Oldal 2 [2]
XeAe5- Decamber 52.
— page two ¬
Breaking the opposition
As briefly mentioned above, iiussia "while transforming
Carpatho-Ukrania into one of its most vital strategic positions, =
wiped out simultaeously and most thoroughly all possible opposition
in the area, First the population was deprived of its leadership,
the Church. ‘hen large groups of workers, farmers and their families
were deported and replaced by Asiatic settlers.
It is more than alarming to see that step to step, the
same diabotás plan is carried out now in the neighboring Slovakia.
+he first move was a bloody fight against the Church, a
repression that was and is much more thorough than in the Czech part
of the country. ‘he reason for this is evident: Russia has more direct
plans on certain parts of the Slovak territory; while at the same time
the opposition in Slovakia is much stronger and much deeper than in
Bohemia. ‘Slovaks indeed - in the same way as the Carpatho-Unkranian
Ruthens - are a very religious and traditional population. What has
long ago been lost in the wealthy Czech rural and industrial areas,
has been tenaciously kept by the Slovak mountain population.
The repression, dictated by Moscow and carried out actively by Prague
authorities, was consequently much harder on the Slovak part of the
country. Of the nine bishops who formed the Slovak Hierarchy in 1945,
three are in prison, three are deported, the three remaining ones are
under close police control, without freedom of movement and actione
According to the latest and most prudent estimates, there are a minimum
of four thousand priests, religious, seminarians and nuns from Czecho=
Slovakia now detained in prisons and labor campse Among them, 75%
are Slovaks while in number of population the balance is exastly the
opposite: Slovaks forming only about 25% of @zecho-"lovakia's inhabitant
Thus, the @urch in Slovakia is practically beheaded: none of its bishops
is in frue freedom and 80% of its secular priests are imprisoned. it
was impossible to secure exact figures as to the percentage of religious
deprived of their freedom; but news about trials hitting entire s
religious communities and of nuns taken away from their field of activit
and into forced labor have been received now in such strikingly high
number that it shows clearly the well established pattern.
While the clergy is thus wiped out in Slovakia, the recruiting of young
priests of course is renderen impossible. The eleven seminaries that
existed in Slovakia in 1945 have been forced to close. They were
replaced by an official faculty of theology, opened by the government
in Bratislava. It is to form a new group of priests, trained in
marxism and leninism, and who would replace in the parishes and the
Church administration all the priests, convicted for having "“sekeyust
"betrayed the people", It is interesting to note that, despite pressure
and promises, this governmental seminary seems to have been a complete
fadlure. Reports received from Bratislava relate that young Slovaks
are not willing to be enlisted, as feelings in ths coulry are much too
strong, as to even accept any “patriotic priests". People rather
continue without clergy, than with communist-inspired priests»
After wiping out most of the hierarchy and clergy, the next
step in the forced assimilation of Slovakia is - identical once more
a.