The so-called Slovak question asked what place Slovaks held-or
should have held-in the former state of Czechoslovakia. Formed in
1918 at the end of World War I from the remains of the Hungarian
...Empire, and reformed after ceasing to exist during World War II,
the country would eventually split into the Czech Republic and
Slovakia after the "Velvet Divorce" in 1993. In the meantime, the
minority Slovaks often clashed with the majority Czechs over their
role in the nation. The Slovak Question examines this
debate from a transatlantic perspective. Explored through the
relationship between Slovaks, Americans of Slovak heritage, and
United States and Czechoslovakian policymakers, it shows how Slovak
national activism in America helped the Slovaks establish a sense
of independent identity and national political assertion after
World War I. It also shows how Slovak American leaders influenced
US policy by conceptualizing the United States and Slovakia as
natural allies due to their connections through immigration. This
process played a critical role in undermining attempts to establish
a united Czechoslovakian identity and instead caused a divide
between the two groups, which was exploited by Nazi Germany and
then by other actors during the Cold War, and proved ultimately to
be insurmountable.
Slovaks represent an ethnic group which is facing the problem of depopulation. This process is the result of low natural population growth, as well as emigration. In the last three decades, and ...especially in the last decade, there has been an intensive displacement of the inhabitants of certain ethnic groups who went back to their home countries. The Slovaks began to emigrate in the 1980s, and this process has been intensified in the last ten years. Although the number of Slovaks in Vojvodina has been reduced, this ethnic group manages to preserve its identity through cultural institutions, ethno houses, various events, magazines, books, radio and television shows in their mother tongue. During this period, when the displacement of Slovaks, as well as members of other ethnic groups, became increasingly intensified the importance of the sustainability of the national identity of ethnic groups in these regions was emphasized. Although the economic situation in Serbia is far from ideal, members of national minorities manage to preserve their customs as well as material goods, i.e. the architectural heritage. The Slovaks collected items that had a different purpose and opened ethno houses, i.e. they renovated and protected the houses that were one, two, and more than two centuries old. It seems that today this custom is even more intensified, as the number of Slovaks in Vojvodina is falling at a high rate.
After the entry of the Red Army into Czechoslovak territory in 1945, Red Army authorities began to arrest and deport Czechoslovak citizens to labor camps in the Soviet Union. The regions most ...affected were Eastern and South Slovakia and Prague. The Czechoslovak authorities repeatedly requested a halt to the deportations and that the deported Czechoslovaks be returned immediately. It took a long time before these protests generated any response. Czechoslovak Diplomacy and the Gulag focuses on the diplomatic and political aspects of the deportations. The author explains the steps taken by the Czechoslovak Government in the repatriation agenda from 1945 to 1953 and reconstructs the negotiations with the Soviets. The research tries to answer the question of why and how the Russians deported the civilian population from Czechoslovakia which was their allied country already during the war. Key words: 1. World War, 1939–1945—Deportations from Czechoslovakia. 2. Forced labor—Soviet Union—History. 3. Labor camps—Soviet Union—History. 4. Czechs—Soviet Union—History. 5. Slovaks—Soviet Union--History. 6. Czechoslovakia—Foreign relations—Soviet Union. 7. Soviet Union—Foreign relations—Czechoslovakia. 8. Czechoslovakia—Foreign relations—1945–1992. 9. Repatriation—Czechoslovakia—History.
Since its establishment at the end of the 18th century, the culture of the Slovaks from Vojvodina has developed in two ways: the first one reflects their effort to constantly follow the phenomena ...present in the cultural setting of Slovakia and to have an active dialogue with them. The second one arises from the specific environment of Vojvodina, where these Slovaks landed up. The article is focused on the analysis of this cultural situation, trying to answer the questions to what extent the information about culture of Slovaks from Vojvodina occurs in the cultural context in Slovakia, and to what extent the share of particular cultural phenomena is reflected while having in mind the contribution of Vojvodina´s specifics.
The author studies the Magyar and Slovak ideas of common good that concerned the inhabitants of Hungary in the first half of the 19
century. The Magyar model was based on the rights of an individual, ...their civic duties, and virtues. Its realisation, however, lay in preferring the interests of the Magyar nation and required the adoption of full Magyar national identity, i.e. assimilation and ethnocide of the non-Magyar inhabitants of Hungary. The author characterises this model as exclusive, chauvinist, and nationalist-Messianic, masquerading as liberal values. On the other hand, the Slovak model of common good was based on the presumption of equal rights and duties for all citizens of Hungary while preserving the possibility of the growth, development, and cultivation of each individual, including the opportunity to gain education in one’s own mother tongue. The author perceives the Slovak model as inclusive, pluralist, and humanist; he considers it as a better alternative for the future of Hungary, which, however, could not be pursued. That means there were two incompatible approaches to the common good of the inhabitants of Hungary, which resulted in the downfall of Hungary.
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