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TITLE: INDEPENDENT BOHEMIA
AUTHOR: VLADIMIR NOSEK
EBOOK: E06437 (O'Briens Book Cellar)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

[Illustration: Professor Thomas G. Masaryk]

INDEPENDENT BOHEMIA

AN ACCOUNT OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAK STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

By VLADIMIR NOSEK

Secretary to the Czecho-Slovak Legation in LONDON

1918

PREFACE

In the following pages I have attempted to outline the story of our
movement for independence. The manuscript of this book was completed over
four months ago. Since then many important changes have occurred in the
international situation. Chapters in which we dealt with the then still
existing Dual Monarchy must of course be read in the past tense, since
Austria exists no more. And again, many things which we anticipated and
hoped for in the future have already become accomplished facts. However, I
trust that the story itself has not only lost none of its value thereby,
but has acquired an additional interest from a historical point of view.
Our aim of national independence, only quite recently declared by our
adversaries to be "an empty dream of moonstruck idealists," has become
to-day not only a practical proposition, but an accomplished fact. We have
our own army, which is by no means the smallest Allied army, and we also
have our own Provisional Government in Paris, recognised not only by the
Allies and by all Czecho-Slovaks abroad, but even by Czech leaders in
Bohemia, with whom we have since the beginning of the war worked in
complete harmony and understanding. The organisation of our independent
State is rapidly proceeding. Austria-Hungary, exhausted economically and
bankrupt politically, has fallen to pieces by the free-will of her own
subject peoples, who, in anticipation of their early victory, broke their
fetters and openly renounced their allegiance to the hated Habsburg and
Hohenzollern rule, even before Austria had actually surrendered to
the Allies.

Events have moved rapidly in Austria, especially since the momentous
British declaration of August 9, 1918, recognising the
Czecho-Slovaks--those resident in the Allied countries as much as those in
Bohemia--as an Allied nation, and the Czecho-Slovak National Council--in
Paris as well as in Prague--as the Provisional Government of Bohemia.
British statesmen already then foresaw the coming collapse of Austria and
acted accordingly. It is also no more a secret to-day that because of the
promulgation of the British and United States declarations our Council was
able to conclude special conventions with all the Allied Governments during
September last, whereby all the powers exercised by a real government have
been granted to it.

In the meantime Germany had been losing more and more control over her
allies, being herself hard pressed on the Western front, and the
consequence of this was a growing boldness on the part of the Austrian
Slavs. On October 2 deputy Stanek declared in the name of the whole Czech
deputation that the National Council in Paris were their true spokesmen and
representatives with whom Austria would have to negotiate. Soon afterwards
the Austrian Poles went to Warsaw, where they formed a new all-Polish
Government, and the Southern Slavs entrusted the government of their
territories to their National Council in Zagreb. Similar councils were
formed also by the Ruthenes and Rumanians. On October 14 the Czecho-Slovak
National Council in Paris constituted itself as a Government of which the
Council in Prague acts as an integral part. The latter took over the reins
of government in Bohemia a fortnight later. On October 19 the Czecho-Slovak
Council issued a Declaration of Independence which we publish in the
Appendix, and from which it will be seen that Bohemia will be progressive
and democratic both in her domestic and foreign policy. A glorious future
is no doubt awaiting her. She will be specially able to render an immense
service to the League of Nations as a bulwark of peace and conciliation
among the various peoples of Central Europe.

The break-up of Austria will, of course, affect enormously the constitution
of the future Europe, and in our last chapter we have tried to give an
outline of these impending changes of conditions and international
relations. The break-up of Austria was bound to come sooner or later,
whether some misinformed critics or prejudiced pro-Austrian politicians
liked it or not. We ourselves were always convinced, and we declared
openly, that Austria could not survive this war, because she was at war
with the majority of her own subjects, who wished for nothing more than for
her destruction. Unfortunately the fact that the sympathies of the thirty
million of Austrian Slavs and Latins were on the side of the Entente,
constituting such an incontestable moral asset for the Allies as it does,
has not always been fully appreciated by Allied public opinion. We
ourselves, however, never doubted for a moment that the Allied cause would
ultimately triumph and that we would achieve our independence, because we
knew that in struggling for this aim we were only carrying out the
unanimous will of our whole nation. Without waiting for any pledges,
without regard as to which side would be victorious, our nation has from
the beginning staked its all on the Allied victory and has contributed with
all its powers to hasten it. Despite all adverse circumstances, our people,
at first completely at the mercy of their enemies, ruthlessly persecuted
and tortured by them, nevertheless remained firm and resolute. Their
attitude was most outspoken and courageous at all times, and they have also
rendered the Allies active assistance, which is being duly appreciated by
them. It is chiefly due to the efforts of the subject peoples themselves,
of whom the Czechs have certainly been the most outspoken, that the
collapse of Austria has occurred, which finally sealed the fate of
Kaiserism and of the Pan-German plans of Mitteleuropa.

To-day our hopes for a better future are at last being fulfilled as a
result of the Allies' complete victory, assuring the creation of a new and
just international order. Our much-afflicted yet undaunted people already
consider themselves as independent. The Peace Conference, at which the
Czecho-Slovak Government will be represented, will only confirm the
existence of an independent Czecho-Slovak State.

In conclusion, we should like to express our deep gratitude to all our
English friends for their valuable assistance in our struggle for the
realisation of our ideals. We especially wish to thank once more the
British Government for the generous step taken by them in recognising us as
an Allied and belligerent nation. It was chiefly because of this
recognition and of the gallant deeds of our army that we achieved all our
subsequent diplomatic and political successes. We may assure Great Britain
that the Czecho-Slovaks will never forget what they owe to her, and that
they will endeavour to do their best to merit the trust so generously
placed in them.

VLADIMIR NOSEK.

9, GROSVENOR PLACE, LONDON,
_November_, 1918.

[Illustration: The International Position Of The Czecho Slovak Republic In
Future Europe]

CONTENTS

I. WHAT is AUSTRIA-HUNGARY?
II. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE PRESENT WAR
III. CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR
IV. TERRORISM IN BOHEMIA DURING THE WAR
    _(a)_ Czech Deputies and Leaders imprisoned and sentenced to Death;
    _(b)_ Monster Trials, Arbitrary Executions, Internment of Civilians,
    etc.;
    _(c)_ Persecution of the Press;
    _(d)_ Reichsrat Interpellations.
V. HOW THE CZECHO SLOVAKS AT HOME ASSISTED THE ALLIES
VI. THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL ACTION OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS ABROAD
VII. THE CZECHS AT HOME BEGIN TO SPEAK
    _(a)_ Czech Declaration of May 30, 1917;
    _(b)_ Courageous Speeches delivered by Czech Deputies in the Reichsrat;
    _(c)_ After the Amnesty;
    _(d)_ During Peace Negotiations with Russia;
    _(e)_ The Constituent Assembly of Prague on January 6, 1918;
    _(f)_ The Oath of the Czecho Slovak Nation;
    _(g)_ The Slovaks' Attitude;
    _(h)_ The Czecho-Slovak National Council in Prague.
VIII. CZECHO-SLOVAK CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER NON-GERMAN NATIONS OF CENTRAL
EUROPE
    _(a)_ The Congress of Rome;
    _(b)_ The May Manifestations in Prague.
IX. BOHEMIA AS A BULWARK AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM

APPENDIX OF SOME RECENT DOCUMENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I

WHAT IS AUSTRIA-HUNGARY?

1. The Habsburg Empire is built upon centuries-old traditions of reaction
and violence. Its present power is chiefly based on the alliance which
Bohemia and Hungary concluded with Austria against the Turkish peril in
1526. The Czechs freely elected the Habsburgs to the throne of Bohemia
which remained a fully independent state, its alliance with Austria and
Hungary being purely dynastic. But soon the Habsburgs began to violate the
liberties of Bohemia which they were bound by oath to observe, and this led
finally to the fateful Czech revolution of 1618. At the battle of the White
Mountain in 1620 the Czechs suffered a defeat and were cruelly punished for
their rebellion. All their nobility were either executed or sent into
exile, and their property confiscated. The country was devastated by the
imperial hordes, and its population was reduced from 3,000,000 to 800,000
during the Thirty Years' War.

In 1627 Ferdinand II. greatly curtailed the administrative rights of
Bohemia, yet he did not dare to deprive her entirely of her independence.
In his "Renewed Ordinance of the Land" Ferdinand declared the Bohemian
crown to be hereditary in the House of Habsburg, and reserved legislative
power to the sovereign. But otherwise the historical rights of Bohemia
remained valid, notwithstanding all subsequent arbitrary centralising
measures taken by the Habsburgs. Bohemia's rights were repeatedly
recognised by each succeeding Habsburg. Legally Bohemia is an independent
state to-day.

The heavy persecutions inflicted upon Bohemia had a disastrous effect upon
her intellectual life and national development which were completely
paralysed until the end of the eighteenth century, when owing to the
humanitarian ideals of those times, and as a reaction against the
Germanising centralistic efforts of Joseph II., the Czechs again began to
recover their national consciousness. This revival marked the beginning of
the Czecho-Slovak struggle for the re-establishment of their independence.
The movement was at first literary, and only in the forties became
political. It was a continuous struggle against reaction and absolutism,
and if the Czecho-Slovaks to-day can boast of an advanced civilisation, it
is only owing to their perseverance and hard endeavours, and not because of
any good-will on the part of the Austrian Government which put every

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