On Monday, October 30th, Slovakia remembers the adoption of the Declaration of the Slovak Nation, also called the Martin Declaration. Moreover, on Saturday October 28th, Slovaks and Czechs commemorated the establishment of Czechoslovakia.
"Even though the idea of Czechoslovakism later lost its original meaning, it played a significant role," said Miloslav Čaplovič, director of the Military Historical Institute for TASR. He believes that without the formation of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia would not have gained its independence in 1993. Čaplovič underlined the fact that based on the idea of Czechoslovakism, around 6.7 million Czechs and 2 million Slovaks made up an ethnic group of 8.7 million within a multi-ethnic state with a population of 13.4 million. At that time, it included 3.1 million Germans. Slovak President Andrej Kiska also commemorated the events on his social media profile. "The new state was not the idea of the WWI winning powers...it was the result of a long-lasting effort for freedom and independence which involved home patriots, politicians, Czech and Slovak countrymen in America as well as the legionnaires fighting in Russia," wrote Kiska.
Czechoslovakia arose from the ruins of Austro-Hungarian monarchy back in 1918. Its establishment was agreed by the so-called Pittsburgh Agreement that was initiated by Czech Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. He is closely linked to the beginnings of Czechoslovakia along with the Czech lawyer Edvard Beneš and the Slovak general and scientist Milan Rastislav Štefánik. American and French principles of democracy were included in the Czechoslovak constitution that was approved in 1920. Slovaks took economic and cultural advantages from the first common state. Czechoslovakia managed to unite the two nations in one state for almost 75 years. The act on its division was adopted by the Federal Assembly on November 25, 1992. The two independent countries came into being as of January 1, 1993.
On October 30th, 1918, independently from the establishment of Czechoslovakia, 200 representatives of almost all the Slovak regions adopted the Declaration of the Slovak Nation in what is now the town of Martin, central Slovakia. The declaration supported the idea of a common Czecho-Slovak state and it officially broke Slovakia's bond with Hungary.
