|
Czech Republic – Czechoslovakia
Tomas G. Masaryk
Engraver: O. Španiel
1935 Silver Medal 32.5mm (14.92 grams)
TOMÁŠ G. MASARYK, Tomas facing right.
1850 NA PAMĚT 85. NAROZENIN PRVNÍHO PRESIDENTA REPUBLIKY ČESKOSLOVENSKÉ 19 35, Text in five lines, decoration above and below.
Edge Lettering:
K 987
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (7 March 1850 – 14 September 1937), was a Czechoslovak politician, statesman, sociologist and philosopher. Until 1914, he advocated restructuring the Austro-Hungarian Empire into a federal state. With the help of the Allied Powers, Masaryk gained independence for a Czechoslovak Republic as World War I ended in 1918. He co-founded Czechoslovakia together with Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Edvard Beneš and served as its first president, and so is called by some Czechs the “President Liberator”
Masaryk was born to a poor, working-class family in the predominantly Catholic city of Hodonín, Moravia, in Moravian Slovakia (in the present-day Czech Republic, then part of the Austrian Empire). The nearby Slovak village of Kopčany, the home of his father Josef, also claims to be his birthplace. Masaryk grew up in the village of Čejkovice, in South Moravia, before moving to Brno to study.
His father, Jozef Masárik, was born in Kopčany (then in the Hungarian part of the Austrian Empire). Jozef Masárik was a carter and, later, the steward and coachman at the imperial estate in nearby town Hodonín. Tomáš’s mother, Teresie Masaryková (née Kropáčková), was a Moravian of Slavic origin who received a German education. A cook at the estate, she met Masárik and they married on 15 August 1849.
During the war, Masaryk’s intelligence network of Czech revolutionaries provided critical intelligence to the allies. His European network worked with an American counterespionage network of nearly 80 members, headed by Emanuel Viktor Voska (including G. W. Williams). Voska and his network, who (as Habsburg subjects) were presumed to be German supporters, spied on German and Austrian diplomats. Among other achievements, the intelligence from these networks was critical in uncovering the Hindu–German Conspiracy in San Francisco. Masaryk began teaching at London University in October 1915. He published “Racial Problems in Hungary”, with ideas about Czechoslovak independence. In 1916, Masaryk went to France to convince the French government of the necessity of dismantling Austria-Hungary. He consulted with his friend professor Pavel Miliukov an origin and a state of Czechoslovak legions in Russia in London in that time. After the 1917 February Revolution he proceeded to Russia to help organize the Czechoslovak Legion, a group dedicated to Slavic resistance to the Austrians.
On 5 August 1914, the Russian High Command authorized the formation of a battalion recruited from Czechs and Slovaks in Russia. The unit went to the front in October 1914, and was attached to the Russian Third Army.
From its start, Masaryk wanted to develop the legion from a battalion to a formidable military formation. To do so, however, he realized that he would need to recruit Czech and Slovak prisoners of war (POWs) in Russian camps. In late 1914, Russian military authorities permitted the legion to enlist Czech and Slovak POWs from the Austro-Hungarian army; the order was rescinded in a few weeks, however, because of opposition from other areas of the Russian government. Despite continuing efforts to persuade the Russian authorities to change their minds, the Czechs and Slovaks were officially barred from recruiting POWs until the summer of 1917.
Under these conditions, the Czechoslovak armed unit in Russia grew slowly from 1914 to 1917. In early 1916, it was reorganized as the First Czecho-Slovak Rifle Regiment. After the Czechoslovak troops’ performance in July 1917 at the Battle of Zborov (when they overran Austrian trenches), the Russian provisional government granted Masaryk and the Czechoslovak National Council permission to recruit and mobilize Czech and Slovak volunteers from the POW camps. Later that summer a fourth regiment was added to the brigade, which was renamed the First Division of the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia (Československý sbor na Rusi, also known as the Czechoslovak Legion – Československá legie). A second division of four regiments was added to the legion in October 1917, raising its strength to about 40,000 by 1918.
Masaryk formed a good connection with supreme commanders Russian army, Mikhail Alekseyev, Aleksei Brusilov, Nikolay Dukhonin and Mikhail Diterikhs, in Mogilev, from May 1917.
Masaryk traveled to the United States in 1918, where he convinced President Woodrow Wilson of the righteousness of his cause. On 5 May 1918, over 150,000 Chicagoans filled the streets to welcome him; Chicago was the center of Czechoslovak immigration to the United States, and the city’s reception echoed his earlier visits to the city and his visiting professorship at the University of Chicago in 1902 (Masaryk had lectured at the university in 1902 and 1907). He also had strong links to the United States, with his marriage to an American citizen and his friendship with Chicago industrialist Charles R. Crane, who had Masaryk invited to the University of Chicago and introduced to the highest political circles (including Wilson). Except of the president Wilson and the secretary of the state Robert Lansing this was Ray Stannard Baker , W. Phillips, Polk, Long, Lane, D. F. Houston, William Wiseman, Harry Pratt Judson and the French ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand. And Bernard Baruch, Vance McCormick, Edward N. Hurley, Samuel M. Vauclain, Colonel House too. On Chicago meeting in 8 October 1918 Chicago industrialist Samuel Insull introduced him as the president of future Czechoslovak Republic de facto and mentioned his legions. In 18  October 1918 he submitted to president Thomas Woodrow Wilson “Washington Declaration” (Czechoslovak declaration of independence) created with the help of Masaryk American friends (Louis Brandeis, Ira Bennett, Gutzon Borglum, Franklin K. Lane, Edward House, Herbert Adolphus Miller, Charles W. Nichols, Robert M. Calfee, Frank E. J. Warrick, George W. Stearn and Czech Jaroslav Císař) as the basic document for the foundation of a new independent Czechoslovak state. Speaking on 26 October 1918 as head of the Mid-European Union in Philadelphia, Masaryk called for the independence of Czechoslovaks and the other oppressed peoples of central Europe.
Masaryk believed that Jews controlled the press and helped the nascent state of Czechoslovakia during its struggle for independence. Czech historian Jan Láníček comments that “The great philosopher and humanist Masaryk was still using the same anti-Semitic trope found at the bottom of all anti-Jewish accusations.”
Leader of Czechoslovakia
 With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the Allies recognized Masaryk as head of the provisional Czechoslovak government. On 14 November of that year, he was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the National Assembly in Prague while he was in New York. On 22 December, Masaryk publicly denounced the Germans in Czechoslovakia as settlers and colonists.
Masaryk was re-elected three times: in May 1920, 1927, and 1934. Normally, a president was limited to two consecutive terms by the 1920 constitution, but a one-time provision allowed the first president–Masaryk–to run for an unlimited number of terms.
On paper, Masaryk’s presidential power was limited; the framers of the constitution intended to create a parliamentary system in which the prime minister and cabinet hold actual power. However, a complex system of proportional representation made it all but impossible for one party to win a majority; no party ever won more than 25 percent of the vote. Usually, ten or more parties received the 2.6 percent of votes needed for seats in the National Assembly. These factors resulted in frequent changes of government; there were ten cabinets, headed by nine statesmen, during Masaryk’s tenure. His presence gave Czechoslovakia a large measure of stability. This stability, combined with his domestic and international prestige, gave Masaryk’s presidency more power and influence than the framers of the constitution intended.
He used his authority in Czechoslovakia to create the Hrad (the Castle), an extensive, informal political network. Under Masaryk’s watch, Czechoslovakia became the strongest democracy in Central Europe.
There were founded “The Masaryk Academy of Labour”, for the scientific study of scientific management too, with the Masaryk´s supporting in Prague in 1918 and Masaryk University in Brno.
Masaryk visited France, Belgium, England, Egypt and the Mandate for Palestine in 1923 and 1927. With Herbert Hoover, he sponsored the first Prague International Management Congress, a July 1924 gathering of 120 global labour experts (of which 60 were from the United States), organized with Masaryk Academy of Labour. After the rise of Adolf Hitler, Masaryk was one of the first political figures in Europe to voice concern. He resigned from office on 14 December 1935 because of old age and poor health, and was succeeded by Edvard Beneš.
 Masaryk died less than two years after leaving office, at the age of 87, in Lány, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic). He did not live to see the Munich Agreement or the Nazi occupation of his country, and was known as the Grand (Great) Old Man of Europe.
As the founding father of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk is revered as George Washington is in the United States. Czechs and Slovaks regard him as a symbol of democracy.
Commemorations of Masaryk have been held annually in the Lány cemetery on his birthday and day of death (7 March and 14 September) since 1989.
The Czechoslovak, then Czech Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, established in 1990, is an honour awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to humanity, democracy and human rights.
Masaryk University in Brno, founded in 1919 as Czechoslovakia’s second university, was named after him when it was founded; after 30 years as Univerzita Jana Evangelisty Purkyně v Brně, it was renamed for Masaryk in 1990.
He is commemorated by a number of statues, busts and plaques. Although most are in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Masaryk has a statue on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. and in the Midway Plaisance park in Chicago and is memorialized in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park rose garden. A plaque with a portrait of Masaryk is on the wall of a Rachiv, Ukraine hotel where he reportedly resided from 1917 to 1918, and a bust was erected in 2002 on Druzhba Narodiv Square (Friendship of Nations Square) in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Yugoslavia awarded him Order of Karađorđe’s Star.
Avenida Presidente Masaryk (President Masaryk Avenue) is a main thoroughfare in Mexico City, and Masaryktown, Florida is named for him.
In Israel, Masaryk is considered an important figure and a national friend. A village was named after him – Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk near Haifa, which was largely founded by Jewish immigrants from Czechoslovakia. One of the main squares in Tel Aviv is Masaryk Square (he had visited the city in 1927). In Haifa, one of the junctions in the city was named after him as well. Many cities in Israel named streets after his name, including Jerusalem, Petach Tikva, Netanya, Nahariya and others. A Masaryk forest was planted in the Western Galilee.
Streets in Zagreb, Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Daruvar, Varaždin, Novi Sad and Split are named Masarykova ulica, and a main thoroughfare in Ljubljana is named after Masaryk. Streets named Thomas Masaryk can be found in Geneva and Bucharest.
Asteroid 1841 Masaryk, discovered by Lubos Kohoutek, is named after him.A United Nations Expeditionary Force starship in Joe Haldeman’s 1974 science-fiction novel, The Forever War, is named Masaryk. A photograph of Masaryk leaning out of a train window, waving to and shaking hands with supporters, is the front cover for Faith No More’s 1997 album Album of the Year. Its liner notes include the funeral of an old man, with the words “pravda vítězí” (“Truth prevails”) adorning the coffin. The statement is the motto of the Czech Republic.
Masaryk’s motto was “Do not fear, and do not steal” (Czech: Nebát se a nekrást). A philosopher and an outspoken rationalist and humanist, he emphasised practical ethics reflecting the influence of Anglo-Saxon philosophers, French philosophy and—in particular—the work of 18th-century German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, who is considered the founder of nationalism. Masaryk was critical of German idealism and Marxism.
 The Czech Republic also known by its short-form name, Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres (30,450 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate. It is a unitary parliamentary republic, with 10.6 million inhabitants; its capital and largest city is Prague, with 1.3 million residents. Other major cities are Brno, Ostrava, Olomouc and Pilsen. The Czech Republic is a member of the European Union (EU), NATO, the OECD, the United Nations, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
It is a developed country with an advanced, high income export-oriented social market economy based in services, manufacturing and innovation. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development. The Czech Republic is a welfare state with a “continental” European social model, a universal health care system, tuition-free university education and is ranked 14th in the Human Capital Index. It ranks as the 6th safest or most peaceful country and is one of the most non-religious countries in the world, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance.
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Coat_of_arms_of_the_Czech_Republic.svg/85px-Coat_of_arms_of_the_Czech_Republic.svg.png" align="left" the="" czech="" republic="" includes="" historical="" territories="" of="" bohemia,="" moravia,="" and="" silesia.="" state="" was="" formed="" in="" late="" 9th="" century="" as="" duchy="" bohemia="" under="" great="" moravian="" empire.="" after="" fall="" empire="" 907,="" centre="" power="" transferred="" from="" moravia="" to="" přemyslid="" dynasty.="" 1002,="" formally="" recognized="" an="" imperial="" holy="" roman="" along="" with="" kingdom="" germany,="" burgundy,="" italy,="" numerous="" other="" territories,="" becoming="" 1198="" reaching="" its="" greatest="" territorial="" extent="" 14th="" century.="" beside="" itself,="" king="" ruled="" lands="" bohemian="" crown,="" holding="" a="" vote="" election="" emperor;="" prague="" seat="" periods="" between="" 17th="" hussite="" wars="" 15th="" driven="" by="" protestant="" reformation,="" faced="" economic="" embargoes="" defeated="" five="" consecutive="" crusades="" proclaimed="" leaders="" catholic="" church.=""
 Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Protestant Bohemian Revolt (1618-20) against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years’ War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, eradicated Protestantism and reimposed Catholicism, and also adopted a policy of gradual Germanization. This contributed to the anti-Habsburg sentiment. A long history of resentment of the Catholic Church followed and still continues. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Bohemian Kingdom became part of the German Confederation 1815-1866 as part of Austrian Empire (1804 to 1867) and the Czech language experienced a revival as a consequence of widespread romantic nationalism. In the 19th century, the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and were subsequently the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, which was formed in 1918 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I.
Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in this part of Europe in the interwar period. However, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, while the Slovak region became the Slovak Republic; Czechoslovakia was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. Most of the three millions of the German-speaking minority were expelled following the war. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections and after the 1948 coup d’état, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence. In 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed and market economy was reintroduced. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
|
