A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (review)

Abstract

546 seer, 86, 3, july 2008 representations were widely deployed to reinforce the notion that fitness and a healthy body were the civic duty of every citizen. Naturally, paintings and sculptures about sport took a much more militaristic approach during wartime, a theme that continued to dominate post-war reconstruction. It was with adherence to theOlympic movement in 1951 that the emphasis changed: from the idealism and 'sport for all' of the 1930s topragmatic development of elite sport in international competition. The final chapter traces the rise of dissident culture in the 1980s expressed in bitter caricatures of sport and its obsession with world records and champions. The overriding virtue ofO'Mahony's book is that it makes us aware of the significant role played by the Soviet Union in themajor cultural achievements of the twentieth century, especially in regard to sport. It is a role that is largely ignored, underestimated and often derided inRussia and elsewhere today.We are the losers.What the author does is enable us to study official Soviet culture andjizkultura art in all theirbreadth and complexity, set in the historical context of the turbulent and often creative Soviet years. Department ofSportsStudies andExercise Science Jim Riordan Universityof Worcester Kirschbaum, Stanislav J. A History ofSlovakia: The Struggle for Survival. Second edition. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2006. xiv + 397 pp. Maps. Notes. Selective bibliography. Index. ?11.99 (paperback). In 1995 the first edition of Stanislav Kirschbaum's book was received with appreciation, as bridging a gap in the historiography of Central Europe. In fact, the book ismore of a polemic than a straightforwardhistory. This is entirely in accordance with the author's political agenda, which is to show the Slovaks, burdened with 'national consciousness' since at least the close of the Middle Ages, as engaged in a 'struggle' against enemies, be they theMagyar overlords or the Czechs, who forced the unwilling Slovaks into a unitary state in the twentieth century. The book traces the Slovaks from prehistoric times up to 2005. Its chief purpose, however, is to exonerate the wartime Slovak Republic from the obloquy which attaches to itsname and to blacken theCzechoslovak Repub lic as undemocratic and anti-Slovak. Kirschbaum is honest enough to acknow ledge the problems which prevented the Slovaks from being fullmembers of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-38): the dearth of political and admin istrative experience, for example, which led the Czechs to send in doctors, teachers and engineers to reconstruct Slovakia after more than a thousand years of Hungarian rule. However, this does not exonerate the Czechoslovaks from the charge of exploiting the Slovaks. Thus the first 'independent' Slovak Republic, set up just before World War II under the auspices of Nazi Germany, was the logical expression of Slovak national consciousness, and anyone who strove to alter the status quo was a traitor. Thus, for example, speaking about the Slovak National Uprising of 1944,Kirschbaum thunders: reviews 547 'theSlovaks in opposition toBratislava were mortgaging the lifeof the nation; theywere asking their countrymen to turn the clock back to 1920 and accept the Czechoslovak option once more, an option that meant a state organised strictlyon Czech terms' (p. 208). Moreover, Kirschbaum is less than honest about the personnel of the First Slovak Republic. In speaking about Vojtech or Bela Tuka, for example, there ismerely a fleeting reference to his having received funds from irredentist Hungary in 1929; it says nothing about the documents retrieved from Hungary after thewar showing thatTuka was in the pay of the Irredenta and that his goal was, not an independent Slovakia, but a restored Greater Hungary. Equally, Kirschbaum isdishonest about his own fatherJozef, who was head of the students' division of the notorious Hlinka Guard which was based on the Italian Fascist Blackshirts. He does not once mention their relationship, though he quotes approvingly from Joseph M.' Kirschbaum, theCanadian Slovak historian. Judicious use of the index will, however, reveal that these men are one and the same. As for the originality of this new edition, thiswould seem to reside in an additional chapter called 'The Return toEurope'. Although newer works pub lished since 1995 by Laszlo Kontler on Hungary (2002), Kieran Williams on Prague Spring (1997...