At the beginning I consider it necessary to mention that after the election of 1992 I was one of the four members of the steady team for the Slovak Party and that I attended all negotiations on the possible form of the common state as well as its division.
The change that took place twenty-seven years ago in Czechoslovakia is too serious of an event to use inaccurate wording in this context. Some do it out of ignorance, others to affirm their beliefs, feelings, or opinions they have chosen.
Weekly Negotiations
Czechia-Slovakia did not split up, break or tear apart. Czechia-Slovakia was divided. Split up! This is an objective fact. The division was the result of responsible political negotiations, which were held at a round table, during a fully overseen process and it was not an act of hostility – quite the opposite. We agreed on a peaceful, fair and unprecedentedly cultivated, friendly division after long weeks of negotiations, during which we had exhausted all other options. I emphasize that we did not meet in order to divide the state but to fulfil the concept of 'authentic federation'. I recall that this term was first used by President Václav Havel at the time when it the name of the country was changing in March 1990. At that time Havel had the ambition to remove the ideological nonsense, "socialist", from the name of the state. Unfortunately, this effort also revealed other political clues about the name of the common state, dating from the First Republic. At the beginning of the negotiations, we advocated the idea that the legitimacy of power must depend on the sovereignty of the citizens and therefore rights are to go from the bottom up to the federal government. We also drew attention to the hard-to-defend majority of the common political bodies and demanded equal representation, as had been the case in Belgium for decades, for example. But the ideas of both sides were so different that the only possible compromise was two sovereign states. The key was the statement by Václav Klaus, who at a certain moment responded by the sentence, "Rather than making some experiments, it is better to make two sovereign states". From then on, we began to work on the division of Czechoslovakia. We have made every effort to ensure that both states can fully operate at home and abroad on the day of their official establishment. And when we were looking at other countries, it also made sense in the context of the world where simply not all the the post-communist federal countries, going to liberation from totalitarianism and the advent of democracy could survive. The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechia-Slovakia reached the same conclusion. Compared to the circumstances of the dirty war in the former Yugoslavia and the civil unrest in the former Soviet Union, the peaceful and cultivated division of Czechoslovakia was perceived very positively.
Period of Myths
Various myths appeared during and immediately after the division process, and some of them survive to this day. Certainly because of the efforts of their authors, who need to convince the public and themselves, they were right. For example, one of them is that the Slovaks in particular wanted an independent state, or that Klaus and Mečiar had incompatible ideas of the economic development, alluding to the fact that in 1991 the Czech government had printed stamps to divide the common currency. Time is a relentless and objective referee. Relations between Czechs and Slovaks are the best in the whole history of our coexistence. This is also because, or in particular, the reasons for misunderstandings, tensions, and possible conflicts no longer exist. So, if I hear today that our relationships are good despite the division, I'm not going to question it, because relations should definitely be considered in the first place. But I think it is more true that this is thanks to the division.
About Responsibility
The alleged nationalization in Slovakia is said to have accelerated the division in 1992. Slovaks have always been and will be nationalists, like in any democratic country. What really matters is what it influences. It is true that there were political groups in Slovakia that radically demanded independence. They represented around 7-8% of public opinion. The situation was similar in the Czech Republic. These groups, on the one hand, responded to the long-term distorted relationships that the hypocritical communist regime covered by the term "federation". However, they reacted in an unacceptable manner and compromised the process of substantive discussion that was going to lead to a possible agreement to create an authentic federation. As a participant in these discussions, I can responsibly say that these groupings had no influence on our decisions that resulted in the division agreement. At this point, however, I must ask myself that why such a discussion did not take place earlier? Why didn’t the responsible constitutional officials of Slovakia address this question and rather pretended the problem didn’t exist? Did they really consider it right Slovakia had one-third representation in the federal government, negligible percentage of Slovak diplomats in foreign services, non-transparent financial flows, and many other things? Did they consider it acceptable perhaps? Why didn't they try to adopt democratic rules that would take the wind from the sails with a nationalist scream from either side? I want to say that not only those who were actively involved are responsible for the division. In no case can those who didn’t do what they should have done avoid the responsibility. Everybody knows that a long-term unsolved problem keeps growing, gets more serious and pretending it does not exist is a testimony to irresponsibility.
I'm a Czechophile
National identity is in my understanding above all a cultural sign. It is the seal we carry without our involvement from the first words of the mother tongue. Finally, language is also an object of cultural heritage and cannot be reduced to a mere means of communication. Europe is rich in a colourful mosaic of national cultures. The cultivation and development of national cultures is an enrichment of European culture as a whole.
I admit openly that I am a Czechophile. Czech culture is close to me and I have a liking for it. I have had this feeling since my early childhood. As an evangelist, I learned prayer in the Biblical language, which was closer to Czech than to Slovak, and if I want to say the Lord’s Prayer now in Slovak, I actually have to translate it. Some say that they no longer understand Slovak as well as before the split. It is all about interest and it obviously also relates to the quality. One example for all, in crowded Lucerna, Czech viewers sang aloud Muller's songs in Slovak. I myself play in Czech theatres in Czech and I definitely don't do it for existential reasons. I consider the authentic proximity of our peoples to be luck, which is to be maintained and cultivated. I think that it is more difficult to establish an emotional relationship to the state-administration organization of the state than to the culture of the nation. It can be called reciprocity. Every one of us can grow it in ourselves and no one can take it from you. It feels good and I wish it for all of us.
ABOUT AUTHOR
Milan Kňažko (born on 28th August 1945 in Horní Plachtiny) is a Slovak actor, but in the past he was also a the co-founder of VPN and HZDS, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, the Vice Chairman of the Slovak Government and the Minister of Culture of Slovakia.
He completed a construction college and then drama studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Between 1968 and 1970, he had a scholarship at the International Theatre Academy in Nancy (France). From 1970 to 1971, he was a member of the Drama Ensemble of the Theatre Studio of the Divadlo na Korze theatre. He played at the New Stage and was a member of the SND Drama Ensemble. From January to June 1990 he was Dean of the Theatre School of the Academy of Performing Arts. Since January 2003, he has been CEO of TV JOJ for four years.
He entered politics in November 1989. After holding several high governmental positions, he left politics in 2002.
In 2014, he ran for the Slovak president and then for the mayor of Bratislava.
In 2016, he received the Czech Thalia Prize. He has played in over 150 films.
He speaks Czech, English, French and Russian.
He is married for the third time and has three sons.
ad
