Slovakia: A Playground for Nationalism and National Identity. Manifestations of the National Identity of Slovaks 1918-1920 by Ismo s> Nurmi (review)

Abstract

354 SEER, 8o, 2, 2002 the historiography of Imperial Russia and this essay provides an important corrective to the standardcliches of the Church and the clergy as unthinking supportersof the regime. What ismissingfromthe book, however, is any attemptto locate the diverse essaysin a widercontext. A specialistwillhave no troublefittingthe individual essays into such a context, but this is not the audience for whom the work is primarily intended. An introduction giving a broader background to the institutions, personalities and events would surely have been helpful in this respect.As it is, it is hard to see how someone lackingthe specialistknowledge could 'develop their own informed opinions on controversial topics' (p. 2). The choice of essaysand the divisionof the book appearssomewhat arbitrary. Partsone and three dealingwith the revolutionaryand constitutionalpolitical partiesarefinein the breadthand coherence of theirscope. Parttwo, however, labelled 'The Other Adversaries'consistsof two essays,one on the anarchists and one on national minorities. Both essaysare importantin themselves,but they make rather uneasy bedfellows. The final section of the book, 'The Establishment' has essays on the security police, the church and the State Council. The firsttwo are obviouslyimportantsubjects,but is a knowledge of the arcaneworkingsof the StateCouncil reallynecessaryforan undergraduate audience seekinga broadunderstandingof the politicsof late ImperialRussia? In conclusion this book is a useful guide to recent research, but its sum is ratherless than itsparts. Department ofHistory SHANE O'ROURKE University ofYork Nurmi, Ismo. Slovakia.A Playground for Nationalismand National Identity. Manifestations of theNational Identity of Slovaks I9I8-I920. Bibliotheca Historica, 42. Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki, I999. 202 pp. Notes. Price unknown. IN a thoughtfulstudyIsmoNurmi seeksto show that a Slovaknationalidentity already existed among the common ranks of Slovaks in i 9I8, before the consolidationof an inter-warSlovakintelligentsia:Czechoslovakismremained a formal idea to Slovaks at this time, particularlyfor the masses but also for the educated, who subscribedto the Martin declaration of October I9I8 in recognition of the international situation. The exposition is based mainly on records of the short-lived local councils set up on the model of the Slovak National Council and of the Czechoslovak Propaganda Department from March I9 I9 which among other things organized lecturesby soldiers(mainly officers)in nearlya thousandplaces. Issuescovered concern the looting in the immediate aftermath of war, which Nurmi is reluctant to give an ethnic motivation but whose exclusive direction at Magyars and Jews he notes, the work of the 344 national councils as civic organs, the Slovak rejection of Hungarian irredentism, Czechoslovak propaganda and growing rifts in Czech-Slovak relations, the role of the clergy and the Polish propaganda in Spis and Orava. The Slovak identity is presented as an existing fact rather than a dynamic one, which was helped to furtherdefinition by the rivalryof REVIEWS 355 others for its allegiance. Its relative weakness plainly helped spur Czechsponsored Czechoslovak propaganda, but Czechs failed to understand that phenomena like the speakingof Magyar could denote Slovakidentityvis-a-vis themselvesratherthan treasonto the new state. Czech insensitivityat a crucial moment in Slovak national evolution was thus to have significant consequences . Nurmi inclines to a sharp view of 'Czechoslovak' motives, operating not so much to bolster a Slovak identity seen as weak but as exploiting this purported weakness in the interests of the new state's internationalposition, which requiredthe incorporationof Slovakia. The judgement on the Czechs may be a little harsh, given the logic of the international situation. The theme of Slovak national consciousness and the Slovak-Magyar relationship might benefit from a fuller picture of the demographic and sociological inheritance from Dualist Hungary, given the large literature on magyarization in that state. A more rounded study might add a section on attitudesof the smalleducated classof I9 I8, including its Protestant and Catholic wings. Ismo Nurmi concerns himself explicitly, however, with the theme of popular consciousness and on this topic he has provided an interestingand helpfulmonograph. History Department ROBIN OKEY University of Wanwick Liulevicius,VejasGabriel. WarLandontheEastern Front.Culture, National Identity andGerman Occupation in World WarOne.Studiesin the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare,9. CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge, 2000. viii + 309 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. $59.95: ?37.50. DR LIULEVICIUS's readable volume evaluates the experience of ordinary German soldiersfightingon the EasternFrontduringthe FirstWorldWar.He is correct to underline that the frenzy of...