Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (1993): The Velvet Divorce

The dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993 divided one country into two, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Agreed by politicians after the June 1992 elections and carried out without a referendum or violence, it is often called the Velvet Divorce. It stands out in post-communist Europe as a peaceful separation at a time when Yugoslavia was collapsing into war.

Background

Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 from lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, bringing together Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia and Slovaks to the east. The two peoples spoke closely related languages but had different histories: the Czech lands were more industrial and urban, while Slovakia was poorer and more rural and had long felt dominated by Prague.

During the Second World War the country was broken up, and Slovakia became a separate state allied to Nazi Germany. After 1948 communist rule restored a centralised state, and the 1968 reforms of the Prague Spring produced a federation of two republics, though real power stayed with the Communist Party.

The Velvet Revolution of November 1989 ended communism and made the playwright Václav Havel president. Freedom also opened old questions. In 1990 a dispute over the country’s name, mockingly called the “hyphen war”, ended with the official title “Czech and Slovak Federative Republic”, a sign of growing Slovak demands for recognition.

The 1992 elections and negotiations

Czech and Slovak politicians spent 1990 and 1991 failing to agree on a new constitution and a new division of powers. Economic reform sharpened the differences. Rapid market reforms led by the federal finance minister Václav Klaus hit Slovakia harder, especially its heavy arms industry, and unemployment there rose much faster than in the Czech lands.

The elections of 5–6 June 1992 produced a decisive split. In the Czech lands the winner was Klaus’s Civic Democratic Party, which wanted a tight federation and fast market reform. In Slovakia the winner was Vladimír Mečiar’s Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, which wanted much greater Slovak sovereignty and a slower transition. Neither programme was acceptable to the other side.

In talks over the summer, Klaus concluded that a loose confederation would not work and that a clean separation was better. On 17 July 1992 the Slovak National Council adopted a declaration of Slovak sovereignty, and Havel resigned as federal president shortly afterwards rather than preside over the breakup. On 26 August 1992, meeting in the Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Klaus and Mečiar agreed on a timetable for dissolution.

The separation

Slovakia adopted its own constitution on 1 September 1992. On 25 November 1992 the Federal Assembly passed, by a narrow margin, a constitutional law dissolving the federation. Opposition parties and many citizens called for a referendum, and opinion polls suggested that most people in both republics preferred to keep a common state, but none was held.

At midnight on 31 December 1992 Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Federal property was divided mostly in a two-to-one ratio reflecting population, while buildings and land went to the republic where they stood. A short-lived currency union broke down within weeks, and separate Czech and Slovak currencies were introduced in February 1993. The two states agreed a customs union and arrangements allowing their citizens to move and work freely.

Consequences

The Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the United Nations on 19 January 1993. Havel was elected the first president of the Czech Republic on 26 January 1993, while Michal Kováč became Slovakia’s first president.

Their paths then diverged for a time. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999, while Slovakia under Mečiar was criticised by Western governments for weakening democratic institutions and was left out of the first wave of enlargement. After a change of government in 1998, Slovakia caught up: both countries joined the European Union in 2004, Slovakia joined NATO the same year, and Slovakia adopted the euro in 2009.

Relations between Czechs and Slovaks have remained close. The two languages are mutually understandable, families span the border, and the countries cooperate closely within the EU and the Visegrád Group.

Timeline

• 1989, November: The Velvet Revolution ends communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
• 1990, April: The country is renamed the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic.
• 1992, 5–6 June: Elections bring Klaus to power in the Czech lands and Mečiar in Slovakia.
• 1992, 17 July: The Slovak National Council declares Slovak sovereignty.
• 1992, 26 August: Klaus and Mečiar agree the timetable for separation in Brno.
• 1992, 25 November: The Federal Assembly votes to dissolve the federation.
• 1993, 1 January: The Czech Republic and Slovakia become independent states.
• 1993, February: Separate Czech and Slovak currencies replace the common koruna.

Why it matters

The Velvet Divorce showed that a multinational state could be divided by negotiation rather than by war. It is often cited as a model of peaceful separation, but also as a reminder that major constitutional changes can be made by elites without asking voters directly.