The History of Science and Technology in Slovakia

Abstract

Until about ten years ago, the study of the history of science and technology was much neglected in Slovakia. There were several reasons for this neglect. A small nation of only three and one-half million people, the Slovaks had lived until 1918 in the framework of AustroHungarian monarchy. Under Hungarian domination, the Slovak nation probably was one of the most oppressed in Europe; the Slovaks did not even have a single high school of their own, and Slovakia remained a backward agricultural country. The first Slovak University, in Bratislava, was founded only in 1919, after the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic, and the first Slovak technological institute was founded in 1938. Because many national and political problems remained unsolved, Slovak historiography concentrated mainly on the history of political problems. Slovakia still lagged in economic progress. Basic changes in the political, economic, and cultural life of Slovakia were visible only when the building of industry and modernization of agriculture started after World War II. Progress was also apparent in the realm of higher learning. Today Slovakia has nine universities and institutes of technology. The Slovak Academy of Sciences, founded in Bratislava in 1953, today includes thirty-seven scientific institutions with more than two thousand people; it publishes thirty scientific periodicals. Slovakian progress in scientific and technical fields brought an increased interest in the history of science and technology. Another and equally important factor was an increased awareness of the importance of science and technology in modern society. Within the Slovak Academy of Sciences three small historical groups were formed-technology