Toward a New Central Europe

THE CHANGING IMAGE OF T. G. MASARYK BETWEEN 1945 AND 1968

FRANCIS S. WAGNER

Quite parallel with the Kremlin-dictated Bolshevization of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, a series of monographs, articles and commemorative items have appeared since the early fifties representing a sharp turn in the heretofore basically affirmative Masarykinterpretation. As an aftermath of the February 1948 Putsch, Vaclav Kopecky, a high-ranking Party figure, criticized Masaryk's views on Communism. 1)

On the basis of the late President's anti-Marxist views, Vaclav Kral denounced Masaryk's "counterrevolutionary" and "anti-Soviet" policy during the Great October Socialist Revolution (1917-1921) and afterwards. 2)

Following the Soviet pattern, Czech and Slovak Communist sources on the basis of a one-sidedly selected and misinterpreted collection of documents, reiterated that Masaryk conducted a policy contrary to the interests of the nation and the people. 3)

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Foreign expert Jiri Hajek sought to minimize the role President Woodrow Wilson played in the establishment of Czechoslovakia, 4) and thereby added a new color to the Masaryk picture by portraying him as an agent of Western, chiefly US, imperialism.

The downgrading of T. G. Masaryk became a policy during the years of the Siroky-Novotny regime up to January 1968. This was all the more so because Masaryk was a sharp critic of the Russian spirit permeating tsarist and Bolshevik times alike and a very successful opponent of the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism. Therefore, Julius Dolansky, also an influential Party leader, bitterly attacked Masaryk for his activities in Russia prior to the Revolution of October 1917.5)

Mikhail A. Silin, a leading Soviet expert on Czechoslovakian affairs who after the February Putsch of 1948 became Soviet ambassador to Prague, reviewed with more hostility than anyone before the theory and workings of bourgeois politics in Czechoslovakia. According to Silin, the pre-Munich state with its anti-Soviet tendencies under the influence of T. G. Masaryk was a hotbed of reactionary forces, which caused the Republic to lose its significance completely for progressive mankind. 6)

Since January, 1968, the Dubcek reform movement has made a breakthrough in several segments of public life which, in turn, has created a more or less objective Masaryk portrait. The reform movement reevaluated the country's historical past on the basis of its progressive traditions. Thus, the regime necessarily designated an honorable role for T. G. Masaryk by placing him among the greatest personalities of the past such as Jan Hus, Petr Helcicky, J. A. Comenius, Frantisek Palacky, Karel Havlicek-Borovsky, Bozena Nemcova and P. O. Hviezdoslav. Milan Machovec's book 7) mirrors the Masaryk portrait as reproduced by the Dubcek regime. The author, an internationally famed scholar (b. 23 Aug. 1925), has been associated since 1953 with the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University in Prague as head of the Seminar on Religion and Atheism. Though he also found fault with Masaryk's theses on the philosophy of human existence as well as his bourgeois theory of politics, Machovec at the same time objectively showed Masaryk as an outstanding ethical philosopher whose humanism was of lasting nature and acknowledged his excellence in leading his nation's struggle for independence. Thus, Dr. Machovec has essentially returned to the positive standpoint of pre-1945 Masaryk scholars. In summary, Dr. Machovec said: "Masaryk will have an honorable place among the non-socialist and relatively 'leftist' politicians of the twentieth century in the company of such men as Roosevelt, Gandhi and similar ones." (p. 12)

It is evident also from our survey of the changing portrait of T. G. Masaryk that his life and works should be scrutinized more objectively in order to depict the whole man. A thorough, objective

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research ought to be done on his multi-faceted scholarly works and political activities. Understandably then, this scholarly investigation should in no way be dependent upon the chameleon-like political situation. Undoubtedly, the central theme of such an inquiry should be Masaryk's political philosophy and ethics. Though Masaryk failed to apply consistently the federative system as a far-reaching practical solution for the centuries-old problems of small nations, and though his views on the nationality question were not entirely free of errors, he nonetheless attained the highest peak in political philosophy of our times. And this is attributable to the fact that his freedom-based ethics necessarily constituted an organic part of his philosophy according to which democracy was the political expression of humanity. This innate synthesis of politics and morality in Masaryk's mind captured the interests of thinkers in the Czechoslovak reform movement of 1968 and led to the revaluation of the Masaryk problem. But they are still far from understanding Masaryk who ended his memoirs with the sentence: "Jesus, not Caesar, is the true meaning of history and democracy"

1) V. Kopecky, T. G. Masaryk a komuniste. Prague, Kulturne propagacni oddeleni sekretariatu UV KSC, 1960. 31 p.

2) V. Kral, O Masarykove a Benesove kontrarevolucni protisovetske politice. 1st ed. Prague, Statni nak. pol lit , 1953. 234 p. Published also in Russian clltitled O kontrrevoliutsionuoi i antisovetskoi politike Masaryka i Benesha. Moscow, Izd-vo inostrannoi lit-ry, 1955.

3) Dokumeuty o protilidove a protinirodui politice T. G. Masaryka. 2d ed. Prague, Orbis, 1953. 269 p.

4) Jiri S. Hajek, Wilsonovska legenda v dejinach CSR. 1st ed. Prague, Statni nakl. pol. lit., 1953. 217 p.

5) J Dolansky, Masaryk a Rusko predrevolucni. 1st cd. Prague, Nakl. Ceskoslovenske akademie ved, 1959. 322 p

6) M. A. Silin, Kritika burshuaznoi ideologii i pobeda marksizma-leninizma v Chekhoslovakii. Moscow, 1960. 212 p.

7) M. Machovee, Tomas G. Masaryk; Studie s ukazkami z Masarykovch spisu. 1st ed. Prague, Svobodne slovo, 1968. 261 p (Odkazy pokrokovych osobnosti nasi minulosti. Sv. 24)

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Toward a New Central Europe