Slovensko v koncepci československých dějin v době existence Československa

Abstract

The paper gives a brief overview of how Slovak history was included into the common Czechoslovak history and how it was taught at Czech universities and grammar schools in the past. Before 1918, Slovak history was not taught at all. The subject of comparative Austrian history included Hungarian political history, which entailed some references to Slovak development in the 19th century. During the First Czechoslovak Republic, a subject entitled Czechoslovak history was taught, but in fact it still included only Czech history, with bits of inorganically added Hungarian political history. The teaching was based on the concept of the Czechoslovak nation, whose existence required a single national story. The Czechoslovak nation was said to originally have had one common state (Great Moravia), have subsequently developed into two states (Bohemia and Hungary), and in 1918 reunited into a single state: Czechoslovakia. After 1945, with the demise of Czechoslovakism, Czech and Slovak history was discussed in parallel as the histories of two nations, but at Czech universities the focus was clearly on Czech history. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Federation in 1968, the discussion of Slovak history at Czech universities and grammar schools was strengthened. The textbooks and synthetic literature recommended for study would be adapted to the changes in the approach to teaching in each period. Since the establishment of the independent Czech Republic in 1993, Czech universities have again taught only Czech history; Slovak history is solely present in the history of the Czechoslovak state (1918–1992). A specialised course on Slovak history is also taught every year at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.