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Reflections from the Slovak Republic

Reflections III: "Long, long time ago..." 

Fred Ruppel Life in Slovakia had attained to a certain level of normalcy -- until our two stateside daughters joined us on December 22 for the Christmas holidays. They were with us for a wonderful 2 weeks, and now we face a longer 5 month separation until our return in late June. Their visit included a traditional Slovak Christmas dinner (actually Christmas Eve), thanks to a generous invitation from one of the Slovak English teachers. The evening was complete with walnuts thrown to the four corners of the room for good luck, apples cut and shared piece-for-piece with everyone else at the table, carp as the main course for Christmas Eve dinner, gifts delivered by Baby Jesus, after-dinner drinks before Midnight Mass (at midnight!!), and after-Mass drinks until 3:00 am. It’s so wonderful to be able to share in traditions from other cultures, and especially to be able to do so in a family setting. A second generous invitation from my Economics host- colleague allowed us to spend a five-day New Year’s holiday in another family setting (actually, the EXTENDED family ­ including us, 16 people) in their family cottage at a winter/summer vacation spot in the Low Tatras mountains. The skiing was wonderful for my children, but my 18-year lapse and 20-pound weight gain took their toll on my body! But the walks in this winter wonderland were FABULOUS, and the food and drink were plentiful. After another few days back in Nitra, our daughters took off, back to their respective colleges. Now that they are gone, maybe we can get back to that earlier state of "normalcy".

Two items are particularly striking to me after my 3 months in Slovakia. The first is how much the current economic situation in the Slovak Republic reminds me of the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s. The second has to do with Catholicism, Communism and academia. Proceeding in order... It’s strange to me how much deja vu I feel between the peoples’ lives here in Slovakia and my own growing-up years some 40+ years ago. Here are some observations I have made. Most Slovak families strive to have one car per family. Many have none; a few have two; very few have more than two. Some of these family automobiles are relatively new, but many are quite old. It is not uncommon to see cars with flat tires and raised hoods along the Slovak roads. I can’t remember the last time I had a flat tire (except in my driveway), but I can well remember my Dad changing flat tires during a family trip. Hitchhikers are also a common sight, in part owing to the relative paucity of cars. Students carry two-letter signs indicating their destination, and seldom spend more than five or ten minutes waiting for a ride. When was the last time you picked up a hitchhiker in the United States? The bus system is extraordinary. The busses run on time, and nearly every stop has passengers getting on and off. The bus routes cover the city well. Probably 95% of the people live within a five-minute walk to a bus stop. Even the outlying villages have regular bus service to Nitra, typically seven to ten round trips per day. Most of the people live in apartments (flats). A fortunate few are living their "Slovakian dream", building or buying their own houses. The houses that are being built are mostly on the edge of town and are amazingly similar in their appearance, not unlike the first suburban sprawl we saw in the United States. Many of the people have some modern conveniences (microwave ovens, cable or satellite television, home Internet connection, audio and video systems), but few flats are equipped with a dishwasher. Almost every flat has a washing machine, but a mechanical dryer is a rarity. Rather, clotheslines are commonplace on balconies and in bathrooms. Finally, neighborhood grocery stores are abundant. They have American-style malls and WalMart-like Tesco stores, but I would guess that seventy to eighty percent of food shopping takes place within a ten-minute walk from the flat. Note that I do not use the word "walk" carelessly! Each of these items reminds me of earlier times in my life, albeit some strange combination of the rural area where I grew up and the Dorchester section of Boston where we visited my grandparents. As Slovakia climbs the ladder of economic development, my guess is that the comparisons to my past will continue, but at ever and ever higher levels.

The second item... When the allies split up areas of responsibility after World War II , the Soviet Union took control of Eastern Europe. In 1948 the Communists were victorious in Czechoslovak national elections, and Czechoslovakia became something of a puppet state to the USSR, eventually joining the Warsaw Pact in 1955. In 1968 tanks rolled into Prague to quell an anti-Communist uprising, and the iron hand of the Soviet Union came down that much harder. The end-result of all this activity was a government that was anti-religion in the midst of a population that was very religious. Various unhappy media (n.b., the plural opposite of "happy medium") were struck. Church leaders were imprisoned, but governments did little else to interfere with church activities and the faithful were allowed to participate in religious services. However, participation in religious activities was duly noted and became a black mark against educational or economic opportunities for those participants. Teachers who were active in church activities were removed from elementary, secondary and university teaching positions. Students whose parents were active in church activities were taught the party line in K-12 schools and had limited access to higher education. Some students found it beneficial to put their faith on hold in order to be allowed to study further. Graduate training was offered in tightly controlled situations, often with a year or two of required residency in Moscow. Russian was the primary foreign language taught at all levels, with German and English far less available. The upshot of all this activity was that universities changed dramatically over that 40-year period of Communist rule. Marxist economic and political theory was not only taught, but was actively embraced by many (but certainly not all!!) professors. Those who did not agree with the party line became librarians and clerks or had their particular skills utilized in some other position where they had less contact with students and younger folks.

But even with the propaganda machine spewing forth the party line, word from the West seeped in, through Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and other kindred stations, and through relatives living in Western Europe and North America. Although capitalist and democratic ideas were taught as inferior to Marxist thinking, many faculty and students who were forced to learn and teach this one set of ideas also secretly explored and considered the alternatives. Many faculty taught what they were required to teach, but also believed quite differently. When freedom finally came in 1989 university leaders had little difficulty in encouraging their faculty to explore Western ideas. A number of leading U.S. and Western European universities established ties with Eastern European universities, sending their own faculty to help with courses and curricula and inviting Eastern European scholars to the United States and Western Europe to observe Western education first-hand. A number of federal grants were available for teacher and student exchanges between Eastern Europe and western nations. In addition, entities like the Civic Education Project (operating out of Yale University with funding from the Soros Foundation) and the Fulbright Commission supported full- and part-time faculty teaching in Eastern European universities.

Fifteen years have gone by now, and the recent past seems almost a distant past. The faculty today, almost to a person, embrace democratic and capitalistic ideas. No problem for the younger faculty -- they have been trained in Western thought. The middle-aged faculty also ascribe to Western thought, even though they were raised in the Communist era and trained in socialist doctrine. Only a few, mostly older faculty espouse socialist notions. Although mostly uniform in their economic and political leanings, the faculty are substantially diverse in their religious orientations, probably not unlike our own institution. Many are devoutly religious, mostly Catholic. Another large percentage attend church irregularly but are not strong in their religious convictions. Only a small percentage profess to be agnostic or atheistic. A number of middle-aged faculty are conflicted at having denied or ignored their religious leanings during the Communist era so as to further their education. They feel guilt at having achieved some measure of success, but at some cost to their conscience. As I have chatted with my Slovak colleagues, I wonder at the long-term impacts of the forty-plus years of Communist rule. In this very Catholic nation, the students are much more devout than the faculty. Although I doubt that the faculty would challenge student beliefs or try to impose their own, I do wonder at the impact these faculty have as role models.

As you may imagine, I have engaged in numerous lengthy philosophical discussions with my Slovak colleagues. They have been through some interesting times...