An Exclusively Urban Phenomenon? Radical Agrarianism in Political Practice of Interwar Fascism : A Case Study of Slovakia

Fascism is frequently considered to be a political movement associated with cities. The article attempts to contest this idea through a case study, which illustrates the agrarian-focused drive of fascism by profiling two fascist organisations in interwar Slovakia. It stresses agrarianism as a core factor of their political practice. The case study is based on an analysis of Rodobrana (1923–1929), a paramilitary organisation of Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party, which became a significant pioneering fascist movement in Slovakia, and the National Fascist Community (1926–1938), the most notable political party representing nationwide Czechoslovak fascism. Even though both streams were written down in history as relatively unsuccessful cliques of cads, their palingenetic discourse, based on radicalised agrarian thought, helped create an atmosphere that resulted in the acceptance of the latter measures adopted by Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party’s regime (confiscation of properties belonging to the “political parvenus”, Aryanisation of Jewish assets, agrarian reforms, and the programme of Slovak national socialism).