Pride and a Priest

In the line of the Russian Army advance lies pint-sized Slovakia--and trouble for practically everybody concerned in the affairs of postwar Eastern Europe.

The Seed. A powerful minority of the 2,500,000 Slovaks has long given the impression that they are all devoutly Catholic, anti-German, anti-Czech, antiCommunist, preeminently pro-Slovak. Their hilly land (14,484 sq. mi.) had been a part of Hungary for 1,011 years when, in 1918, the Versailles peacemakers joined Slovakia to Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and created Czechoslovakia. (Ruthenia, which the Russians entered last week, became a part of Czechoslovakia in 1919, was seized by Hungary in 1939.)

For two decades nationalistic Slovaks pressed for autonomy, resented the Czechs. Now, Slovaks generally dislike the Germans and welcome liberation--even by the Red Army. But Slovak nationalists have no more love for the Czechs, no more liking for a government centralized in Prague, than they had between wars.

The Harvest. The Germans had--and muffed--a chance to play upon Slovak nationalism, foster a loyal satellite in Slovakia. Nazi greed and maladroitness soon destroyed any affection the Slovaks might have had for Germany; Slovak troops deserted wholesale rather than fight the Poles and the Russians, and Slovak Partisans have been locally active against the German Army.

But the Nazis did have the sense to install as their No. 1 puppet a Slovak who commands a real following: a canny, bulletheaded nationalist and priest named Joseph Tiso. With political craft and German aid, Tiso has: 1) fed his countrymen relatively well; 2) provided state jobs; 3) promoted Slovaks in government service; 4) suppressed pro-Czechs, by deporting them or threatening to.

President Tiso's powerful Prime Minister is Bela Tuka, an outright pro-Nazi who was condemned to death for treason in 1929, later reprieved by Czechoslovakia's merciful President Eduard Benes. A bitter anti-Czech, Karol Sidor, is Slovakian Minister to the Vatican. He and Father Tiso constantly remind Catholic Slovaks that most of Czechoslovakia's leaders in exile are Protestant.

Astute Dr. Benes recently trimmed his sails to the Slovak wind, watered down his previous insistence upon a centralized Czechoslovak government. Said he: "I, myself, believe that the decentralization of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia--to the degree that is especially necessary in Slovakia--is a matter of course."

Exiled Slovaks, such as one-time Prime Minister Milan Hodza, now in the U.S., hope that Slovaks in Slovakia will forget their taste of "independence" and cooperate in making a healthy, democratic postwar Czechoslovakia. Priest-President Tiso apparently thinks that they may be willing to try. Said he, in an obvious and ominous move to quell opposition to his brand of independence: "If there were no executions until now, it is not because a priest could not sign a death sentence."

Balkan Marshal

As the Russians moved into eastern Europe, Communist Marshal Tito's valiant army of Yugoslav Partisans was acquiring a new status and a new significance. It was becoming an all-Balkan army of Yugoslavs, Albanians, Hungarians, Rumanians, Bulgarians, et al.

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