Hyphen War

The Hyphen War (Czech: Pomlčková válka; Slovak: Pomlčková vojna, lit. 'Dash War') was the political conflict over what to call Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist government in 1989. The official name of the country during the last 30 years of Communist rule was "Czechoslovak Socialist Republic" (in Czech and in Slovak Československá socialistická republika, or ČSSR). In December 1989—a month after the Velvet Revolution—President Václav Havel announced that the word "Socialist" would be dropped from the country's official name. Conventional wisdom suggested that it would be known as simply the "Czechoslovak Republic"—its official name from 1920 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1960. However, Slovak politicians felt this diminished Slovakia's equal stature, and demanded that the country'

Hyphen War

The Hyphen War (Czech: Pomlčková válka; Slovak: Pomlčková vojna, lit. 'Dash War') was the political conflict over what to call Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist government in 1989. The official name of the country during the last 30 years of Communist rule was "Czechoslovak Socialist Republic" (in Czech and in Slovak Československá socialistická republika, or ČSSR). In December 1989—a month after the Velvet Revolution—President Václav Havel announced that the word "Socialist" would be dropped from the country's official name. Conventional wisdom suggested that it would be known as simply the "Czechoslovak Republic"—its official name from 1920 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1960. However, Slovak politicians felt this diminished Slovakia's equal stature, and demanded that the country'