Радянський Союз і словацьке питання в роки Другої світової війни

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the Slovak question in the foreign policy of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The methodological basis of the proposed article is the principles of historicism and objectivity, the application of which involves an unbiased depiction of past events in their historical context. To carry out a comprehensive scientifi c analysis of the article, the author has used the unique historical research methods – problematic, comparative-historical, retrospective, and diachronic. The scientifi c novelty lies in the systematic analysis of the place and the role of the Slovak question in the foreign policy of the Soviet Union in 1939–1945. Conclusion. The USSR considered the independent Slovak Republic an artifi cialentity, a product of German expansion. The establishment and development of Soviet-Slovak interstate relations in September 1939 – June 1941 were primarily dictated by the conjuncture of the short-lived German-Soviet partnership. After the Nazi Germany attacked on the USSR and the severance of Soviet-Slovak interstate relations, offi cial Moscow supported the idea of the continuity of the Czechoslovak Republic and the annulment of the Munich Agreements. In prac-tice, this meant that the USSR advocated the return of Slovakia to the Czechoslovak Republic, which was to become an infl uential leader of Soviet infl uence in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union considered the future state and legal system of the republic to be an internal aff air of Czechoslovakia and did not interfere in settlement of Czech-Slovak relations. On the positive side, the Soviet leadership recognized Slovaks as a separate people. This forced the Czechoslovak government and E. Beneš personally to partially reconsider their views on the issue and agree to the revival of the Czechoslovak Republic as a common state of equal Czech and Slovak nations but without a clear defi nition of the state and legal status of Slovakia.