On Tuesday, 17 November, we commemorate the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day and International Students’ Day. Two Novembers – one in 1939 and one in 1989 – share a common thread: the courage of young people who were not afraid to stand up for truth and freedom. For the academic community of the Bratislava University of Economics and Business, it is a day to remember where the freedoms in which we study, teach and conduct research today come from.
November 1939: When Students Paid the Highest Price for Freedom
Eighty-seven years ago, on 28 October 1939, thousands of people took to the streets of Prague to mark the anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. The occupying forces suppressed the demonstration with gunfire. Medical student Jan Opletal was fatally wounded and died on 11 November, and the farewell to him in Prague on 15 November turned into a massive show of resistance against the Nazi occupation.
The occupiers’ response came on the night of 16–17 November 1939. SS units and the Gestapo raided university dormitories in Prague, Brno and Příbram. Nine student leaders were executed without trial in Prague’s Ruzyně, some 1,200 students were deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin, and Czech universities remained closed until the end of the war.
The world did not forget. In 1941, student representatives from 26 countries met in London and declared 17 November International Students’ Day. Today, it is commemorated by students all over the world.
November 1989: Bratislava Stepped Forward a Day Earlier
Fifty years later, students once again became the voice of society as a whole. In Bratislava, it began on 16 November 1989, when hundreds of university and secondary school students gathered on what was then Mierové Square, today’s Hodžovo Square. Without permission, and knowing they risked expulsion from school, they marched through the city all the way to the Ministry of Education.
The next day, some 15,000 students gathered in Prague to commemorate the events of 1939. The brutal intervention by the security forces on Národní třída outraged the public and set off the events that went down in history as the Velvet Revolution. As early as 20 November, Bratislava university students went on strike, and they were gradually joined by other schools, artists, workers and, eventually, almost the whole of society.
What November Brought to Universities
The November events gave universities what we often take for granted today: academic freedom, academic self-governance, freedom of scientific research and open doors to the world. Students could freely choose what and where to study, teachers could teach and publish without censorship, and Slovak researchers became part of the international scientific community.
For a university of economics, this change was of particular significance. Economics could once again be researched and taught openly, in dialogue with world science and under the conditions of a market economy. Today, when we welcome students from dozens of countries, send our own students on study stays abroad and host visiting professors from partner universities, we are living the very freedoms that people took to the streets for in November 1989.
Imrich Karvaš: Values Written into the Foundations of Our University
The legacy of freedom and courage is written into the very roots of the Bratislava University of Economics and Business. It was on the initiative of Imrich Karvaš, one of the most prominent Slovak economists, that the College of Commerce – the predecessor of today’s university – was founded in 1940.
As Governor of the Slovak National Bank, he helped finance the Slovak National Uprising, for which he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in concentration camps including Flossenbürg and Dachau. Later, he was also persecuted by the communist regime: in 1953, his entire family was evicted from Bratislava, and in 1958 he was sentenced to seventeen years in prison. He received the recognition he deserved only after November 1989 – in 1991, President Václav Havel posthumously awarded him the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.
Karvaš’s life is a lasting reminder that expertise is of greatest value when it goes hand in hand with integrity and the courage to stand up to oppression. That is also why, since 2000, the university has awarded the Imrich Karvaš Medal to individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the development of economic science and practice.
A Message for Today’s Generation
The freedom we have inherited is not a one-time victory. It must be lived out every day – through honest work, critical thinking and a willingness to take responsibility for public affairs. For future economists, managers and analysts, this means checking facts, working with data honestly, respecting different opinions and leading discussions with arguments, not force.
The students of 1939 and 1989 were not heroes because they were unafraid. They were heroes because their fear did not outweigh their convictions. Their legacy lives on today not in memorial plaques, but in how each of us makes decisions – in the lecture hall, in the Academic Senate, at work and in civic life.
“Eighty-seven years ago, students paid for their courage with their freedom, and some with their lives. Thirty-seven years ago, their successors showed that the calm yet determined voice of young people can change history. Our duty at the university is not only to commemorate this courage but also to cultivate it – through scientific integrity, free discussion and a willingness to stand up for what is right. I wish our students that they never be afraid to ask questions and seek truthful answers.”
Prof. Ing. Ferdinand Daňo, PhD., Rector of the Bratislava University of Economics and Business
Let us commemorate 17 November with dignity – with a moment of silence, a lit candle or a conversation about what freedom means to us.
We extend our warmest congratulations to all our students on their day.
