PROMISES, PROMISES! CHAOS OR DECEPTION IN SLOVAKIA?

Copyright Carpatho-Rusyn American, 1996 - Vol., XIX, No. 3

Toward the end of August, I was part of a delegation from several of Europe's national minorities that met with two officials at Slovakia's Ministry of Culture in Bratislava. Both officials were courteous but also rather insistent to convince our visiting delegation that present-day Slovakia has an excellent record with regard to its national minorities. In the course of the discussion that focused on the status of Magyars (Hungarians) and Rusyns in Slovakia, one of the ministry officials proclaimed that his new state treated national minorities "better than any other country," and that "the world should thank Slovakia for being such a model of tolerance."

Two days later, our delegation was in Presov for an international conference on Europe's national minorities. Aside from discussing the present and future of Europe's stateless peoples, we all had an opportunity to learn first hand about Slovakia's supposedly exemplary policy toward at least one of its national minorities, the Rusyns. It quickly became clear that there was a large gap between the verbal claims of the government oficial in Bratislava and the reality, so to speak, on the ground.

We learned that in the course of 1996, the formerly vibrant publishing house of the Rusyn Renaissance Society (Rusyn'ska Obroda) had become virtually devastated. Just a few years ago, government support for the only Rusyn-language publisher in the country amounted to 2 million crowns in 1993, and 1.9 million crowns in 1994. Under the new government of Vladimir Meiciar, however, the subsidy was initially cut more than half to 970,000 crowns in 1995 and then to a mere 380,000 crowns in 1996. The result? No salaries for the five-member staff of the publishing house, who for over a year have been working as unpaid volunteers and who as of September 1996 are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits. Rusyn books cannot be published; the magazine Rusyn is unable to appear; and the weekly newspaper Narodny novynky which was reduced to appearing only every second week since January 1996, appears now at best only once a month.

There did seem to be one bright spot, however. The Rusyn language, which was codified in January 1995, was in September of that year to be taught in about 8 to 10 schools. This did not happen because the language had not yet gotten formal approval from Slovakia's Ministry of Education. Therefore, in the course of the 1995/1996 school year, the appropriate study plans were drawn up; a questionnaire was submitted to parents, nearly 600 of whom requested their children be taught in Rusyn; and the ministry approved a week-long training seminar in late August to prepare teachers slated to teach in Rusyn beginning in September 1996.

Suddenly, two days before the seminar was to begin, and as teachers were on their way to Presov to attend the training program, the Ministry of Education cancelled the seminar, stating that the ministry had not yet approved Rusyn-language instruction at one of its formal monthly hearings (gremialna poruda). Rusyn cultural activists in Slovakia, many of whom were in Presov for the national minority conference, were devastated by the news that once again government promises were broken and that Rusyn would not be taught in schools.

Then, in a strange twist that seerningly only bureaucrats can explain, on August 28, the Ministry of Education's monthly hearing officially approved the program to teach Rusyn. Of course, the August 28 decision came after the teacher's training seminar was abruptly cancelled and, therefore, much too late for a school year that was about to begin in a few days time.

Are these the acts of a serious government? Is the problem perhaps the result of the general disorder that has accompanied the establishment of all new countries in the region? And has the disorder been compounded by the fact that Slovakia, which has been independent only since January 1993, does not yet have a sufficient number of trained and experienced non-Communist bureaucrats and governmental officials? Or, on the other hand, are these acts part of a deliberate policy to deceive the Rusyn population and to reverse the achievements made in the course of the Rusyn national revival since 1989? And why would the Slovak government want to do this? Perhaps it is pressure from neighboring Ukraine, frequently initiated by local pro-Ukrainians within Slovakia, that causes the Slovak government to have second thoughts about supporting Rusyn cultural distinctiveness for fear of alienating their powerful neighbor to the east?

Whatever the real reason may be, Rusyns in Slovakia and observers abroad are tired of speculating about the motivations of governmental circles in Slovakia. Rusyns simply want the minimal cultural rights that they deserve not as some kind of gift from the government, but as a right due to them as loyal tax-paying citizens of Slovakia.

Unfortunately, the cultural achievements of Slovakia's Rusyns since 1989 have been slowed down because of the drastic decline in financial support by the Slovak government after 1995. And while it is true that grants to the cultural programs of all minorities have been reduced, the Rusyns had less to begin with and so have even less now. In contrast to other national minorities in Slovakia, such as the Magyars, Roma (Gypsies), Ukrainians, and Germans, the Rusyns do not have their own schools (nor Rusyn classes in Slovak-language schools), they do not have their own radio station, and they do not have their own university department (katedra) to train teachers and to promote scholarship about their history and culture. Even what they did have for a few years-a flourishing publishing house-has been financially crippled. On the positive side, Rusyn individuals and businesses owned by Rusyns have begun to contribute money to their struggling newspaper and publishing house, although their relatively generous donations (exceptional for a former Communist environment) are insufficient to allow this one aspect of Rusyn cultural activity to survive.

Rusyns have always been loyal to Slovakia. They do not deserve the treatment they are receiving from the present government of Slovakia. Regardless whether the cause is bureaucratic chaos or calculated deception, unbroken promises are unbroken promises. The Ministry of Culture official who wanted the world to recognize Slovakia will probably get his wish. The recognition, however, will not be for tolerance, but rather for intolerance toward one of its national minorities-the Rusyns.

Paul Robert Magocsi

Toronto, Ontario

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