Very good summary of the state of things Tomas Bella. After the revolution I was strong federalist in thinking, being grateful to Czechs for how they raised rustic Slovakia to a higher cultural level than in the previous 70 years (I was 20 in those days).

In the following 2 years I was bitterly surprised, how Czechs elites arogantly looked down on Slovak aims to culturally emancipate themselves. I followed the Czech and Slovak newspapers intensely in those days and my opinion is that public opinion in the Czech republic was strongly manipulated. At the beginning the nationalist movement in Slovakia was very weak, but it got far too much negative attention in the Czech media, which presented it as an absence of gratitude from Slovaks for what they have got from them. It caused the reaction on the Slovak part and the nationalistic sentiment became stronger.

It seemed to me as a story of a poor peasant girl who marries an educated and rich urban boy. They live together and the the girls studies in the evening, gets a well paid job and becomes more self-confident in her opinions. Her husband still looks at her as somebody who should follow him without asking where and why. She wants more independance and he takes it as an offense. The wife gets unhappy and the husband upset. Quite common story in many families, I think.

The nationalist agenda became soon the top topic of political discussion and the nations were drifting away from each other.

I considered the federation unbearable and in the election I voted for the party which wanted separation (SKDH). I was aware that the separation would have bad economic impact on Slovakia, but that was a price I was willing to pay for getting the nation mature without (often offensive) mentoring from the "older brother".

Well, the price was not that high in the end and adolescence of Slovak nation is (almost ;-) over.

As far as Slovak and Czech relations are concerned, it is on such a good level as never before.