Mikuláš Ferjenčík

General
Mikuláš Ferjenčík
Director of the Czechoslovak National Council of America
Commissioner of the Interior of the Slovak Board of Commissioners
In office
16 August 1946 – 26 February 1948
Preceded byJúlius Viktory
Succeeded byDaniel Okáli
Commissioner of Defence of the Slovak Board of Commissioners
In office
1 September 1944 – 11 April 1945
Personal details
Born(1904-12-06)December 6, 1904
Polomka, Slovakia
DiedMarch 4, 1988(1988-03-04) (aged 83)
Denver, Colorado, United States
NationalityCzechoslovakian
SpouseMilada Ferjenčík
Military service
AllegianceCzechoslovakia
RankBrigadier General
UnitSlovak Army Veterinary Service

Brigadier General Dr. Mikuláš Ferjenčík (6 December 1904 – 4 March 1988) was a Czechoslovak military veterinarian, resistance fighter, and exiled politician. In 1992 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of General of the Army.

Biography

Ferjenčík was born in Polomka, Slovakia (at the time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). He graduated from high school in Rožňava and the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno, before serving in the military veterinary service. By the outbreak of World War II he was chief of the Slovak Army Veterinary Service with the rank of lieutenant colonel.[1] During the war he joined the Czechoslovakian resistance and participated in the Slovak National Uprising as chief of staff to Ján Golian.[citation needed]

On 4 August 1944, Ferjenčík was part of a delegation from the Slovak National Council that flew to Moscow carrying detailed plans of their uprising against the Nazis. The papers were confiscated and he was held for a month before being released on 5 September and returning to Czechoslovakia.

After the war he was promoted to brigadier general.[1] He then served on the Board of Commissioners in the Third Czechoslovak Republic, first as Commissioner of Defence and later as Commissioner of the Interior.

Following the 1948 coup d'état, Ferjenčík emigrated to the United States. On arrival in New York he was picketed as responsible for the USSR's seizure of Czechoslovakia and immediately taken to Ellis Island as a suspected communist.[2] He was subsequently active in Czechoslovakian immigrant politics, becoming director of the Czechoslovak National Council of America.

Ferjenčík died in Denver, Colorado on 4 March 1988. In 1992 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of General of the Army.

References

  1. ^ a b de Sola Pool, Ithiel (1955). Satellite Generals: A Study of Military Elites in the Soviet Sphere. Stanford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780804716000.
  2. ^ "DP General Held as Slovak Red" (PDF). The Naples Record. August 17, 1949. p. 5.

Further reading

  • Blaško, Štefan (1954). Slovakia in Blood and Shackles: General Mikulas Ferjencik's part in the conquest of Slovakia by the Communists. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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Mikuláš Ferjenčík