As it says in the tin. What would it take to have a Czechoslovak state today? What would be the effects? POD is just after the 1989 revolutions.
Perhaps have Austria, East Germny, and West Germany unite and retain the claims the West Germans had to part of Silesia due to that Oder-Neisse Line. That could scare the Czechs into wanting to keep Slovakia around at any costs. The possibility of some Stalinists keeping power in one of the Warsaw Pact countries might also tell them they should hang together or separately. Maybe Yugoslavia collapses early and it gets them to decide to not try that?
The whole thing about Germany reuniting with Austria and demanding the pre-war borders back would have meant that most if not all of the post-WW2 treaties involving Germany and Austria are down the drain. It's definitely the ASB country.
I would say that even Gorbachev wouldn't be stupid enough to allow Germany to unify under this condition and he would have the full support of Britain and France on this issue.Perhaps have Austria, East Germny, and West Germany unite and retain the claims the West Germans had to part of Silesia due to that Oder-Neisse Line. That could scare the Czechs into wanting to keep Slovakia around at any costs. The possibility of some Stalinists keeping power in one of the Warsaw Pact countries might also tell them they should hang together or separately. Maybe Yugoslavia collapses early and it gets them to decide to not try that?
Just have referendum there is no chance over 50% Slovaks would support separation.
Isn't it? And I don't know. There was not enough pressure from any political party across Czechoslovakia and I guess people just let politicians to ride it. Maybe sick of political upheaval since 1989. Maybe all habits to sit back and watch from communist era. Since then Slovakia had shitload of referendums on so much crap it is unbelievable but one most important never come. Of course it would be hard to keep both nation satisfied if Federation was saved. Czechoslovakia would be changing governments probably very often.How would this happen, that the authorities choose this over deciding things themselves? This is interesting.
Perhaps have Austria, East Germny, and West Germany unite and retain the claims the West Germans had to part of Silesia due to that Oder-Neisse Line. That could scare the Czechs into wanting to keep Slovakia around at any costs. The possibility of some Stalinists keeping power in one of the Warsaw Pact countries might also tell them they should hang together or separately. Maybe Yugoslavia collapses early and it gets them to decide to not try that?
Isn't it? And I don't know. There was not enough pressure from any political party across Czechoslovakia and I guess people just let politicians to ride it. Maybe sick of political upheaval since 1989. Maybe all habits to sit back and watch from communist era. Since then Slovakia had shitload of referendums on so much crap it is unbelievable but one most important never come. Of course it would be hard to keep both nation satisfied if Federation was saved. Czechoslovakia would be changing governments probably very often.
A united Germany and Austria would make the Russians go apeshit, Thatcher would not be happy, and even Bush might have some reservations. That was not going to happen.
Even if it did, a Germany that immediately starts making land claims is a Germany that is not going to last long.
This seems ASB in my view.
Czech fears about the Germans were real enough already, but the split with Slovakia could have been accomplished even with those fears amplified. There is a ton of bad blood there.
Not really. Slovaks were promised Federation before 1918. Slovaks needed to get something. If there is no federation during communist Slovakia may go even faster. Unless of course Czechoslovakia would go Swiss way.If the country hadn't had a federal type system under communism they might remain United.
Not really. Slovaks were promised Federation before 1918. Slovaks needed to get something. If there is no federation during communist Slovakia may go even faster. Unless of course Czechoslovakia would go Swiss way.
I think his point was a Leninist-style federation - states like the USSR, Socialist Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were all on paper extremely loose confederations where sovereignty was based at the republic level. They all gave their republics the right to unilaterally secede and gave the federal government, on paper, very little power. So long as they were governed by one-party communist governments, they held together. But once one party rule fell apart, they quickly proved unworkable.
A federation that was from the start a bit more balanced towards the centre - as in most federations like the US, Canada, or Germany - could have survived.
It wasn't about demanding land back, simply for them to keep up with the border dispute for the Oder-Neisse. And I didn't say it was likely, just that it would give the Cezks a reason to want to keep Slovakia at all costs.