Pavel Dufek – Infrastrukturní stavby na Slovensku ve 30. letech 20. století: nástroj překonání hospodářské krize, prostředek obrany, podpora industrializace?
Title in original language: Infrastrukturní stavby na Slovensku ve 30. letech 20. století: nástroj překonání hospodářské krize, prostředek obrany, podpora industrializace?
Author: Pavel Dufek
Title in English: Infrastructure building in Slovakia in the 1930s: a tool to overcome the economic crisis, a means to improve defence, a way to support industrialisation?
Journal: Česko-slovenská historická ročenka, 26, 1, 2024, pp. 61-85
Abstract: Investments in building infrastructure in Slovakia in the inter-war period, especially in the 1930s, were influenced by many political and economic factors. Essentially, there was competition for investment between the less developed areas of Bohemia and Slovakia and there were arguments about the degree of tax revenue redistribution, both of which were predominantly political issues, since most of the tax revenues came from Bohemia. The level and sectoral distribution of investment was also, to a considerable extent, shaped by particularistic interests, verging on egoism in the case of Czech industrial circles. The central authorities, first and foremost the Ministry of Public Works, probably sought to allocate investments in Slovakia efficiently to produce as much benefit as possible for the national economy. In particular, investment in hydroelectric power plants in Slovakia was thus not significantly lower than investment of the same kind in Bohemia. Railway transport played a key role in the actual implementation of the infrastructure works. In the case of road infrastructure, the investments may have, and, in the case of river navigation infrastructure, certainly were directed in such a way as to enable the efficient use of railways. From the mid-1930s onwards, military-strategic considerations, which, however, included strong economic-political aspects, would always play a role in investment allocation in Slovakia.
Keywords: railways, roads, dams, river navigation, taxes, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, economic history