Government Council of the SSR for Nationalities and Elaboration of the Act on the Status of Nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic, 1969 – 1970
Government Council of the SSR for Nationalities and Elaboration of the Act on the Status of Nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic, 1969 – 1970

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is to analyze the activities of the Government Council of the SSR for Nationalities in the years 1969-1970 in the preparation of a bill on the status of nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic and the changes that occurred in the Council at the beginning of the normalization process. These changes also affected the preparation of the draft law on the status of nationalities in the SSR and led to the resignation of the Council for the preparation of legislative norms, which were to further develop the constitutional law on the status of nationalities in the SSR. The Government Council of the SSR for Nationalities was one of the institutions formed in Slovakia after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Federation that addressed the issues of nationality. The Council also elaborated the standards for the Constitutional Act on the Status of Nationalities. In addition to the Temporary Working Group charged with drafting of political principles of the Act on the Status of Nationalities in the SSR, the Council for Preparation of Laws also set up temporary working groups for Bodies and Representation of Nationalities, Nationality Education, Nationality Culture and Language Use. They were separate temporary working groups focused on minority issues. The members of the temporary working groups were representatives of nationalities and experts of Slovak and Czech nationality. After agreement with Minister László Dobos, the Secretariat for Nationalities proposed to include a draft of Slovak National Council laws on the status of nationality in the SSR in the plan of work of the Government of the SSR for the second half of 1969 in September, to be submitted by the Minister of Justice and Minister, L. Dobos. The draft of laws should have been submitted at the Government Meeting in the first half. As the Council for Nationalities was only approved in April, the preparation of the proposals was delayed. The temporary working group, tasked with elaborating the political principles of the Act on the Status of Nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic, together with expert teams at Hrušov assembly in May 1969, prepared drafts of laws on education, culture of nationalities, language law and the Act on Representations of Nationalities. There were joint meetings of all participants and discussions of individual expert teams. The resulting document from the Hrušov meeting entitled: Theses on the drafts of principles of the Act on the Status of Nationalities in the SSR, became the main point of the agenda of the next Council meeting. The result of further discussions in the Council was the task of elaborating policy principles on drafts of the Act on the Status of Nationalities in the SSR, which was to be submitted for discussion by the supreme body of the Party; and the task of elaborating the theses on the principles of the drafts of law on the Status of Nationalities in the SSR. These documents were prepared, and the political principles were subsequently submitted to the supreme body of the Communist Party. However, the Department of Political System of the Central Committee of CPS sent a draft of political principles for political and professional expertise also to party groups and to the Faculty of Law of the UK. Finally, on the basis of comments from various persons and institutions, CC CPS department adopted an opinion stating that the Political Principles cannot be considered as the starting point for the drafting of the Act on the Status of Nationals. It was expected that the Council would address this issue also in the coming year. However, these expectations were not fulfilled. Minister Dobos and Deputy Speaker of the SNC Rezső Szabó tried to keep theseissues on the agenda. The situation changed after Dobos was dismissed on 28 April 1970 from his position as a Minister and Szabó was dismissed from his position of Deputy Speaker of the SNC. The composition of the Government Council of the SSR for Nationalities also changed. Theoreticians of nationality issues and politicians who did not understand that the period of reforms was over, and those who had been involved in the drafting of the thesis, political principles, and drafts of laws on nationalities had to leave. Instead of the dismissed Dobos, Deputy Prime Minister Štefan Sádovský was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council. The attention of the Council was to focus on the preparation of political principles of the Act on Nationalities. According to Sádovský, it was, at first, necessary to establish a group for the drafting of principles on the status of nationalities. However, the next Council meeting in this composition was not held. The next meeting of the Government Council took place only after the reorganization of the Council, with another Head and different composition in November 1971. The Council then became just a formal body. Nationality policy was under the control of party bodies and, as a result of progressive normalization, the drafts elaborated and submitted by the Government Council of the SSR for Nationalities were no longer the subject of discussions. At the beginning of its existence, the Council had the ambition to participate in the preparation of legislative standards to develop the Act on Nationalities, or to influence the solution of minority issues. After the changes in the composition of the Government Council of the SSR for Nationalities following previous normalisation resolutions of the Communist Party bodies, the Council completely renounced the preparation of legislative standards to develop the Act on Nationalities.

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