Word: slovaks
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Legislators in Prague took a historic vote last week: by a landslide, they renamed their country the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, removing a hyphen they had inserted only four weeks earlier. The new monumental mouthful was a concession to the country's 5 million Slovaks, who have resented the dominance of the 10 million Czechs ever since the country was formed in 1918 from the Austro-Hungarian empire's two western Slavonic provinces...
That plan seems to pave the way for opposition leader Vaclav Havel, a jailed playwright and symbol of Czechoslovakia's peaceful revolution, and dash the hopes of Alexander Dubcek, the 68-year-old Slovak who led the "Prague Spring" reforms...
Through some eight hours of back-room combat, Strougal and his allies gradually broke down the resistance of Jakes holdouts, including trade-union representatives, while wooing the bloc from the Slovak republic, which was trying to boost its own influence. In exchange, the reformist camp had to make three concessions. They allowed two hard-liners, Prague party leader Miroslav Stepan and trade-union boss Miroslav Zavadil, to keep their Politburo seats. The five Slovak members of the Politburo also would retain their posts, including Jozef Lenart, despised for his collaboration with the Soviets in the post-invasion...
...Slovak activist Jan Carnogursky said "certain gains have been won and it has been agreed that all the political interests will be represented." He said it was possible he would become a deputy prime minister...
Zdenek Jicinsky, speaking for the opposition, said one proposal was that Slovak dissident Jan Carnogursky be made first deputy premier and other deputy premiers be named from the Socialist Party and the People's Party...