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Masaryk and Beneš and the Creation of Czechoslovakia: a Study in Mentalities

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T. G. MASARYK (1850–1937)

Part of the book series: Studies in Russia and East Europe ((SREE))

Abstract

I have put forward elsewhere my views on the creation of Czechoslovakia.1 I would not say tha:t it was inevitable; and certainly in 1914 it did not seem so. On the other hand, there were important developments that seemed to point towards the possible separation of at least the Czech Lands from a disintegrating Austria-Hungary. As the historian Jiří Kořalka put it, by 1914 ‘the Czechs were a nation without a state’ .2

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Notes

  1. W. V. Wallace, Czechoslovakia (Boulder, Colo., 1977), esp. pp. 100–22.

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  2. J. Kořalka, Naše živá i mrtvá minulost (Prague, 1968), pp. 136–57.

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  3. Between 1800 and 1910 the population of Bohemia and Moravia is thought to have increased from c. 5 to c. 10 millions. By 1910 the Czechs accounted for more than 70 per cent of the population. About 70 per cent of Austrian industry was sited in the Czech Lands, including food processing.

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  4. Cf. K. Pichlík, Zahraniční odboj 1914–1918 bez legend (Prague, 1968).

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  5. T. G. Masaryk, The Making of a State (London, 1927), p. 44; E.Beneš, My War Memoirs (London, 1928), pp. 20–1.

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  6. They worked intermittently together in Prague in the period from August to the middle of December 1914. Beneš visited Masaryk briefly in Geneva in February and April 1915. They met up again in Paris in September 1915; but Masaryk almost immediately left for London, where he stayed till April 1917. During that period he went across to Paris for the month of February 1916 and received Beneš in London only a couple of times. He then departed for Russia and America and did not see Beneš again until after the war in Prague. So they shared the same cities for a total of less than six months of the war. But at least while they were both in Western Europe they were able to keep up what Masaryk described as a ‘lively correspondence’. (Masaryk, The Making, p. 45.)

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  7. F. Peroutka, Budováni státu (Prague, 1933), vol. 1, p. 1317.

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  8. Masaryk, The Making of a State, p. 40.

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  9. Ibid., p. 41.

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  10. Cf. R. W. Seton-Watson, Masaryk in England (Cambridge 1943).

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  11. Beneš, My War Memoirs, pp. 24–6.

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  12. Ibid., p. 23.

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  13. Masaryk, The Making of a State, p. 45.

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  14. Cf. K. Čapek, President Masaryk Tells His Story (London, 1934), pp. 190–4.

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  15. Seton-Watson, Masaryk in England, pp. 116––34.

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  16. Cf. S. J. Kirschbaum (ed.), Slovak Politics (Cleveland, Ohio, 1983), pp. 6––62.

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  17. Masaryk, The Making of a State, p. 208––11.

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  18. E. Beneš. Bohemia’s Case for Independence (London, 1917), p. 1.

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  19. Beneš, My War Memoirs, pp. 84–5.

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  20. Ibid., p. 20.

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  21. Čapek, ’resident Masaryk, p. 244.

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  22. D. Perman, The Shaping of the Czechoslovak State (Leiden, 1962).

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  23. There is none in any language, partly because of the sheer complexity of the undertaking; see my ‘An Appraisal of Edvard Beneš as a Statesman’, Historical Studies, VIII, Dublin, 1971, pp. 47–60. Perhaps someone really ought to organise a Benes conference rather than a Masaryk one!

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  24. Cf. Z. Zeman, The Masaryks: The Making of Czechoslovakia (London, 1976), pp. 85 and 157.

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  25. E. Benes, Mnichovské dny: paměti (Prague, 1968).

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  26. Beneš, My War Memoirs, pp. 498––9.

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  27. Masaryk’s title in Czech was Světovç revoluce (World Revolution). Beneš’s was Světová válka a naše revoluce (The World War and Our Revolution).

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  28. Cf. O. Urban, Česká společnost 1848–1918 (Prague, 1982).

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Authors
  1. William V. Wallace
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of London, UK

    Harry Hanak (Reader in International Relations School of Slavonic and East European Studies) (Reader in International Relations School of Slavonic and East European Studies)

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© 1990 School of Slavonic and East European Studies

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Wallace, W.V. (1990). Masaryk and Beneš and the Creation of Czechoslovakia: a Study in Mentalities. In: Hanak, H. (eds) T. G. MASARYK (1850–1937). Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20576-9_6

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