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Title: Juraj Slávik papers
Date (inclusive): 1918-1968
Collection Number: 76087
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Czech
Physical Description:
54 manuscript boxes, 5 envelopes, 3 microfilm reels
(23.5 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, speeches and writings, reports, dispatches, memoranda, telegrams, clippings, and photographs relating to Czechoslovak
relations with Poland and the United States, political developments in Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak emigration and émigrés,
and anti-Communist movements in the United States.
Creator:
Slávik, Juraj, 1890-1969
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1976.
[Identification of item], Juraj Slávik papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Also available on microfilm (51 reels).
| 1890 January 28 | Born in Dobrá Niva, Slovakia |
| 1910-1911 | Ecole de Droit, Paris |
| 1911 | College de France, Paris |
| 1913 | Received his law degree from the University of Budapest |
| 1918 | Secretary of the Slovak National Council, Bratislava |
| 1926 | Minister of Agriculture and of the Unification of Laws (appointed by Jan Masaryk) |
| 1929-1932 | Minister of the Interior |
| 1929-1935 | Member of Parliament |
| 1936 February 1 - 1939 March 15 | Ambassador to Poland |
| 1939 summer | Went on lecture tour in the United States for three months (started liberation movement along with Beneš) |
| 1939 July | Went back to Poland to help Czechoslovak soldiers, officers, and airmen escape from Hitler-occupied Czechoslovakia |
| 1939 September | Left for France after the war started |
| 1939-1940 | Member of the Czechoslovak National Committee in Paris |
| 1940 June | Left Paris for London |
| 1940-1945 | Broadcast via BBC to Hitler-occupied Czechoslovakia |
| Minister of the Interior and Minister of Education, Government-in-Exile, London | |
| 1945 May | Returned to Czechoslovakia |
| 1945 June - 1946 June | Worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| 1946 June - 1948 March | Ambassador to the United States |
| 1946-1947 | Member of the Czechoslovak Delegation to the United Nations |
| Accompanied Jan Masaryk to the Paris Peace Conference | |
| 1948 March 3 | Resigned his post as ambassador in protest against the coup d'état in Czechoslovakia ("I have decided to fight for Czechoslovak democracy") |
| 1949 | Member of the Executive Board and Chairman of the Social-Aid Committee of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia |
| 1954? | Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the Assembly of Captive European Nations |
| 1969 May | Died, Washington, D.C. |
The Juraj Slávik papers were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives from his wife, Gita Slávik, in two installments.
The first, which arrived in May 1976, included material relating to Slávik's government service in Poland and the United States,
Czechoslovak emigration and emigres, and anti-communist movements in the U.S. The second installment arrived in July 1978
and consisted of correspondence, personal documents, photographs, and microfilm relating to Slávik's service as a statesman,
and his memoirs.
The bulk of the collection consists of Slávik's speeches and writings, namely his numerous lectures in Great Britain during
World War II, his patriotic radio speeches broadcast to Czechoslovakia by the BBC for the London-based Czechoslovak government-in-exile
during World War II, as well as his writings on the history of Slovakia and its role within Czechoslovakia (see, in the speeches
and writings file, "Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic," "Slovensko až do dneška," and "Protectorate Slovakia").
Of great importance are Slávik's memoirs entitled "Moja pamať - živá kniha (My Memory - A Living Book), which were published
as a series of articles in
New Yorkský Denník during the years 1955-1957. They explain the events that contributed to the downfall of Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1938
and 1939, describe the beginning of the Czechoslovak exile movement in 1939 and 1940, the creation and activities of the Czechoslovak
National Committee in Paris, and the deeds and fate of the Czechoslovak provisional government in London in 1940-1945.
Of special note in the career file are Slávik's numerous dispatches and reports from the Czechoslovak Legation in Warsaw to
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague, shedding some light on Czechoslovakia's relations with Poland before World War
II. Also interesting in that series are materials relating to the peace settlement at the end of World War II and population
transfers (see Ambassador to the United States in the career file).
Of great importance are also documents on Czechoslovak emigration and emigres, and anti-communist movements in the U.S. (see
Member, Council of Free Czechoslovakia in the career file).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Anti-communist movements -- United States
Czechoslovakia -- Emigration and immigration
Czechoslovakia -- History -- 1938-1945
Statesmen -- Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia -- Politics and government
World War, 1939-1945 -- Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia -- Foreign relations -- Poland
Poland -- Foreign relations -- Czechoslovakia
Diplomats -- Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia -- History -- Coup d'état, 1948
Czechoslovakia -- Foreign relations -- United States
United States -- Foreign relations -- Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí