Pittsburgh Agreement (1918)

The Pittsburgh Agreement, officially known as the Czech-Slovak Agreement — a written agreement that was signed on 30 May 1918 in Pittsburgh by members of the Slovak League in America, the Czech National Association, the Union of Czech Catholics and the chairman of the Czechoslovak National Council, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

The agreement came about following Masaryk’s journey to the USA at the end of April 1918, the purpose of which was to convince American congressmen and public why foundation of a Czecho-Slovak state was justified. Masaryk had decided to mobilize the Czech and Slovak communities in the USA and through them, gain support from US representatives. Contact with American Czechs and Slovaks led to him drafting a text which would later become known as the Pittsburgh Agreement. After consultation with the three national organisations, he produced a final version containing six points, the first of which declared that Czech and Slovaks would join to form an independent state made up of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. The second promised Slovakia its own administration, assembly and lawcourts, the third stated that Slovak would be the official language of schools, administration and public space in Slovakia and the fourth demanded a democratic and republican state administration. The supplementary fifth and six points called for closer collaboration between Czech and Slovak organizations in the USA and insisted that details regarding administration of the new country be decided by the people of the country and their elected representatives.

The agreement was signed by 17 Slovak and 12 Czechs, all of whom were men, twenty-eight of whom were also American citizens. During the following period, most of the programme was implemented. On 28 October 1918, a common Czech-Slovak state, formed on democratic and republican principles, was established, Slovak became the language of instruction in Slovakia and a law of November 13th 1918 on the provisional constitution together with the subsequent Constitution of Czechoslovakia (1920) both stated that Czech and Slovak would be official languages. The point promising Slovakia its own administration, assembly and courts was partly fulfilled. In 1928, a law was passed which established a national council with limited legislative powers and a national committee serving as an executive organ in Slovak territory.

During the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918 – 1938) the Pittsburgh Agreement was often a subject of contention, many times for political reasons. Masaryk, now Czechoslovak president, considered the parts about foreign Czechoslovak resistance, the aims of which were fulfilled with acceptance of the 1920 Constitution of Czechoslovakia, to be proclamatory in character. In arguments about the agreement, he referred to its final point which put responsibility for its full implementation on elected representatives of the Czechoslovak state. In 1929, during the so-called Tuka affair, he emphasized this by reminding opponents that it had been signed by members of the Slovak League in America, an organisation which did not have full legal status. Representatives of the coalition parties (Agrarian Party, Social Democrats, National Democrats and Socialists) saw it in the same way and did not call for its further implementation in the legislative process.

The agreement became a bargaining chip mainly for parties promoting Slovak autonomy, the nationalist wing of the Slovak National Party (SNS) often referring to it in their newspaper Národnie noviny (National News) and at public gatherings as an important springboard to Slovak autonomy. They claimed that by signing the agreement, Masaryk had committed himself to Slovak self-rule and that way justified their demands for greater self-determination. Members of Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (HSĽS) used the Pittsburgh Agreement in political discussions even more actively than SNS members. In June 1938, to mark the agreement’s 20th anniversary, a huge demonstration of 25 to 30,000 people took place in Bratislava at which not only leading members of the HSĽS were present but also representatives of the Slovak League in America, led by their chairman, Peter Pavol Hletko. Members of HSĽS hoped the demonstration would lead to greater Slovak self-determination, strengthening of the autonomist camp and an increase in their party’s support in the forthcoming communal elections. The Pittsburgh Agreement was a long-term element in the party‘s politics leading to their adoption of power in Slovakia and the establishment of a Catholic, Conservative-nationalist regime.

After World War Two, because of its misuse by the pro-Hitler people’s movement, the agreement was no longer mentioned, however. The Communist takeover in 1948 then led to it being further discredited thanks to it having been signed in capitalist and democratic USA.