Historical Memory and Counter-memory of the Second World War in Slovakia

Abstract

In the Slovak Republic (SR), after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 in Czechoslovakia and the collapse of ČSFR in 1993, the problem of creating a national narrative of historical memory, in particular about the Second World War, as one of the important elements of the transformation of Slovak society and systemic post-communist transformations in the young state, became more urgent. The article deals with the official version of preserving and popularizing the historical memory of the Second World War in the Slovak Republic, the main state institution for the implementation of which is the Institute of National Remembrance established in 2002, as well as various interpretations by Slovak historians and politicians of such key events of the Second World War as the history of the Slovak state in 1939-1944, the Hungarian-Slovak “Little War” in March 1939, the participation of Slovak military units in the war on the Eastern Front, the Slovak National Uprising of 1944, the Holocaust. Various sources are used: scientific literature and fiction, cinema and historical journalism, military memoirs and memorials of historical memory, materials of “oral history”, etc. The authors emphasize that the bifurcation of Slovak historiography, historical memory and society itself in assessments and interpretations of the events of World War II in national history continues to this day, primarily as a confrontation between official/supranational and national versions of historical memory. The supranational approach, which applies an integral method, synthesizes views, offers multidimensional visions, and evaluates historical facts, phenomena and processes based on the criteria of liberalism and democracy, is preferred at the present stage.