Slovak History Research Articles

Remembering 1948 and 1968: Reflections on Two Pivotal Years in Czech and Slovak History

Remembering 1948 and 1968: Reflections on Two Pivotal Years in Czech and Slovak History

The Scheming Apparatchik of the Prague Spring

This volume has been published to coincide with the anniversaries of two significant milestones in Czech and Slovak history - the establishment of communist rule in 1948 and the Prague Spring of 1968 - and in anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 'Velvet Revolution'. Given the ultimate failure of the communist system, these events and their legacy for Czech and Slovak society and politics merit continued study, particularly given the wealth of new data made available when state and Party archives were finally opened in the 1990s. The essays in this volume, by witnesses, historians and social scientists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the USA, UK and Australia offer a reappraisal of those turbulent events. They present new and original research, based on information from archives which were not opened until after 1990 and which is not yet available to audiences who do not speak Czech or Slovak. This volume will, therefore, be of interest to both specialists and general readers who are curious to learn more about these events.

Slovanski miti o Evropi kot oblika dialoga z Zahodom (primer Češke in Slovaške)

The study deals with myths which feature in literary communication between Western Europe and the Slavic East. Slavic peoples and the West carried on a continual dialogue – a process of moving closer and further apart – with a special role being occupied by the Slavs living in the Habsburg Empire. The paper highlights the contribution of Krejčí, a prominent Czech scholar in the field of Slavonic studies, who pointed out that Slavic fictions often reflected or in turn became part of historical reality. For example in the Slovak case, an ideology – based on L. Štúr‘s Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft (1851) – developed, which, though a tendentious myth, influenced the formation of Slovak national identity. In his political testament Štúr made an attempt to define the »goal« of Slovak history against the background of European development. According to Štúr, the future of the Slovak people lay in political union with Russia, in adopting the Cyrillic alphabet and the Orthodox Church, and in the rejection of materialistic Western values. Štúrian tradition, may have, as a myth strengthened national self-confidence, but at the same time it meant cutting ties with Western European culture and civilisation, and as a result led to the rejection of the idea of Europe as cultural unity comprising distinct but mutually influencing regions.

Illustrated Slovak history: a struggle for sovereignty in Central Europe

Illustrated Slovak history: a struggle for sovereignty in Central Europe

Who Was First? Nationalism in Slovak and Hungarian Archaeology and History

This paper critically examines several examples of theories, which represent polemical Hungarian and Slovak positions, and consider the socio-historical and conceptual roots of problematical contrasting interpretations. Slovaks and Hungarians (Magyars) lived until 1918 in a common state for about 1000 years. Today, archaeologists and historians working in different countries are concerned with different questions and offer very different interpretations of the past. A case in point is the issue of the arrival of Slavs and Magyars to the Middle Danube region. Although it is, in general, agreed that the Magyars came into the region over 350 years after the arrival of the Slavs, some Hungarians scientists emphasize a so-called “double occupation” of homeland having to do with relationships between the Magyars and the Huns. In contrast, we can find in the Slovak archaeological literature arguments concerning the “presence” of Slavs in the territory of Slovakia already in the fourth century (or even earlier), that is, before the Huns.

Slovakia: From Samo to Dzurinda by Peter A. s> Toma Dušan Kováč (review)

REVIEWS 553 This collection includes much useful information on English and Scottish travellersin Hungary (John Smith, Lithgow, Poyntz, even Pocock)up to the nineteenth century when Richard Bright and Julia Pardoe informed curious readersabout the situation in that country. The latter described a concert by FerencLisztin Pestin I840 which ended in general acclaim and the donation of a sword to the great pianist. But Festwas also interestedin less important travellers as well -few people would have heard of the Scottish Andrew A. Patonwho describednot only the capitalbut alsoDebrecen and Szeged, or Jane Emily Gerard whose TheLandBeyond theForest (i888) is a sympathetic account of her life in Transylvania.This collection includes articleson these and many other Englishmen and Scotsmen interested in the Kingdom of Hungary. Sandor Fest died in 1944 but the Chair in English at Debrecen existsto this day and (asKoltay-Kastnerwrote about him some yearsafterhis death) 'thereis hardlyany scholarof Englishstudies[. . .] who would not have learnedfromhim'. Apartfrombeing a conscientiousscholar,SandorFestwas also an outstandingteacherof a whole generation. DaviwnCollege, Cambridge GEORGE GOMORI Toma, PeterA. and Kovac, Dugan. Slovakia: FromSamotoDzurinda. Studies of Nationalities. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, CA, 200 1. xxxi + 432 pp. Maps. Tables. Notes. Indexes. $24.95 (paperback). HOOVER Institution Press make grand claims for Peter Toma and Dugan Kova's book. The backcover declareshistoricalaccountsof Slovakiaand the Slovak people have often been 'either sketchy, romanticized versions of a pastoral society or nationalistic, exaggerated exaltations of the past'; in contrast the publishers claim Slovakia: FromSamoto Dzurindaoffers a 'true history of the Slovak people without prejudice'. Potential readers, however, should not let such ludicrous assertions put them off reading Toma and Kovac's informativeaccount of Slovakhistory. The book, part of a Studies of Nationalities series which includes Charles King's TheMloldovans: Romania,Russia,and thePoliticsof Culture (2000) and Andrejs Plakans's The Latvians.A ShortHistory(1995), provides a clear introduction to Slovak history. The book concentrates mainly on twentieth centurySlovakhistory,butthe firstforty-sixpagesnavigatethe readerthrough the travails of pre-i914 history, providing good summaries of the Great MoravianEmpire,theimpactoftheReformation,theTurkishandNapoleonic invasions, the enlightened policies of MlariaTheresa and Joseph II, and the position of Slovaksunder Hungarianrule. Given the furore over the publication of Milan Durica's DejinySlovenska a Slovdkov(Bratislava, 1995), and the criticisms levelled at Stanislav Kirschbaum'sAHistory ofSlovakia: TheStrugglefor Survival (New York,I996), the litmustestof anybook examining Slovakhistoryisitstreatmentof the wartime period. Toma and Kova offera balanced account of Slovakiabetween 939 and 1945. The Tiso state is heavily criticized for its complicity in the Holocaust/Shoah, but the authors also highlight the benefits, particularlyin terms of employment opportunities, accorded to Slovaks thanks to the 554 SEER, 8i, 3, 2003 expulsion of 20,000 Czech state employees in addition to the 'exclusion of the Jewish population from the Slovak economy' (p. I26). Moreover, whilst the wartime resistance and the Slovak National Uprising are treated in some depth, there is no attempt to romanticize an iconic period in Slovak history. It was not just the Nazis, but also Slovak resistance fighters who committed 'inhumane acts of brutality and murder' during the Second World War (P. 146). Two criticisms, however, deserve to be levelled at the book. Firstly, the subtitle is badly chosen. As the authors themselves point out, Samo was neither a Slovak (he was a Frankish merchant), nor did he unify the Slovaks, but rather 'created the first historically known tribal union of Slavs' in the seventh century (p. 4). To put both Samo and current Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda's names in the subtitle smacks more of the need for a catchy subtitle than good history. Secondly, the book lacks a bibliography or at least a guide for further reading. The inquisitive reader is left, therefore, to follow up the authors' notes. Although these are on the whole helpful, the omission of references to the two best books on the Prague Spring, Gordon Skilling's Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution(Princeton, NJ, I976) and Kieran Williams s ThePragueSpringandItsAftermath (Cambridge, 1997), was striking. A single volume which attempts to span a period longer than a millennium is inevitably forced to lean more towards brevity than detail when discussing historical events. No doubt specialists on particular periods will be frustrated by the lack of depth and...

Királyi könyvek by Magyar Országos Levéltár (review)

554 SEER, 8i, 3, 2003 expulsion of 20,000 Czech state employees in addition to the 'exclusion of the Jewish population from the Slovak economy' (p. I26). Moreover, whilst the wartime resistance and the Slovak National Uprising are treated in some depth, there is no attempt to romanticize an iconic period in Slovak history. It was not just the Nazis, but also Slovak resistance fighters who committed 'inhumane acts of brutality and murder' during the Second World War (P. 146). Two criticisms, however, deserve to be levelled at the book. Firstly, the subtitle is badly chosen. As the authors themselves point out, Samo was neither a Slovak (he was a Frankish merchant), nor did he unify the Slovaks, but rather 'created the first historically known tribal union of Slavs' in the seventh century (p. 4). To put both Samo and current Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda's names in the subtitle smacks more of the need for a catchy subtitle than good history. Secondly, the book lacks a bibliography or at least a guide for further reading. The inquisitive reader is left, therefore, to follow up the authors' notes. Although these are on the whole helpful, the omission of references to the two best books on the Prague Spring, Gordon Skilling's Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution(Princeton, NJ, I976) and Kieran Williams s ThePragueSpringandItsAftermath (Cambridge, 1997), was striking. A single volume which attempts to span a period longer than a millennium is inevitably forced to lean more towards brevity than detail when discussing historical events. No doubt specialists on particular periods will be frustrated by the lack of depth and the glossing over of particular events, but Toma and Kovac should be commended for their book. Those with a reading knowledge of Slovak would be best advised to go straight to the work of Lubomir Liptak; whereas those who want a better introduction to contemporary Slovak politics should turn to Karen Henderson's Slovakia:TheEscapefromInvisibility(London, 2002). Nevertheless, for the reader of the SlavonicandEast EuropeanReviewwho feels his/her knowledge of Slovak history is patchy and in need of reinforcement , I would recommend they read Toma and Kova's book. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies T. HAUGHTON University College London Magyar Orszagos Leveltar. Kiraiyi kdnyvek. On CD-ROM. 4 disks:Vols I-9, 1527-I647; Vols IO-I7, I647-I683; Vols I8-26, I682-I703; Vols 27-38, I703-1740. Distributed by Arcanum Digiteka (www.arcanum .hu). Budapest, 2000-2002. HFT io,ooo per disk. THEHungarian 'Royal Books' (Libriregii,Kirayikdnyvek) were originallyheld in theroyalchancelleryandconsistedof copiesof charters,bound chronologically together in thick volumes. The copies were either made because the originalswere consideredat the time of theirissueto be of unusualimportance or, more usually, commissioned at the behest of the owner or recipient of a deed because he thought it worthwhile to have a transcript made of its contents. For this service, he had to pay, and the price itself determined whether a full transcription was made or just a short summary of the deed's contents. The Royal Books contain a medley of material relating, among REVIEWS 555 much else, to royal grants of rights to markets and tolls, ennoblements, pardons, divorces, gifts of land and other transactions affecting property, treaties with the Turk and articles of the estates. Prudent landowners might even choose to have copied letters adjourning suits which involved their propertyas well as the written assuranceof the rulerthat he had no claim on theirland. Later,the Royal Booksalso includedcopies of patentsof invention. The institutionof the Royal Booksgoes backto the Middle Ages and, most probably, to the fourteenth century. The medieval volumes, including those compiled during the reign of John I Zapolya (1526-40) were lost as a consequence of the naufragium, which claimed the bulk of the royal archive in 1526, and of the Turkishoccupation of Budawhich began in I54I. The extant seriesthuscommences only in I 527, followingupon the Habsburgsuccession. Altogether, seventy-threevolumes survivefrom this year up until I 914 when the institution fell into desuetude (to be formally abolished in 1920). By this time thepurposeof theRoyal Bookswasalmostsolelyto recordennoblements. A separateseriesof books was compiled in Transylvaniaduringthe sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies,afterwhich, in i 690, theywere removedto Vienna. By I848 these had reachedfifteenvolumes...

Les racines du nationalisme slovaque moderne

AbstractThis article examines the roots of modern Slovak nationalism and how it led to the creation of the Slovak Republic. It was influenced by two main factors: first, the difficulty the Slovaks experienced in having their national identity recognized because of an ignorance in Europe of their history; and second, their refusal to accept solutions that others took on their behalf. An overview of Slovak history shows that the Slovaks always had a sense of their own identity and that they also had writers who defended it. However, the pressure of Magyarization in the nineteenth century and the failure to achieve their political goals in Hungary because the Budapest government denied their national identity resulted in their being bypassed when the map of Europe was redrawn at the end of the Great War; they were incorporated in a common state with the Czechs. A language debate that had taken place among Slovak intellectuals in the first half of the nineteenth century when Czech was proposed as a literary l...

Reflections on Slovak History. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum and Anne C. R. Roman. Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1987. 183 pp. $12.00

Reflections on Slovak History. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum and Anne C. R. Roman. Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1987. 183 pp. $12.00

Reflections on Slovak History. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum and Anne C. R. Roman. Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1987. x, 183 pp. Cloth.

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Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, ed., Slovak Politics. Essays on Slovak History in Honour of Joseph M. Kirschbaum. Cleveland and Rome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 380 pp.

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Reviews : Stanislav J Kirschbaum, ed , Slovak Politics Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Cleveland, Ohio, Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii + 380pp

Reviews : Stanislav J Kirschbaum, ed , Slovak Politics Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Cleveland, Ohio, Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii + 380pp

Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in Honour of Joseph M. Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanley J. Kirschbaum. Cleveland, Ohio and Rome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 380 pp. - The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists 1918–1948. By Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. East European Monographs, no. 130. Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1983. xi, 185 pp. $20.00. Distributed by Columbia

Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in Honour of Joseph M. Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanley J. Kirschbaum. Cleveland, Ohio and Rome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 380 pp. - The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists 1918–1948. By Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. East European Monographs, no. 130. Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1983. xi, 185 pp. $20.00. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York. - Volume 43 Issue 3

The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Resistance, 1939-1945

After three years of tense discussions and bruising internal disputes, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) emerged in 1921 as the largest constituent unit of the Communist International (Comintern) outside of Russia. Under the leadership of a former Social Democrat, Bohumir Šmeral, it stressed a specific Czechoslovak road to socialism and viewed the new Czechoslovak Republic as the culmination of modern Czech and Slovak history. Šmeral's essentially constructive political line inspired the majority of the party's members—numbering among its adherents a high proportion of former Social Democrats—until the fifth congress of the Comintern in 1924.

The Slovaks: an Integrating or a Disintegrating Force?

Because of the various factors in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy which retarded the development of Slovak culture and science, Slovak historians have, on the whole, only during the past few decades begun to examine historical problems from a broad perspective. Consequently, it is by no mere accident that the problem to which part of the attention of this conference is being devoted—the Slovak political movement as a disintegrating force in the Habsburg monarchy—is relatively new to Slovak historiography. Until now it has not been examined from a broad perspective, if only because of the many different historical, political, social, and economic ingredients which were involved in turning nationalism into a significant disintegrating force. Slovak writers have, however, made various studies of the nationality problem—a problem which has ever since the eighteenth century been the most sensitive issue in Slovak history. Certain of these studies have thrown light on both the integrating and disintegrating: forces of the monarchy—two forces which are realy interdependent.

A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History

A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History