Slovaks and Czechs are awaiting Jan. 1, when this country is to split in two, with regret, resignation and a remarkable absence of animosity.
Premiers Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic and Vladimir Meciar of Slovakia agreed on July 23 to dissolve the two republics' 74-year marriage after the failure of talks over Slovakia's demands for sovereignty within the federation.
President Vaclav Havel, a Czech, resigned when Slovakia's Parliament declared sovereignty, rather than preside over a break he had tried to avert.
Like Mr. Havel, the two Premiers are unhappy about the dissolution.
"I repeat again and again that I am very sorry that this is happening," Mr. Klaus said in an interview in Prague. Bohuslav Geci, Mr. Meciar's spokesman, said in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, "Mr. Meciar was one of those who wanted to save the federation, but as a functioning partnership, not with one superior partner and one inferior." 'It's a Sin to Break It Up'
Mr. Havel seems to have caught the mood of the two republics. Random interviews in streets, beer halls, churches and other public places showed much regret and only rare support for the impending break. Most Czechs and Slovaks seemed resigned.
"I'm not happy about it," said Marek Blazej, a 19-year-old student sitting with his girlfriend on a rail fence in Lanzhot, a village on the Czech side of the Morava River, which is soon to become an international border. "We were together for so long, it's a sin to break it up. For so many years we have helped each other, and now we have to worry about hatred arising." 'Regretting It Will Not Help'
About four miles away, in the Slovak village of Kuty, two elderly men, who declined to give their names, and Pavol Hesek, a 36-year-old unemployed factory hand and construction worker, were interviewed outside the Roman Catholic church, where an overflow crowd attended Mass on Sunday.
"Our relations with the Czechs around here have always been excellent," Mr. Hesek said. "Even the local nationalists would say the same."
The old men nodded in agreement. "Regretting it will not help us," one said.
In a poll taken for the Government last month, only 37 percent of Slovaks and 36 percent of Czechs said they would vote for a split in a referendum, but more than 80 percent said they considered a break inevitable.
