Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the South Slavs during the First World War, with Special Emphasis on the Relationship between Masaryk and the Serbs

0454650 - HÚ 2016 RIV RS eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Hladký, Ladislav
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the South Slavs during the First World War, with Special Emphasis on the Relationship between Masaryk and the Serbs.
Srbi i prvi svetski rat 1914-1918. Zbornik radova sa medjunarodnog naučnog skupa održanog 13-15. juna 2014. Beograd: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 2015 - (Živojinović, D.), s. 337-348. Naučni skupovi, 150. ISBN 978-86-7025-666-8.
[Srbi i prvi svetski rat 1914-1918. Beograd (RS), 13.06.2014-15.06.2014]
Institutional support: RVO:67985963
Keywords : T.G. Masaryk * South Slavs * Serbs * World War I * Czech-Serbian relations * Czechoslovak-Yugoslavian relations
Subject RIV: AB - History

The study briefly characterises and evaluates relations between T.G. Masaryk and South Slavs, in particular Serbs, during World War I and partially also in the period of existence of interwar Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. It attempts to revise the strongly rooted, in Serbian historiography, idea that Masaryk was a strong Serbophile all his life. The paper demonstrates that Masaryk’s relation to South Slavs, including Serbs, evolved and changed during his life. Masaryk had very friendly relations with Serbs before World War I. However, he generally sympathized with other South Slavic nations too. He was a staunch supporter of the pan-South Slavic idea (among other things, he tried to help national rapprochement between Serbs and Croats) and therefore supported, in World War I, efforts to establish a common Yugoslav state. However, in the interwar period, mainly after 1929 (after the establishment of a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia), Masaryk refused to support the efforts of Serbian political elite to enforce power dominance of Serbs within Yugoslavia.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0255316