LECTURE 20.10.26: 'CZECH TRAITORS AND THE MEANING OF CZECH TREASON'

The word ‘treason’ evokes a variety of responses. One man’s treason is another’s heroism. In his talk at the Czech Embassy on 20th October Emeritus Professor Mark Cornwall explored this subject and its impact upon the emergence of the Czech nation.

Starting with the the birth of Czech nationalism under the Habsburg Empire he described the Omladina trial of Czech nationalists in 1894 and the trials in 1915 during the First World War. Was this treason or principled resistance? It came down to a point of law.

Professor Cornwall described the the way that Emanuel Moravec, a one-time Czech patriot was drawn into supporting the German takeover of Czechoslovakia, while justifying this as the only way to preserve the Czech nation following the capitulation in 1938, which he opposed. In the discussion that followed it was suggested that perhaps President Beneš's capitulation to German demands was itself a treasonable act.

Image: Prof Mark Cornwall illustrated his talk with a slide presentation. Image © Dave Chick

The meaning of Czech treason was further complicated by the experience under communist rule and the way the nation came to terms with their acquiescence both during and afterwards.

This past still troubles the present.

Mark Cornwall is Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Southampton. He has researched and taught modern Czech history for over 30 years, and lived in Czechoslovakia in the late 1980s. He is currently researching the communist secret police (StB), and also writing a book about treason, including Czech traitors, in the late Habsburg Empire. In 2022 the Czech Academy of Sciences awarded Prof. Cornwall the 'Palacký Medal for Merit in the Historical Sciences' for his work on Czech history.

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