Czechoslovakia and the Rise of Nazism
In October 1918, as the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed, the second-largest successor state emerged as a union of Czechia and Slovakia; the republic of Czechoslovakia, stretching from the former German Sudetenland to the eastern border of the Carpathian Rus, was as much a polyglot nation as the empire it had once belonged to, with people speaking Polish, Hungarian, German, Czech, Slovakian and Romanian within her borders. Bordered by Hungary to the south, Poland to the north, and the Germanies to the west, the state had inherited the vastest industrial base of all the successor states, situated mostly in Bohemia-Moravia, which caused some chagrin to the Slovakians, in the largely agricultural south of the country, where the largely traditional agrarian lifestyle remained, a policy enforced by the previous government, who found that the less powerful a region the easier they were to rule.
The end of Austro-Hungarian rule brought about many changes; democracy, representative government, and a general reshuffling of the way the country worked – social mobility, equality and egalitarianism became powerful forces, which helped to fire the massive relative wealth of the republic, leading to the development of a modern tank corps and an army of over thirty divisions, which coupled with the fortifications in the Sudetenland, presented Czechoslovakia as a strong military force in central europe, more than equal to the challenge of defending her borders, it seemed. Unfortunately, this happy condition was valid only until 1933, when the Nazi Party seized power in the ashes of the Reichstag fire, quickly wiping away civil liberties and re-arming the Wehrmacht. While this put many millions of Germans back into employment, it also brought many fears into the minds of the people of Europe, and with the threat of communism to the East, some states, such as the Baltics, formed alliances for mutual protection. France built the Maginot line and waited behind it's vaunted wall.
There was one man, however, who refused to stare facts in the face. His name was Edvard Benes, the first and until 1935 only foreign minister for Czechoslovakia, a man born into a love of peace-he was a firm believer in the brotherhood of man, and despite this naivete a highly effective minister. When, in 1935, he won an election to the position of President, he continued this policy, wishing his nation to stay out of foreign affairs as much as possible, with his party backing a largely isolationist practise, preferring to focus on the internal issues facing Czechoslovakia – one such issue being the agricultural nature of Slovakia.
It was in 1936, mirroring the policies of Nazi Germany, that the nation began a program of industrialization within Slovakia. Taking a leaf out of the book of the Fuhrer of the German Reich, who in January re-militarized the Rhineland, and following urging from Josef Kalfus and the infamous Jan Syrovy, the new Chancellor and General of the Army, Benes ordered the construction of arms and automobile factories to be contracted for in Presov, Kosice and Zilina. Ultimately, the construction fell to the Skoda automobile company, employing roughly six thousand people directly in the factories and many more in sales, catering, and various other positions, and it was this move that many historians attribute to be the main reason for Benes' party winning the general elections of 1936.
A piece of art from a newspaper reporting on the development of the Slovakian industries.
This effort, however, was not completely funded by Skoda. The treasury of Czechoslovakia had to pay for the raw materials to build and supply the factories, and while the western powers were happy to provide them, it was at a horrendous cost; the capitalist economies were primarily and fundamentally driven by the desire for more cash, and this lead to a long-term cooling of relationships which would later prove to be a fatal miscalculation by the Allies. The task fell to Jan Syrovy to compile a report on the orders to be made of the new Skoda factories, and after work with Emil Janouska, decided that the reinforcement of the 2nd Army to a full twelve divisions of infantry took precedence, with an additional three cavalry divisions to act as a mobile reconnaissance and flank force in the event of a mobile war.
On the 20th September, these plans were published in Parliament and met largely with approval, although some backbenchers posed questions as to the actual need of the troops and the cost of their maintenance. A week later, the streets of Prague were filled with citizens, some the former soldiers who fought for Czechoslovak independence, singing the praises of the decision, and the enlistment requirements were almost instantaneously filled; the wave of volunteers came so quickly that many had to be turned away. The infantry were mostly from the urban Czech areas, while the cavalry troops, who needed to be more used to fieldcraft and handling their animals, came from the agricultural Ruthenian and Slovak populations, with the additional armoured car brigades similarly filled with the hardier people from the south, trained with tactics the Syrovy developed himself, inspired by the writings of one Heinz Guderian, based on surrounding and eliminating enemy divisions piecemeal.
One manuscript of the tactics designed by Syrovy with translated annotations. This diagram is dated early summer, 1935.
Syrovy, the man hailed as ensuring the continued security of the Czechoslovak people, would have a huge role to play in his countries' future, and it would not all be so benevolent.