ŠTÁTNE A NÁRODNÉ HYMNY AKO ZDROJE KONFLIKTOV NA SLOVENSKU POČAS PRVEJ ČESKOSLOVENSKEJ REPUBLIKY

During the First Czechoslovak Republic, the question of state and national anthems was a sensitive topic. Due to the lack of a legal codification of the Czechoslovak national anthem, the relationship between the Czech and Slovak parts of the anthem remained unclear. It was not known whether there was one anthem or two anthems, the order of which could be interchanged. At the same time, the authorities reacted very sensitively to any disrespect for the national anthem, which was considered an attack on the Czechoslovak state. During the First Czechoslovak Republic, singing and playing the Hungarian national anthem was severely punished and offenders were often sentenced to imprisonment. Initially, they were convicted under Section 172 of the Hungarian Penal Code of 1878 and, after 1923, under the Law for the Protection of the Republic, for inciting hatred against the nationals of another ethnicity or for sedition against the State. This conflict of the nation-state with its national minority stemmed from the exaggerated fear of the Czechoslovak authorities of Hungarian irredentism. In reality, those who sang the Hungarian anthem did not pose a real threat to the order of the state. In this matter, however, the Czechoslovak state adopted the intolerant practice of the Kingdom of Hungary.