THE SOKOL MODEL
By J. R. GLORNEY BOLTON In the 'sixties of the last century Miroslav Tyrs founded the Sokol movement for two dominant reasons. He was a patriot who hated the Hapsburg rule over his fellow Czechs. He knew the history of his own country. Ever since the Battle of the White Mountain alien rulers had stamped upon the Czech culture and national life. It was scarcely possible for a Czech to rise to an exalted position in the Empire. And yet after more than two centuries of domina- tion the Czechs were remarkably cohesive and self-reliant. Tyrs believed that the Sokol discipline would strengthen this cohesion and self-reliance. It would help them in their struggle for political and greater cultural autonomy. Moreover, Tyrs was a scholar who bad made a deep study of Greek art and philosophy. The human body was excellent and beautiful. The youth of Bohemia, however inferior or menial its position in the Hapsburg Empire, could attain this physical excellence and beauty if they trained their bodies and made them lithe and stropg, so that they were in harmonious relationship with moral and spiritual force. Harmony was, in fact, a key-note in Tyrs's teaching. He had studied the German gymnastic courses in Prague, and he could not accept them. Like the familiar photographs of athletic activities in Britain or the United States, they seemed to glorify strain and effort for their own sakes. Exercises, Tyrs was convinced, should be a pleasure. They should be rhythmical and allied with music. Reaching the middle years of life should have no terrors for a Sokol.
It was natural, therefore, that all who loved freedom in Bohemia should be attracted to the Sokol movement and that its members should have included political leaders like Dr. Thomas Masaryk and Dr. Benes. Sixteen hundred people took part in a procession at the first Sokol festival in 1882. When the last Sokol festival was held in 1938, the year of the Munich decree, the number of men, women and children taking part in a procession was one hundred and fifty thousand. The movement was never favoured by the Austrian authorities, and there was some consternation in Vienna when the Sokols visited Paris for a display in 1889. Yet. it took firm root in Bohemia and Moravia and spread among the Serbs, the Croats, Poles and Bulgarians. The last war showed that it was strong enough to resist Austria's alternating policy of oppression and cajolery, and when the Hapsburg authority collapsed the Sokols helped to police and administer various districts until the provisional machinery of the new Republic could be established. The transition from Imperial subjection to Republican freedom was, therefore, smooth and rapid. No doubt Dr. Benes had the Sokols in mind when he told the London Press that Czechoslovakia would make a speedy recovery after the war, because of her interior cohesion.
Yet there was never any question of making the Sokol movement the ally of politics An the new Republic. The Sokol spirit is too liberal and, in a Greek sense, too inquisitive to accept the leader- principle. It is a free association of free men and women, and in a country of fifteen million people at least a million above the age of eighteen were full Sokols. There were no religious barriers and no party attachments. Every candidate for membership was accepted on a six month's probation, which could be extended for another six months. The conditions of membership were always liberal. There were organisations for boys and girls below the age' of eighteen, and pupils groups for those below the age of fourteen. Throughout the country were Sokol sections which numbered not less than 3,200. These sections were divided into districts, and above the districts was the central body of the Czechoslovak Sokol Community. Only six of its general meetings were held before the last war and only one, in 1924, during the life- time of the 'Republic, for the ruling idea is to leave the Sokol districts as much autonomy as possible. All their officers are volunteers who work in their spare time and who must face their democratic critics at every district meeting.
The association is as loose as it is free. Czechs cannot be made the robots of patriotism. The gymnastic training alone is thorough —from the limbering-up exercises zo the apparatus drill ; from the team games at exercises to the public displays, and again from the team exercises to ski-ing, riding, rowing, tennis or any other exercises for which and of which a particular Sokol is fond—but the Sokols are shy of imposing a mental discipline upon their fellows. They do not want to intrude upon the work of the educationist or the religious instructor The standards, moral and intellectual, are high, but the fundamental good sense of the Czechoslovak people stays every absurdity.
Once again the Sokols are struggling against an alien rule. It is the rule of the Gestapo. The Yugoslav Sokols, it is now well known, played a big part in the overthrow of Prince Paul's regency. Hitler retaliated by seizing all the Sokol property in Czechslovakia and arresting the Sokol leaders. He claims that he has banned and destroyed the Sokol movement. But there are Sokols among the Czechslovak forces in Britain, Canada and Russia. There are Sokols among American citizens of Czechoslovak descent, and the head- quarters of the Sokol movement are now in L3ndon. Among the men and women whom Heydrich and his successor, Daluege, have
executed, were many of the natural leaders of the Czechoslovak people. Wherever there is leadership, wherever a man shows more initiative or individuality than his fellows, the firing squads of Prague and Brno are kept busy. By destroying leadership Hitler hopes in time to exterminate the Czech nation. The Sokol discipline helps to keep the nerves of a stricken people tough and resilient. One man is shot. Another takes his place. The days when the Sokols donned their loose uniforms for rhythmic and musical exercises are temporarily ended, but it is unlikely that their discipline will be substantially altered when the war is over. The love of freedom sets a reasonable bound to discipline. The orienta- tion of the Sokol movement is Slavonic. It has very much to teach the Anglo-Saxon world but it does not presume to dictate. Beyond the Slavonic lands and colonies it is not for export.
Previous page
