"I threw myself into it with great vehemence, with all my heart, with all my soul" : Gustáv Husák in the struggle for Slovakia (1945-1948)
Abstract
The study aims at familiarizing the reader with the history of Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1948, on the example of the Slovak communist politician Gustáv Husák, at the same time focusing on the formation of Czecho-Slovak relations. The first part of the text provides a detailed overview of Husakʼs activity in the first half of 1945, when together with his comrades from the Slovak uprising he took the lead of the Communist party of Slovakia (KSS).
Husák is being introduced as a key player on the political scene as well as a strong supporter of a federative set-up of Czechoslovakia, which he consistently defended in the political debate on the legal status of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia. The text also shows that behind Husákʼs subsequent political descent, there was the disapproving attitude of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) towards the autonomous line of KSS as well as personal hostilities among Communist officials themselves.
The second part of the article deals with Husákʼs role in the fight against the Democratic party and during the establishment of the Communist monopole. In this regard, his most remarkable step consists in a radical change of view of the future organization of the State, when he pragmatically supported centralization, giving up on the federative solution to the Slovak question.
The text also wants to contribute to the study of post-war developement of relations within KSS and between KSS and KSČ.