April 13, 2007 (the date of publication in Russian)
Alexei Chichkin
PROTECTORATE MORAVIA: AMERICAN PROTESTANTS REVIVE A NAZI-BACKED PROJECT?
One more quasi-state may emerge on the map of Europe
Since the peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia into two states, the idea of a further disintegration of this country has never entered the minds of political scientists. Still, the problem of separatism has again become significant for one of the most well-to-do states of Central Europe.
Recently, an organization named "Union of Moravian Renaissance" broadcasted a public statement in the United States and a number of European countries. The document is focused on the "tragic fate of the Moravian nation", "the indigenous population of over one half of today's Czechia, whose legitimate rights for self-determination have never been recognized".
The demand to "recognize the rights of the Moravian people, which regards Brno and Ostrava as its historical capitals", is followed with a parallel with the Kurdish population of Turkey, "similarly oppressed by the official Turkish authorities".
Moravia, the eastern region of Czechia, encompasses more than a half of the country's territory. Since the foundation of Czechoslovakia, the thesis of unity of the Czechian and Moravian peoples was an element of the state's ideological doctrine.
Still, Moravia's cultural, historical and social development had a number of specific features. The national myth dates back to the times of the VII century, when Moravian warrior societies, arriving from northern Persia, settled in the Danube River basin, and later established Great Moravia (Velka Morava), the first statehood on this territory (for the first time mentioned in historical manuscripts in 822, when Velka Morava's emissaries visited Emperor Louis the Pious in Frankfurt. Exactly here, Cyril and Methodius, invited by King Svätopluk, originally introduced the Slavonic liturgy. This glorious period of history abruptly ended with the intervention of Hungarian tribes in the X century; later, this territory was under rule of Polish knights and Holy Roman Empire's Frederick Barbarossa, and later under Austro-Hungarian rule.
Today’s national myth of Moravia, especially in the form instigated from outside Europe, refers rather to the period of medieval history when this very area became a cradle of the earliest form of Protestantism, emerging from the theological teaching of rebellious priest Jan Hus (XIV century). The Moravian Brethren, maintaining this theology, was revived in the early XVIII century by Count Zinzendorf from Dresden, Saxony. For some reason, this nobleman allowed the persecuted Hussites to settle on their lands, using "a combination of feudal authority and his charismatic personality to restore a semblance of unity" . In 1727, under this "charismatic supervision", the community, settled in a newly-built village of Herrnhut, experienced "a visitation of the Holy Spirit, similar to that recorded in the Bible on the day of Pentecost". This was followed "by prophecies, visions, glossolalia, and healings", and inspired the dissident religious community for later global missionary efforts. They transplanted their reduced for of Christian worship to other continents, including the future United States, where the "Moravian religion" later emerged into one of the most powerful denomination, finding a home in Pennsylvania, where the colony established towns named Bethlehem, Nazareth and Emmaus.
Quite naturally, the spirit of "Moravism" was later efficiently used for geopolitical needs, for the task of undermining European empires. In the XIX century, the major target was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At that time, Moravian scholars started a debate over the written language, trying to develop national graphics. It is noteworthy that Moravian political leaders then established an alliance with the Hungarians against Vienna. This activity, naturally, culminated in 1917, when the aftermath of World War I was seen by many European ethnic communities as a pretext for new state-building – ironically, often with references to the Russian revolution which declared the right for self-determination of peoples. Dr. Stránský, leader of the Moravian People's Party, turned this principle against the Germans, and countraposed the definitions of "nation" and "state": "The Germans say that Germanization is not carried out except where it is in the interests of the state. We do not think that the interests of the state should go first. If the interests of a state are not identical with the liberties and interests of a nation, then such a state has for that nation no right to exist…The German hegemony in Central Europe, and especially in Austria, is standing on its last legs".
Still, the rivaling project of the Czechoslovak statehood, enjoying support from France, put an abrupt end to Moravian ambitions. In the 1918-established Czechoslovak Republic (ČSR), only two peoples, the Czechs and the Slovaks, were recognized as its co-founding subjects. Existence of any other peoples was not legally recognized at all; they were officially included into those two. For instance, Subcarpathian Russins were now regarded as Slovaks.
In the period of Nazi occupation, Slovakia achieved formal independence, under the regime of Jozef Tiso (1939-1945), while today's Czechia was officially established as the "protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia". After the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, Moravia was granted a status of autonomy. In 1949, it was abolished by the new Government of ČSSR, arousing protests among the Moravists.
In 1968, the ethnic issue of Moravia was exploited by intelligence services of the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. The regime of ČSSR encountered a separatist insurgency, organized in the Society of Moravia and Silesia – which, according to its leaders, included 200,000 registered activists.
After the intervention of the Warsaw Pact's troops into Czechoslovakia, this separatist movement went underground. Since late 1980s, it resumed its activity under the labels of "Moravian Civic Movement" (MOH) and "Movement for Self-Managing Democracy"(HSD-SMS). In late 1990s, with support from the Moravian diaspora in the United States, a reorganized Movement of Self-Governing Moravia and Silesia – Moravian National Unification (HSMS-MNSj), and later, the present Union of Moravians, demanding today at least re-establishing the Moravian autonomy.
It is noteworthy that 80% of the US military infrastructure is going to be deployed in Czechia exactly on the territory of North-Eastern Moravia, in the vicinity of Brno and Ostrava. For that reason, a number of experts regard the United States as an interested side in the Moravian issue. More and more frequently, Moravian émigrés rally at the embassies of Czechia in the United Sates and Germany, while some members of the US Congress from the Democratic Party display "concern" over the "oppression of the Moravians". At the same time, a number of US authors share "dissatisfaction" with the fact that the very term "Moravians" is attributed to a religion and not to a "captive nation".
It is noteworthy that the debate around the Moravian issue coincides with revitalization of communities of "fugitives" in Germany, as well as a new eruption of Hungarian ethnicism. Jiřík Kľud, a Slovak political scientist, views these symptoms as a prelude to a "reshaping" of Eastern Europe according to the Yugoslavian pattern, with emergence of dwarf states directly run by Washington's authorities.
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