The case of the ‘Slovak bourgeois nationalists’ and its Hungarian ties

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The interest of the Czechoslovak state security services (Státní bezpečnost, StB) in the Slovak politicians and diplomats accused with ‘bourgeois nationalism’ can be considered the first step towards the Slánský-trial, since it was the first stage of the hunt after the ‘Czechoslovak Rajk’. The investigation after these men quickly interweaved with the forthcoming case of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladimír Clementis. It was promising to the StB to create Czechoslovakia’s own Rajk-trial with these people, however, due to the regional nature of the case, they soon abandoned this concept, because as it seemed, they caught a bigger fish. Thus, the concept of the ‘Slovak bourgeois nationalists’ were prepared only after the Slánský-trial, and the case was tried only as a follow-up trial in 1954. In this study, whilst showcasing this case, I also point out the Hungarian aspects of it, which prove well that the Hungarian Rajk-trial played an enormous role – although, mostly as pressure on the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Kommunistická strana Československa, KSČ) and ont he StB – in the ‘unmasking the enemies within the party apparatus’. In order to do so, this research is based on both Czechoslovak and Hungarian sources, although, in different degrees as one will see, since the Hungarian sources are way less than the Czechoslovak ones. Still, it is important to note that one can not summarize the case of the ‘Slovak bourgeois nationalists’ without discussing the threads leading to Hungary.