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SALISBURY, MD---Dr. Gregory C. Ference, professor of history in the Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts at ºÚÁÏÍø, gave one of the major talks at the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International 2001 Genealogical/Cultural Conference, “The Urban Immigrant Experience,” held recently in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Ference spoke on the Cleveland Agreement and the Pittsburgh Pact, two accords leading to the formation of a Czechoslovakia in 1918.  The Czechs and Slovaks living in the United States had a position almost unparalleled in world history.  Despite being émigrés, they were in a position to influence great power politics in their quest for an independent state.  The Cleveland Agreement from October 1915 and the Pittsburgh Pact from May 1918 are two of the more important documents in the creation of a common state of Czechs and Slovaks that resulted in late October 1918. 

The Cleveland Agreement, issued by representatives of the Slovaks and Czechs in America, called for the independence of Slovakia and the Czech Lands in a joint union.  The Pittsburgh Pact replaced it, and became instrumental in securing Allied support for the independent Czechoslovakia arising out of the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Slovak ambassador to the United States, Martin Butora, gave the keynote address at the opening session and singled out Ference’s paper in his remarks.  The governor of Pennsylvania and the mayor of Pittsburgh welcomed the conference, with major sponsors being the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional Center, the Czechoslovak Society of America Fraternal Life and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

In addition, Ference recently chaired the panel, “Minorities in Hungary and Czechoslovakia between the World Wars” at the 33rd National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.  In addition to Ference, the panel consisted of scholars from the University of West Florida, Utica College of Syracuse University, the U.S. Department of Justice and Albert-Ludwigs University in Germany.