On Thursday, Slovaks celebrate 103 years since the establishment of the Czechoslovak republic, the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. Moreover, in 2021, October 28th is marked as a state holiday for the first time in Slovakia. Until November 2020, when Slovak Parliament approved the change, it had only been a remembrance day. However, this is the first Slovak state holiday which is not also a bank holiday. As Petr Obrovský, reporter of the Czech public TV station Česká televize said, there are too many of them in the calendar and adding another one would be too much for the economy.
As part of the celebration of the foundation of the common Czecho-Slovak state, Bratislava Castle will be lit in the colors of the flag of Czechoslovak Republic.
Czechoslovakia – a democratic republic - was founded on October 28, 1918, after WWI on the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Two days later, Slovaks adopted the so called Martin Declaration of the Slovak Nation, thus formally joining Czechoslovakia. In 1920 Czechoslovak constitution was adopted. The document granted, for instance, the right to vote to all women and to all men. According to the political scientist Tomáš Jahelka from Trnava University as cited by the Slovak spectator “the Czechoslovak Republic, with its constitutional character and political establishment, was one of the most developed democratic countries in the world”.
Czechoslovakia was split up between the years 1939 and 1945 due to the developments related to WWII. In 1948, a soviet-led communist totalitarian regime started in Czechoslovakia. The rule of the only communist party lasted until 1989, when the so called Velvet revolution took place. Subsequently in 1992, Czechoslovakia split up and on January 1 1993 two independent republics – the Slovak and the Czech were established.
