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The Republic of Slovakia is a landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about 19,000 square miles. The Slovak Republic borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, OECD, WTO and other international organizations.

Slovakia became independent on January 1, 1993 with the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia in the ‘Velvet Divorce’ to create The Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Slovakia carried out economic reforms such as massive privatization and the creation of a flat tax regime. In 2006, Slovakia attained the highest GDP growth rate (9%) of all members of the OECD. Slovakia joined the European Union in 2004.

In 1918, Slovakia and the regions of Bohemia and Moravia formed a united state, Czechoslovakia, with its borders confirmed by the Treaty of Saint Germain and the Treaty of Trianon.

During the inter-war period, a democratic and prosperous Czechoslovakia was under continuous pressure from the governments of Germany and Hungary, until the nation was finally broken up in 1939, as a result of the Munich Agreement. Under pressure from Nazi Germany, the First Slovak Republic, led by the clerical fascist leader Jozef Tiso, declared its independence from Czechoslovakia in 1939. However, the government was strongly influenced by Germany and gradually became a puppet regime. An anti-Nazi resistance movement launched a fierce armed insurrection, known as the Slovak National Uprising in 1944. German occupation and a guerrilla war followed.
After World War II, Czechoslovakia was reconstituted and Jozef Tiso was hanged in 1947 for collaboration with the Nazis. More than 76 thousand Hungarians and 32 thousand Germans were forced to leave Slovakia, in a series of population movements initiated by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference.

Czechoslovakia came under the influence of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact after a coup in 1948. The country was occupied by Warsaw Pact forces in 1968, ending a period of liberalization under the leadership of Alexander Dubček. In 1969, Czechoslovakia became a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic.

The end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989, during the peaceful Velvet Revolution, was followed by the country's dissolution, this time into two successor states. In July 1992 Slovakia, led by Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar, declared itself a sovereign state, meaning that its laws took precedence over those of the federal government. Throughout the latter part of 1992, Mečiar and Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus negotiated to disband the federation. In November the federal parliament voted to dissolve the country officially on December 31, 1992. Slovakia and the Czech Republic went their separate ways after January 1, 1993, an event sometimes called the Velvet Divorce. Slovakia has remained a close partner of the Czech Republic and other countries within the Visegrad Group. Slovakia became a member of NATO in March 2004 and of the European Union in May 2004.

The Slovak landscape is noted primarily for its mountainous nature, with the Carpathian Mountains extending across most of the northern half of the country. Amongst these mountain ranges are the high peaks of the Tatra Mountains. To the north, close to the Polish border, are the High Tatras which are a popular skiing destination and home to many scenic lakes and valleys as well as the highest point in Slovakia, the Gerlachovský štít at almost 9 thousand feet.

The major Slovak rivers are the Danube, the Váh and the Hron.

The Slovak climate lies between the temperate and continental climate zones with relatively warm summers and cold, cloudy and humid winters.

The average annual temperature is about 50°F. The average temperature of the hottest month is about 70°F and the average temperature of the coldest months is 26°F. It is the typical climate of the capital city Bratislava.
The majority of the inhabitants of Slovakia are ethnically Slovak at over 80%. Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority at 10%. Other ethnic groups include the Roma at 2%, Ukrainians with 1%.

The official state language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic Language Family, but Hungarian is also widely spoken in the south of the country and enjoys a co-official status in some municipalities, and many people also speak Czech.

The Slovak constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The majority of Slovak citizens (70%) identify themselves with Roman Catholicism and about 7% are Lutheran, 4% are Greek Catholic, affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, and Calvinism has 2.0%.

Slovakia is a parliamentary democratic republic with a multi-party system.

The Slovak head of state is the President elected by direct popular vote for a five-year term. Most executive power vests in the head of government, the Prime Minister who is usually the leader of the winning party with a majority coalition in the parliament. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President.

Slovakia's highest legislative body is the 150-seat unicameral National Council of the Slovak Republic. Members are elected for a four-year term on the basis of proportional representation. Slovakia's highest judicial body is the Constitutional Court of Slovakia which rules on constitutional issues. The 13 members of this court are appointed by the President from a list of candidates nominated by parliament.

Slovakia has been a member state of the European Union and NATO since 2004. Slovakia is a member of the United Nations.

Slovakia has pursued a difficult transition from a centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. Major privatizations have taken place; the banking sector is almost completely in private hands, and foreign investment is important.

Slovakia is characterized by sustained high economic growth: 8.9% recently. Unemployment is currently about 8%. Inflation averages 3%.

Slovakia is an attractive country for foreign investors mainly because of its lower labour cost, low tax rates and well-educated labour force. In recent years, Slovakia has pursued a policy of encouraging foreign investment. Despite many academic researchers and a solid secondary educational system, Slovakia, along with other post-communist countries, still faces many challenges in relation to the modern knowledge economy. Business and public research and development expenditure is well below the EU average. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Slovak secondary education as 30th in the world (placing it just below the United States and just above Spain).

In March 2008, the Ministry of Finance announced that Slovakia's economy is developed enough to stop a recipient of aid from the World Bank. Slovakia will become an aid provider by the end of 2008.
Slovakia has attractive natural landscapes, mountains, caves, medieval castles and towns, folk architecture, spas and ski resorts.

More than 1.6 million people visited Slovakia in 2006; the most popular destinations being the capital of Bratislava and the High Tatras. Most visitors come from the Czech Republic (about 25%), Poland (15%) and Germany (10%).
Wine is popular throughout Slovakia and domestic wines come predominantly from the southern areas along the Danube and its tributaries. Tokaj wine from the eponymous region is perhaps the best-known. Traditionally, white wine was more popular than red or rosé and sweet wine more popular than dry, but both these tastes seem to be changing.

Popular music began to replace folk in the 1950s, when Slovakia was a part of Czechoslovakia; American jazz, R&B, and rock and roll were popular, alongside waltzes, polkas, and czardas, among other folk forms. By the end of the 1950s, radios were popular though only state stations were legal. Slovak popular music began as a mix of bossa nova, cool jazz, and rock, with propagandistic lyrics. Dissenters listened to ORF (Austrian Radio); Radio Luxembourg, or Slobodna Europa (Radio Free Europe), which played more rock. Czechoslovakia was more passive in the face of Soviet domination, and thus radio and the whole music industry toed the line more closely than other satellite states.

After the Velvet Revolution and the declaration of the Slovak state, domestic music greatly diversified as free enterprise allowed a great expansion in the number of bands and genres represented in the Slovak market. Soon, however, major labels brought pop music to Slovakia and drove many of the small companies out of business. The 1990s, American grunge and alternative rock, and Britpop gain a wide following, as well as a newfound enthusiasm for  musicals.

The Cinema of Slovakia encompasses a range of themes and styles typical of European cinema. Yet there are a certain number of recurring themes that are visible in the majority of the important works. These include rural settings, folk traditions, and carnival. Even in the field of experimental film-making, there is frequently a celebration of nature and tradition, as for example in Dušan Hanák's Pictures of the Old World (Obrazy starého sveta, 1972). The same applies to blockbusters like Juraj Jakubisko's A Thousand-Year Old Bee (Tisícročná včela, 1983). The percentage of comedies, adventures, musicals, sci-fi films and similar genres has been low by comparison to dramas and historical films that used to include a notable subset of social commentaries on events from the decade or two preceding the film. One of them, Ján Kadár's and Elmar Klos's The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze, 1965), gave Slovak (as well as Czech and generally Czechoslovak) film-making its first Oscar. Children's films were a perennial genre from the 1960s through the 1980s produced mainly as low-budget films by Slovak Television Bratislava. The themes of recent films have been mostly contemporary.

The centre of Slovak film making has been the Koliba studio in Bratislava. Some of the films made at the Barrandov Studios in Prague have had Slovak themes, actors, directors, and occasionally language, while Prague-based film-makers and actors have sometimes worked in Slovakia.

The Slovak language sometimes referred to as "Slovakian", is an Indo-European language belonging to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Kashubian and Sorbian). Slovak is mutually intelligible with Czech.
Slovak is spoken in Slovakia (5 million people), the United States (500 thousand), the Czech Republic (320 thousand), Hungary, Northern Serbia, Romania, Poland, Canada, Australia, Austria, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia and elsewhere.

Translation projects undertaken in Slovak include web site content, sales and marketing material, documentation requirements for engineering and manufacturing.

Total Language Solutions are translation specialists in DTP, print ready and electronic forms of material, integrating text and diagrams and more besides into and out of Slovak.

Total Language Solutions are translation experts in the relevance of text, drawings, colours and layout presentation and localisation to meet consumer expectations and norms, without causing offence.

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