After Hitler, Before Stalin: Catholics, Communists, and Democrats in Slovakia, 1945-1948 (review)

How was it that in an overwhelmingly Catholic republic where a democratic political party had gained a stunning electoral victory thanks to Catholic support, a Communist Party with less than a third of the vote could, in less than two years, outmaneuver its opponents and lay the groundwork for a political takeover? This is the question posed by James Ramon Felak in his study of Slovak politics between the end of World War II and the February coup of 1948. In answering it, he goes beyond Slovakia's peculiar circumstances in that transitional period—including the shadow of the Axis-supported Tiso regime and the influence of the Czech portion of the Czechoslovak Republic—to trace the complex and contradictory political trajectories of Slovakia's Catholics, Communists, and Democrats.

After Hitler, Before Stalin comprises five chronological chapters, which trace Slovak politics from war's end to the crucial April 1946 agreement between Democrats and Catholics; the elections of May 1946, in which the Democrats gained 62 percent of the vote to the Communists' 30.37; the trial of Father Jozef Tiso; the alleged antistate conspiracies of 1947; and the communists' political offensive culminating in their takeover in 1948. The last six pages of the final chapter serve as a summary and conclusion. The endnotes are generous and sometimes intriguing (e.g., p. 238n38 informs us that one influential left-leaning Catholic Democrat had apparently served Soviet intelligence during and after the war; later we learn that after the February coup, he obtained a ministerial position). A selected bibliography and a detailed index complete the volume.

Felak bases his study on archival sources, mostly in Bratislava, as well as on the contemporary Slovak press and extensive secondary literature (including memoirs) in Slovak, Czech, German, and English. In the course of his narrative, we meet individuals who would play important roles in Czechoslovak history, such as Gustav Husák and Ludvik Svoboda. Although the author does not dwell unnecessarily on events in the Czech lands, he does draw brief but useful comparisons with contemporary political and religious developments in Catholic Hungary and Croatia. A fuller account, however, would have covered eastern Slovakia's substantial Greek-Catholic population, whose hierarchs receive only brief mention (p. 148 and p. 233n93).

Readers will be struck by the sophistication, resourcefulness, and flexibility of communist strategy and tactics. Slovak communists supported Catholics on certain issues while working against their Church on others. They managed to score significant successes while maintaining inconsistent, even contradictory positions. They also utilized Partisan and trade-union support, and effectively exploited their influence in the state security apparatus.

Felak's readable style is unburdened by academic jargon and enlivened by the occasional colloquialism. His evident sympathies do not distort his clear and subtle analysis. From time to time he summarizes the preceding account; occasionally, he reminds readers of the significance of a person or event mentioned previously in the text. These features make the book suitable for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for scholars.

Although events in Prague may have outweighed those in Bratislava in deciding the fate of the binational republic, the relatively unknown Slovak case merits attention in its own right. As the anatomy of a political takeover and the postmortem of a democratic party, After Hitler, Before Stalin invites readers to compare contemporary political developments elsewhere in Eastern Europe. It also raises more general questions about the dilemmas and vulnerabilities of Catholics in the political realm.