JOZEF PAVLOV: Product of His Time. Róbert Kubička, District Commander of Hlinka Guard in Zvolen

Presented contribution describes life turbulence of Róbert Kubička, one of many regional functionaries of Hlinka Guard in Slovakia from 1938 to 1945. Although he was not politically active in the interwar period, in June 1938, supported by Anton Šalát – the deputy for Hlinka Slovak People´s Party – he became member of the party. After the Slovak autonomy was declared, local Hlinka Guard commands were established. It was the entry to this organisation in December 1938, that played a key role for his future personal and professional life. He belonged to ambitious opportunistic wing, that identified a possibility to become rich quickly under new social and political conditions, and especially at the expense of the Jewish community. His antisemitism represented common situation in Slovakia in that time, it was pushed due to economic ambitions and meeting requirements of Anton Šalát, who supported his career development together with Finka brothers. Due to his clear enrichment and misuse of power, he was removed from the position of a secretary of local Hlinka Slovak People´s Party organisation in Zvolen in 1942 and his personal opportunism had been gradually growing. Just shorty before the Slovak national Uprising begun, he left Zvolen for Kysuce region, where he was born, and he spent last months of the existence of the first Slovak State by collecting and creating alibi by actively helping the resistance, so that he could use it after the war. District People´s Court in Zvolen sentenced him for long imprisonment after the war, but in 1955 he was released at a relatively young age of 42. This contribution on Róbert Kubička represents one stone in the mosaics of so-called ´white places´ in regional history of the first Slovak State.