How Czechoslovakia was made in 1918, and why 28 October is a holiday

On 28 October 1918 news reached Prague that Austria-Hungary had accepted the Allies' peace conditions, and crowds gathered in the streets. Within hours, members of the Czechoslovak National Committee announced that an independent state existed. It had no army, no constitution and no agreed borders, and the people who made the announcement had been, until days earlier, subjects of a monarchy that had lasted nearly four hundred years.

Anyone who takes a day off on 28 October is marking that improvised moment. The president traditionally presents state honours on the same date. The story behind it is less spontaneous than the legend: exiles, soldiers and diplomats did as much as the crowds in the street.

Before 1914: autonomy, not independence

History is easy to read backwards. Before the First World War, almost no major Czech politician demanded complete independence. The goal was greater autonomy within the Habsburg monarchy, a position explained in the Habsburg era in the Czech lands. Slovaks lived under Hungarian rule within the other half of the dual monarchy, where the pressure towards Magyar language and culture was far stronger than anything Czechs faced in Austria.

The war changed the calculation. Many Czech soldiers had little enthusiasm for fighting Serbia and Russia, and some surrendered to the Russians in order to fight against the monarchy. A small group of politicians, led by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, concluded that the empire could not survive and that independence was possible.

The exile campaign

Masaryk left the Habsburg lands in December 1914 and spent the war in Western Europe and the United States. Edvard Beneš, a younger scholar, joined him in Paris, and with the Slovak astronomer and soldier Milan Rastislav Štefánik they formed the Czechoslovak National Council in 1916. It lobbied the Allied governments to accept the break-up of Austria-Hungary as a war aim.

Their strongest argument was an army. The Czechoslovak Legions were formed from Czech and Slovak prisoners and volunteers in Russia, France and Italy. They fought on the Allied side, and the Legion in Russia became a significant force. After the Russian revolution it controlled long stretches of the Trans-Siberian Railway, an episode still remembered with pride. The Legions gave the exiles credibility and a real stake in the peace.

Support from the United States was decisive. In May 1918 Czech and Slovak organisations in the United States signed the Pittsburgh Agreement, which spoke of a common state in which Slovakia would have its own administration, courts and parliament. Slovak politicians later quoted that promise when they argued it had not been honoured. On 18 October 1918 Masaryk issued a declaration of independence in Washington, written with an American audience in mind.

The day itself

By October 1918 the Habsburg war effort had failed. The army was disintegrating, food was short, and the government in Vienna was asking for an armistice. In Prague, leaders of the main Czech parties, who had formed the Czechoslovak National Committee earlier in the year, took over administration in an orderly way. On 28 October the committee issued its first law, which established the independent Czechoslovak state. The military command in Prague did not resist. The transfer of power was largely peaceful, which is why many Czechs describe it as a revolution without bloodshed.

Slovakia's path was slightly different. On 30 October the Slovak National Council met in Martin and issued a declaration endorsing the common state with the Czechs. Political reality on the ground was messy: Hungarian forces still held parts of Slovakia, and in 1919 Czechoslovak troops, aided by the Legions, took control of the territory that the peace treaties would award to the new state.

Building a state

The first National Assembly was not elected. It was assembled from the parties in proportion to their strength in the last Austrian parliamentary elections. It elected Masaryk president on 14 November 1918 while he was still abroad. He returned to Prague in December. The Assembly passed a provisional constitution and set about joining Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia and Slovakia into one state. Subcarpathian Ruthenia followed in 1919.

The borders were settled by treaty. The Treaty of Saint-Germain with Austria in 1919 and the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary in 1920 defined the frontiers, and the Versailles settlement confirmed other points. Parts of the borderlands had a majority German-speaking population, and the new republic included them against their wishes, a decision that would have long consequences, explored in Czech Germans and the Sudetenland. A short conflict with Poland over the Těšín region was settled by arbitration in 1920.

The constitution adopted in February 1920 created a parliamentary republic with a two-chamber legislature and a president elected by parliament. Suffrage covered all adult citizens, women included, at a time when many European democracies still excluded them.

One nation or two?

The founders presented Czechoslovakia as a state of the Czechoslovak nation, with Czech and Slovak as two forms of one language. The idea was practical as well as political. It gave Czech and Slovak speakers a majority in a country where Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians, Poles and Jews together made up a large share of the population. It also left many Slovaks feeling that their identity had been downplayed. The tension between the unitary idea and the Slovak wish for self-government ran through the interwar years and eventually contributed to the split described in the Velvet Divorce.

Legend and reality

Czechoslovakia is often remembered as a democratic island in central Europe, and the interwar state earned much of that reputation (see interwar Czechoslovakia: the First Republic). The founding itself, though, was calculation, alliances and diplomacy. The Legions mattered, as did the Allied interest in a barrier state east of Germany. The exiles had to persuade governments that a state with a mix of nationalities would be viable.

28 October is not the only date with a claim to the founding. Some cite the Washington Declaration, and Slovak accounts give weight to 30 October. The Czech holiday is officially the Day of the Establishment of the Independent Czechoslovak State, so it marks the common state, not just the Czech part of it.

Why it matters now

The founding explains a large part of what Czechs mean by their democratic tradition and why Masaryk's name appears on streets, embankments and schools. It also explains why Czechs and Slovaks still feel close: they lived in one state for most of the twentieth century, and many families have relatives on both sides of the border.

To get a feel for it, be in Prague on 28 October. Ceremonies are held at Prague Castle and at monuments around the city. The presidential website publishes the day's programme.

Frequently asked questions

Who proclaimed Czechoslovakia?

The Czechoslovak National Committee in Prague on 28 October 1918, with the Slovak National Council endorsing the state in Martin on 30 October. Masaryk, Beneš and Štefánik had campaigned for it abroad.

What were the Czechoslovak Legions?

Czech and Slovak volunteer and prisoner-of-war units that fought on the Allied side in Russia, France and Italy, and strengthened the case for independence.

Why is 28 October a public holiday?

It marks the founding of the independent Czechoslovak state in 1918. The official name is the Day of the Establishment of the Independent Czechoslovak State.

Did women vote in the new state?

Yes. Women could vote from the first elections of 1920, and the 1920 constitution confirmed equal suffrage for adult citizens.