly excluded a rather large percentage of Roma. The Slovak
government did not want to grant citizenship to nonresidents. Significant
numbers of Roma living in Czech orphanages did not have their legal status
clarified and were released from care as adult noncitizens without any right to
work or live in the Czech Republic. Under pressure from the European Union, the
Czech government made amendments to its nationality law in 1999 and 2003, which
effectively solved the problem, but compensation has not been provided to those
rendered stateless in 1992.
Language contacts In the
former Czechoslovakia, the first television channel was a federal one and Czech
and Slovak were languages that were used in equal ratios in the television news
there, but foreign films and television series were almost exclusively dubbed
into Czech, for example. That and the fact that the two languages are very
similar made almost all people of both nations passively bilingual: they could
understand but not necessarily speak the other language. After the dissolution
in 1990s, the new television channels in the Czech Republic practically stopped
using Slovak, and young Czech people now have a much lower understanding of
Slovak. Also, the number of Slovak-language books and newspapers sold in the
Czech Republic dropped drastically. The Czech television news, however, started
to reintroduce Slovak-language coverage from Slovakia and Slovak television
(STV2) rebroadcasts the Czech television newscast Události ČT daily, ten
minutes after midnight. On the public Radio and Television of Slovakia,
it is common to have at least one daily newscast from the Czech Republic during
prime time news. Furthermore, many programmes on Slovak television channels are
still dubbed into Czech, some films in cinemas are subtitled in Czech and there
are far more Czech-language books and periodicals on the market than there were
before the dissolution. The major boost for the language interchange has come
from private television channel providers like CS Link (Czech Republic) and Sky
Link (Slovakia) that offer Slovak channels in the Czech Republic and vice
versa. Additionally, several channels, regardless of their national origin,
offer programs both in Czech and Slovak (CSFilm, TV Barrandov) or even mix like
TV Nova's Nova Sport coverage of the English Premier League. New impulses to
mutual contacts coming via television are also common shows like the
Intelligence Test of Nations, Czechoslovakia's Got Talent, and Masked Singer broadcast
by PRIMA and TV JOJ, and Czecho-Slovak SuperStar, the latter being the first
international edition of the Pop Idol song contest broadcast by TV Nova and
Markíza (both owned by CME), which also organized joint versions of MasterChef
and The Voice in 2012. Also, the New Year's Eve Program for 2009 was prepared
and broadcast jointly by ČT and STV and for 2010 by the Czech TV PRIMA and the
Slovak TV JOJ, this time even including the singing of the Czechoslovak
national anthem. Young Slovak people still have the same knowledge of
Czech as their predecessors, if not better. In Slovakia, Czech may still be
used automatically in all judicial proceedings, and all documents written in
Czech are acknowledged by Slovak authorities and vice versa. Further, the
Slovak Official Language Act, passed in 2009, reconfirmed the right of Czechs
to use their language in all official communication when dealing with Slovak
authorities although it explicitly limited the use of Czech in Slovakia to
persons with Czech as their mother tongue. The same is true about using Slovak
in the Czech Republic because of the Administration Procedure Act of 2004.[25]
Gustáv Slamečka, a Slovak citizen who was the Czech transport minister
(2009–2010), used only Slovak exclusively during his official communication.
Sport The official breakup
occurred right in the middle of the 1993 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships,
which took place in Sweden. The team representing Czechoslovakia was renamed
"Czech–Slovak" on January 1. In international ice hockey tournaments,
the Czech Republic took over Czechoslovakia's place in the A-groups, and
Slovakia had to start in the lower divisions. During the FIS Nordic
World Ski Championships 1993 in Falun, Sweden, the ski jumping team competed as
a combined Czech–Slovakia team in the team large hill event and won silver. The
team had been selected prior to the dissolution. Jaroslav Sakala won two medals
in the individual hill events for the Czech Republic at those games along with
his silver in the team event. In their qualifying section for the 1994
FIFA World Cup, the Czechoslovakia national football team competed under the name
RCS, which stood for "Representation of Czechs and Slovaks". It was
afterward that it was officially split up into Czech and Slovak national teams.
The team failed to qualify after it got only a draw in its final match against
Belgium, a match that it needed to win to qualify. The mutual encounters
between the national teams of both countries in many sports are followed by
most of the populations, and the number of players and coaches active in the
other republic is significant. Martin Lipták, a Slovak handball coach,
successfully led the Czech national team to the EHF 2010 Handball European
Championship in Austria. A Slovak team under his coaching, Tatran Prešov, won
the Czech national league in 2008 and 2009. Czech ice hockey coach Vladimír Vůjtek led the
Slovak national team to the silver medal at the 2012 IIHF World Championship,
having beaten the Czech team in the semifinals. Several sports have
featured a common league, and discussions about having a common football or ice
hockey league continue. The road cyclist Ján Svorada earned Slovak
citizenship in 1993. In 1994, he became the first Slovak rider ever to win a
Tour de France stage. Two years later, he earned Czech citizenship, and he
became the first Czech rider ever to win another Tour de France stage in 1998.
Telecommunications The two
successor states continued to use the country code +42 until February 1997, when
it was replaced by two separate codes: +420 for the Czech Republic and +421 for
Slovakia. Since then, telephone calls between both countries have required
international dialing.
Legacy Public perception of the dissolution has not changed much, with a December 2017 poll showing that just 42% of Czechs and 40% of Slovaks agree with what happened (compared to 36% and 37% in 1992, respectively). According to the Czech political analyst Lubomir Kopeček, many Czechs and Slovaks view the breakup process unfavourably because they had no say in the matter, and most would have rather had a referendum decide. In 2015, a Slovak movement called "Czechoslovakia 2018" was established to try to get a referendum by 2018. Its leader, Ladislav Zelinka, said that he had received thousands of emails and calls from supporters, but it was unable to reach the necessary 350,000 petition signatures. The younger generations of both countries are largely indifferent to the issue since they never experienced the previous period themselves, and older generations are more focused on present issues such as immigration and favour their own separate nationalism. Surveys from 2010 showed that the majority of the population of Prague (Czechs) still considers the division of the country a mistake; similarly, the general representative survey in Slovakia (from 2008) showed that society is still divided in opinion on the dissolution, with 47% favouring the dissolution and 44% considering it a mistake.
Political influences between the countries are minimal, but social democrats tend to cooperate very closely on regional and European topics in recent years. Furthermore, it has become customary that the elected presidents pay their first and last official foreign visits during their term to the other republic of the former Czechoslovakia. Appointed foreign ministers tend to follow that unwritten rule. On October 29, 2012, to commemorate Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence, which occurred on October 28, 1918, the Czech and the Slovak governments held, for the first time, a joint cabinet meeting in the communities of Trenčín and Uherské Hradiště, near the common border. Also, peacekeeping troops stationed in the former Yugoslavia were put under joint command on several occasions. For example, from 2002 to July 2005, the Czech Armed Forces joined with the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic to form a joint Czech–Slovak KFOR battalion in Kosovo, which contributed to the Multinational Brigade CENTRE. Trade relationships were re-established and stabilised, and the Czech Republic continues to be Slovakia's most important business partner. After a short interruption, Slovakia's resorts in the Carpathian mountains are again the destination of a growing number of Czech tourists. Following the death of the last Czechoslovak (and the first Czech) president, Václav Havel, on December 18, 2011, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia observed a day of national mourning. During the funeral mass in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral, prayers were recited in an equal ratio in Czech and Slovak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_Czechoslovakia
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