Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS)

Marek Syrný - The Communist Party of Slovakia between the liberation and the gain of totalitarian power
Abstract

This study deals with the tactics, means and methods by which the Communist Party of Slovakia, as a regional branch of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, politically fought for a monopoly of power after the Second World War. First, it briefly describes the development of this party and its acceptance by the Slovak society in the interwar and war period. Then, it presents a picture, analyses and compares the ways in which the Slovak Communists tried to disqualify their insurgent partners and post‑war rivals for power in the political struggle – the Slovak Democrats. It notes the relations between the Slovak and Czech Communists, the transformation of communist propaganda and tactics, conditioned by a single goal – the gain of totalitarian power, the introduction of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the replacement of capitalism by communism. Until the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, the Communists used a variety of democratic, semi‑democratic and outright violent and undemocratic practices to win – from hyperbolizing the party propaganda, via the abuse of mass social organizations and the secret police, to purposeful investigation and intimidation and the threat of using a forceful solution of the political struggle.

Juraj Marušiak - 1989 in Slovakia – Between Reform and Radical Change
Abstract

The author elaborates on the political development in Slovakia at the end of the 1980s, namely in 1989, which was crucially influenced by a document entitled Bratislava/nahlas (Bratislava/Aloud) published by a group of Bratislava-based environmentalists in 1987, and the so-called Candlelight Demonstration, which demanded that freedom of religion be respected, organised by the so-called Christian dissent activists in Bratislava on March 25, 1988. Both events were also a certain momentum for those active in independent initiatives in Bohemia. One other key moment in the consolidation of the opposition was the trial with a group of dissidents from Bratislava, the so-called Bratislava Five, arrested in August 1989. This paper tries to uncover the factors which made the situation in both parts of the former joint Czechoslovak state similar and how the story of the “fall of the communist regime” in Slovakia differed from that of the Czech lands. It outlines the “lines of conflict” which had a decisive influence on the development of events in the political course. It also analyses how prepared the agents of the November 1989 events were for the political changes, their “politicisation”, but also uncovers specific conflicts that resulted from Slovak–Hungarian relations and the question of the position of Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Federation. The paper tries to answer the question of the extent to which the development at the time influenced the political processes immediately after the fall of the communist regime. One specific aspect of the changes in Slovakia was the rel- atively permeable boundary between the “official” and “unofficial” discourse, which provided room for a non-realised model of negotiated transition. The political trans- formation in Slovakia was principally influenced not only by nationwide events but also local impulses.