Listing 1 - 6 of 6 |
Sort by
|
Choose an application
Hurrians --- Religion. --- Urkesh (Extinct city) --- Antiquities. --- Religious life and customs.
Choose an application
The chapters of the 20th century history creating this book deal with the important moments from the history of modern Slovakia in the changing world. The authors – friends and disciples of PhDr. Valarián Bystrický, DrSc. – are presenting here the newest results of their research and its critical evaluation. What they all have in common with Valerián Bystrický is the conviction that the 20th century Slovakia kept the same developing rhythm as the rest of the world. They agree with his opinion that the Slovak history of this period has to be studied and interpreted from a global perspective. The detailed knowledge of internal changes in Slovakia following its separation from Hungary, of amalgamating the Czechs and Slovaks in the common Czechoslovak state with all its internal and international problems and with its Central European political, economical and cultural context, enables to understand also the contemporary shape of the Slovak Republic – a sovereign state and a member of the European Union. The 20th century world had been changing as well as the Slovak historiography that reflected those changes. And as it is shown in the first chapter of this book, the scientific achievements of Valerián Bystrický are important and integral part of it. They deal with international affairs between the two world wars, with the interwar problems of the Balkans and in the same time with the history of Slovakia. In not so distant period the regime pressure on a creative individuality was hardly bearable. Not every scientist was able to resist it in the same way even on the ground of one academic institution. But Valerián Bystrický succeeded to preserve the clean shield in clash with this period as an author of historical writings and after 1989 as a manager of science. In 1998 – 2006, being a director of the Institute of History of the SAS, he had helped to create the healthy conditions for a free scientific research, where no methods of one historical school would prevail over the others. He should be respected for that. This book intentionally begins with the chapter on demographic development of Bratislava. In the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries, protagonists of the Slovak national movement often regretted that Slovakia did not had a significantly Slovak, city-like national and administrative center. In 1919 it was Vavro Šrobár, the minister for Slovakia, who insisted on the Slovak character of Bratislava. Milan Zemko begins his chapter with the statement that the development of every capital of each state, the progressing of its social and national structure, indicates a lot about the development of the whole country. In the 20th century, Bratislava was officially the capital of an independent state only in 1939 – 1945 and then again from 1993. But already in 1919 it started the career of an informal political administrative, economical and step-by-step also cultural centre of Slovakia – a country with 3 million inhabitants that was part of a newborn Czechoslovak state. This new situation strengthened by internal and external political factors, had caused great changes in “the city upon Danube”, including the changes of its ethnical structure. And Milan Zemko concentrates mainly – using the statistics from the first half of the 20th century – on the transformation of the Bratislava multiethnic character and its gradual “Slovakization”. The following three chapters deal with the history of the Czechoslovak and Slovak political parties in interwar period. Natália Krajčovičová examines the history of the Slovak agrarian political movement – the formation of the Agrarian Party in Slovakia, its unification with the Czechoslovak agrarians and the following development of the party, which significantly influenced the Slovak and the Czechoslovak political scene until the turbulent year 1938. Jaroslava Roguľová focuses on the autonomist program of the Slovak National Party and its significant theoretical ideas and deals also with the standpoints of this party towards reforms of the political administration. The result of her analysis is the characteristic of the four periods of the Slovak National Party autonomist program from 1918 to 1938. In the chapter written by Alena Bartlová the Czechoslovak agrarianism crosses the borders of the republic. In the focus of it is the participation of Dr. Milan Hodža on the international cooperation of agrarian political parties in the Eastern-Central Europe in the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s. The text shows Hodža’s efforts to cooperate with the politicians from Polish and Bulgarian Agrarian Parties and also its limits: the agrarian politicians were not able to consider the broad spectrum of their societies and the crucial specific problems of other classes. After the World War I Europe hoped for everlasting peace, social justice, stability and prosperity. But this optimism of citizens failed. Instead of it there had risen fear of the countries, which were not satisfied by the peace treaties and wanted to revise them. Czechoslovakia tried to face it by building and strengthening its armed forces. Miloslav Čaplovič in his chapter writes about the specific and important theme – organization and activities of the Czechoslovak military intelligence service in 1919 – 1939. In another chapter Bohumila Ferenčuhová focuses on problems of regional and European security from the perspective of diplomacy. She examines the negotiations that had led to the treaty between Romania and France in 1926 and analyzes the role of this treaty in the Versailles peace treaties system. Even in the period of European pacifism, Central and South-Eastern Europe from the Adriatic to the Baltic had to consider interests, positions and the territorial claims of the two for this once returning powers – Germany and the U.S.S.R. Not long ago the objective analysis of the great power policy of Russia and the U.S.S.R. towards Central Europe and the Balkans was a theme that belonged to less frequently researched and almost taboo themes in the Soviet block historiography. Ľubica Harbuľová in her chapter brings a detailed analysis of contemporary results of the Russian historiography dealing with the Czechoslovak history, which are based upon the materials from the former inaccessible archival funds. The Munich of 1938 represents one of the key and dark moments in the Czechoslovak history. The chapter written by Jindřich Dejmek follows less known aspect of this problem. He analyses the permanent and persistent diplomatic activities of Dr. Edvard Beneš that led in 1942 to the declaration of the Munich Agreement for not valid. His success helped to restore the postwar Czechoslovakia in the borders from 1938 (without Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia). The part prepared by Ondrej Podelec deals with the Slovak Republic in 1939 – 1945. It is a thorough analysis of the trials in which the Slovak courts of justice tried in absence the members of political exile and the author examines their legislative background and judgment practices. Due to long lasting procedures of the tribunals some cases were not concluded till the decline of the state in 1945, as it was the trial with Štefan Osuský and co. This analysis also shows, that since autumn 1944 the Slovak judicature was not able to resist political pressure of the regime and the German occupation forces. The chapter written by Slavomír Michálek bridges the war and postwar periods from the perspective of the U. S. – Czechoslovak economic relations. Projects like lend – lease and UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) were part of a specific U. S. help for the countries that had suffered under the German occupation and expansion. Among them was also Czechoslovakia. Her citizens understood very well that the massive UNRRA activities were an American project. Therefore the Czechoslovak communists played down its importance and trivialized its economic effect, because the help from the capitalist country did not fit to their schemes and political goals. After World War II, the limited parliamentary democracy was restored in Czechoslovakia. But this regime differed from the parliamentary system of the first Czechoslovak Republic. The so-called people’s democracy considered the Czechoslovak citizens (except German and Hungarian minorities) as a special kind of plurality and democracy. But it had not been an idea only of the communists who saw in it a transitional step towards their own regime. The democratic parts of domestic and exile resistance contributed to its birth, too. Michal Barnovský in his text compares Polish and Czechoslovak road to one party regime. The specifics and differences between them had not been so significant for establishing a communist regime, but they played an important role in the following development. The attempts to change the Stalinist regimes in Poland and Hungary in 1956 had many-sided influence on the neighboring countries. Dagmar Čierna-Lantayová in her chapter describes the rise of opposition moods among students and intellectuals in Slovakia. But in contrast to Hungary, the socio-political tension was not eruptive enough for mass protests. This was one of the causes why the support for the events in Hungary had been so minimal. Half-hearted attempts of the press to express other than official opinion, were played down prevented by “watchful” censorship. In December 1956, the Czechoslovak communist party officially condemned “the attempt of counter-revolutionary coup d’état in Hungary”. The communist control over the Slovak society had even deepened. Events in Central Europe in 1956 were overshadowed by a global clash of the great powers. Karol Sorby’s chapter shows that the failure of the British and French “Suez adventure” made it easier for USA to take over the leading role in the region. According to the Eisenhower doctrine “power vacuum” in the Middle East had to be filled in by the United States in order to stop the communist – especially Soviet – infiltration of this part of the world. But in the eyes of Arabic nationalists the Suez crisis destroyed the myth of Soviet threat to the security of the region. They viewed the Soviet Middle East policy as more sensitive towards their interests. Sorby analyzes and compares politics of different Arabic states after the formation of Eisenhower doctrine and evaluates its global consequences. For some independent Slovak intellectuals it was difficult to let themselves tie down by the communist regime. Jozef Leikert in his chapter deals with the case of journalist and writer Ladislav Mňačko, whose emigration to Israel in the late 1960s was an act of opposition to the anti-Israeli politics of Czechoslovakia. Through the interviews of Jozef Leikert with Ladislav Mňačko, various authors of Kultúrny život (journal Cultural Life) and members of the Union of Slovak writers we may be involved not only in the atmosphere of this period, but we will meet oppositionists and conformists among the Slovak intelligentsia, too. So-called normalization in 1970 – 1989 almost returned Slovakia to the stuffy atmosphere of the 1950s. That is why we decided to close this book not with the independent and proud attitude of Ladislav Mňačko, but we return back to the phenomenon typical for the whole period of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. In the years 1948 – 1989 it was very important for communists to control churches, because they considered them potential opposition in Slovakia. Jan Pešek examines in his text the institutional instruments of this control: legislation, activities of the Slovak Office for Church Affairs as a highest state authority for regulation and control of churches (which actually did not change during the whole 40 years of the communist regime), church policy of the communist Party and the (mal-)practices of the State security towards churches. Despite protests from domestic and foreign Church authorities – especially RomanCatholic – the regime did not modify either the spirit or the letter of the so-called Church Acts from 1949. The fundamental change came only with the “velvet revolution” in 1989: the communist regime collapsed and the apparatus for the control of churches has gone to the history.
Christian Theology and Religion --- History --- Economy --- Cultural history --- Agriculture --- Diplomatic history --- Economic history --- Military history --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Theology and Religion --- History of Communism --- Slovakia --- History.
Choose an application
The aim of the presented collection of 29 chapters and essays is to sketch a comprehensive picture of Slovak society, reflecting the interactions between its political and cultural elites, as well as the coherence of historiography and historical consciousness in the 20th century. It might be stressed that these relations weren’t static, although in their frames, some resistant stereotypes arose which are still very popular in some parts of Slovak society. The stereotypes, auto-stereotypes and myths never failed to exist; just the contrary – they were going through a process of specific evolution, influenced by numerous fundamental, state-political and constitutional changes, that attended the life of Slovak society in the past century. These changes, or better, ruptures with global social impact had not only positive, but also – and this seems to be the majority of the cases – negative consequences for the situation of particular generations living in Slovakia. Simultaneously, their determined all spheres of cultural life of Slovak society, much like the Slovak historiography influencing both its internal development and its perception by the public. The presented work is divided into four thematic parts. First of them is dealing with both the direct and the indirect impact of political events and decisions taken by the administration on citizens, i.e. particular parts of society. This is the reason, why the tragic issue of the so-called social engineering and Holocaust is also taken into consideration. The author is supposing, that the discrimination and persecution of certain groups of population defined by their nationality, religious, racial or class identity afflicted not only individual victims, but, taking into account its global impact, it was a tragedy for the whole society. In particular it devastated the moral, cultural and religious values of the society and its constitutional consciousness. Culture also suffered by these socio-political processes. The culture and its prominent representatives enjoyed a specific position within the public life in Slovakia, since they were either substituting the absenting “national policy” or they were an active part of this policy – representing and defending universal ideals of humanity proclaimed by themselves or, in other cases, representing the political elites. This contradicted engagement and existing intellectual disunity were symptomatic especially during the existence of non-democratic, i.e. totalitarian political regimes, which afflicted the most part of the decades of Slovak history in the 20th century. As a logical consequence, it resulted not only in disappointment and frustration of Slovak cultural elites, but also in lost of confidence by the citizens in what they have represented. The situation of the Slovak historiography that, as a professional scientific discipline and in its institutional form was going through a process of intensive development just in the frames of communist regime was some kind similar. Just as the culture, the Slovak historiography was also strongly influenced and eventually deformed by the political reality. Slovak professional historiography was facing two main challenges: on the one hand it had to reflect scientific problems and questions and, on the other hand, there was a necessity of defending its own social status and position within the social hierarchy. This position only partly resulted from the scientific outputs of the Slovak historiography, since the role it had to play was strictly defined by the communist state. During that time, the Slovak historiography was going through a difficult development including hopes, unfulfilled illusions, disappointments, disgraceful moral and professional failures, but also happier stages such as significant achievements or civil resistance against the political regime and its leading figures. From today’s perspective, taking into account these phenomenons, the biggest detriment the Slovak historiography had to suffer seems to be the multiple interruption of natural continuity of its development and the visible lack of confidence on the side of citizens that it is permanently trying to regain. On the other hand it should be pointed out that in spite of unfavorable political and social conditions in the past the Slovak professional historiography achieved remarkable scientific results that allowed, after 1989, to be a part of European scientific community. Fourth thematic part of the presented book is dedicated to chosen historical personalities playing significant role in the modern history of Slovakia. Also reflected are chosen historians, which in their professional career and work were able to harmonize their scientific abilities with their civic attitudes, regardless of the risks.
Christian Theology and Religion --- History --- Anthropology --- Social Sciences --- Cultural history --- Political history --- Social history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Theology and Religion --- Culture and social structure --- History of Communism --- Slovakia --- History.
Choose an application
During and after World War II, Slovakia underwent massive political, economic, social and state constitutional changes. Being the part of the international events of the “hot” and Cold War, it had been brand marked by the two nondemocratic, totalitarian regimes – fascist and communist. After the Slovak Republic, which was in 1939 – 1945 a satellite state of the Nazi Germany, Slovakia became a part of the reconstructed Czechoslovak Republic with its specific system of “the limited democracy”. The communist coup d’état in February 1948 had brought the country under the rule of another totalitarian regime, spreading from Moscow to all states of the Soviet block. Though, the Czechoslovak society in 1968 tried to reform the communist system, it was unsuccessful in the same way as some other Soviet block countries, which also attempted to disengage the chains of the Soviet imposed regime. This period of the modern Slovak history has been – mainly after 1989 – a subject of numerous studies. Nevertheless, it is still researched only partially, some problems more other less. At the most is missing the synthesis of the contemporary history of Slovakia. The Institute of History of SAS is trying to fill this gape with a project Slovakia in the 20th century granted by the state Agency for Support of Science and Research. The part of this project will be the collective monograph (as the volume V) dealing with the history of Slovakia in 1945 – 1968, and its authors plan for the future also the next, sixth, volume of this synthesis. The book Chapters from the Slovak Contemporary History, which now the reader has in his hands, is also aimed at the presentation of some key or important problems of the Slovak war and postwar history. But it is not the only goal. The publication is also a tribute to the 70. life jubilee of an outstanding Slovak historian Michal Barnovský. His forty-five years of scientific career in the Institute of History have enriched the Slovak historiography in the field of the contemporary Slovak history. In which researched themes and to what extend, the reader may find in the introductory article and in the selected bibliography of Dr. Barnovský. The book begins with chapters showing the multiplicity of the history of the Slovakia and the Slovak question during World War II. The first one (author Jozef Bystrický) describes the role, which the Slovak army played in the plans of the Czechoslovak Ministry of National Defense (MND) in London in 1943 – 1944. Various documents, especially the Directives from 1943, enclosed the views of the London exile, how to engage the army of the Slovak state in the rising against its regime and in military resistance against the Nazi Germany. Though, the Military Headquarters in Slovakia preparing and then in August 1944 realizing the uprising had had to take in account the specific situation on the Slovak territory at the given moment, the MND instructions and directives influenced highly positive the contents, character and the quality of the military-technical arrangements for the rising. The second chapter of this Slovak state points at issue deals with the specific phenomenon of the regime propaganda. In this connection the author Marína Zavacká analyses a Slovak state journal Vĺča (The Young Wolf) for boys of age between 6 and 10, members of Wolf corps of the Hlinka’s Youth organization. It served as a regime-sponsored source of officially approved children’s role-models, including patterns of deeds to be followed. The study summarizes different propagandist vehicles used for making up heroic stories, ranging from social sacrifice to the sacrifice of life. Following four chapters concentrate on several important problems during the period of “the limited democracy”. One of the crucial questions of those times was the position of the Slovakia in the newly reconstructed republic and the search for the model of the future co-existence of the Czechs and Slovaks. Marek Syrný in his text examines this complicated problem from the point of view Democratic Party (DP), which arouse from the Slovak National Uprising as the strongest noncommunist political subject in Slovakia. The idea of its leaders was the Czechoslovakia as de facto federal state. The decline of this DP plans was pronounced in the course of discussions to the three Prague agreements, which had been till February 1948 more and more influenced by the struggle for power between democrats and communists. The next chapter by Slavomír Michálek shows one of the key problems of this period in the sphere of the foreign policy: the aims and the activities of the Czechoslovak delegation at the Paris Peace Conference 1946, which were concentrated on the preparation of the treaty with Hungary. Beside the participation of the two leading figures of the delegation – Jan Masaryk and Vladimír Clementis – the author follows especially Juraj Slávik. Slovak born Slávik, who during his professional life belonged to the influential personalities of the Czechoslovak policy and diplomacy, participated at the finalizing the peace treaty texts regarding Hungary. Although the Slovaks felt the Hungarian problem as the most important for them, there had been another national community in Slovakia which postwar destiny radically changed. The German minority had been evacuated by German authorities, before the Red Army had crossed the Slovak borders (the chapter written by Milan Olejník). After the war had ended many of the Germans returned home, but there they fell under the decrees of President Beneš. Due to them they lost the Czechoslovak citizenship, underwent political, economic and social discrimination and 32-tousand of them were expelled. In 1948 to the rest of them the citizenship was returned, but the minority rights they have been lacking until 1989. The last chapter covering the period 1945 – 1948 belongs to the commentated document in which the French Consul General in Bratislava E. M. Manac’h informs his government about the key political phenomena in Slovakia during the Czechoslovak crisis in February 1948. The commentator of the material – published in Slovak translation and in French original – Pavol Petruf stresses, that E. M. Manac’h stated that the events between 21 and 27 February 1948 had shown the communists, in comparison to their democratic opponents, as better prepared for solving the batte for power. Couple of problems connected with the the communist coup d’état in February 1948 are the subject of another chapters. Miroslav Londák in his text analyses the changes of the economy system in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, which had taken place in the first, “founding” period of the new regime. They resulted into the socalled socialist economy, based almost entirely upon the state ownership and directed by the centrally composed five years plans. The author also points out the specifics of the development in Slovakia and the determinants of its socialist industrialization. Another sector of economy – the agrarian one, is the topic of the chapter written by Viera Hlavová. The strategy of the communists immediately after the war was to get peasants on their side and therefore they had rejected the cooperatives of the Soviet type. But after the February 1948 the primary task became to re-orient the small agrarian production to the large-scale socialist one, to form state agricultural enterprises and, in the same time, to fight the “capitalist elements” in the country. The village had been transformed according to the Soviet mode, without respecting the specifics of the Czechoslovak and Slovak agriculture. The same regime changes as upon the Slovaks, dropped down upon the members of the Hungarian minority. In addition to it – as Soňa Gabzdilová-Olejníková states – immediately after the coup d’état the exchange of the inhabitants between Czechoslovakia and Hungary continued, the plans were made for the second stage of re-Slovakization and there was no hope for in the Czech lands deported Hungarians to return back to Slovakia. In this respect the situation changed with incorporation of the principles of so-called proletarian internationalism into the mutual relations between the communist parties of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The communist coup d’état influenced also the Slovak postwar emigration, which had been concentrated at the free and independent Slovakia. As Karel Kaplan in his chapter analyses, this Slovak exile was for a long time devided, but after the February 1948 Karol Sidor – one of the leading figures of the Slovak autonomist émigrés – successfully formed the Slovak National Council Abroad, the umbrella organization of the Slovak political exile. The direct influence of the exile states in his text also Vladimír Varinský, who surveys the formation of The White Legion organizations in Slovakia. Although it was possible, that some of these organizations provoked the State Security, the newest research shows that the main cause of their secret existence and activities was a spontaneous resistance of the people against the practices of a new regime. And the reaction of the communist establishment was persecutions. The most brutal form of them had been the framed political trials and the two of them from the beginning of the 50ties depicts in his chapter Jozef Leikert. Based upon the archival research, but mostly upon oral testimony he analyses them from the point of view of their insider, journalist and writer Ladislav Mňačko. He witnessed these trials as the daily news Pravda journalist and influenced the public in accordance with the regime propaganda. But later on he came round to realize its fabricated character and confessed his part of guilt. In the shadow of the “founding” period of the communist system with its totalitarian practices and persecutions stays the sometimes natural development – though politically and ideologically distorted – of various phenomena in the Slovak society. One of them, the development of the Slovak science from its half-amateur stage to internationally accepted partner, shows in her chapter Elena Londáková. She concentrates on the Slovak Academy of Sciences, but deals also with the complex of the state and party policy towards the science and its various branches. On the outside and from the point of view of communist leaders the “founding” period represented a successful establishing of the communist system. But already in this time there were the signs of the crisis, which is immanent to this type of regime. Jiří Pernes in his text summarizes the various opinions regarding its beginnings. Unlike Karel Kaplan, who talks about the crisis in 1953 – 1957, Pernes inclines to take in account deeper tokens of it, which perhaps started the crisis development already in the early 50ties. With the chapter of Václav Vondrášek the themes of the publication move chronologically to the history of the 60ties. He surveys the activities of the Hlinka’s Peoples Party exile at the turn of 50ties and 60ties and the countermeasures of the communist establishment in Slovakia. The efforts to unify this exile abroad, watched the communist regime in Czechoslovakia with suspicion. As the reaction, the State Security activities towards the potential followers of this exile branch started to intensify. So much more that in connection with the further restriction of power of the Slovak national institutions and worsening of the economic situation the discontent in Slovakia had grown. This special Slovak national discontent created also one of the differences in perception of the “Prague Spring” in the Czech and Slovak societies. As the author of this chapter, Stanislav Sikora states, during the attempt to reform the Soviet type of socialism in 1968, both state building nations in Czechoslovakia had their own conceptions of the democratization process. While in the Czech lands the priority was the general democratization of the political system, Slovaks felt it as the opportunity for the further national emancipation. But the newest studies also show that also the Slovak society was more diversified than this traditional characteristic says. The next chapter of the book treats the staffing transgression of the communist regime into the activities of the Slovak Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession in 1948 – 1989. Jan Pešek in his text analyses the communist regime attempts to rule over all spheres of the society, including the churches. In the case of Slovak Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession the establishment used the traditional election of all church and laic authorities for its own purposes. With various practices influenced the elections to the benefit of persons, willing to cooperate with the regime. In this way the ability of the Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession to resist the pressure of the communist system had been markedly weakened. Also the following chapter treats a specific issue. Jan Rychlík surveys the travel relations between Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1980 – 1989. The point is that in connection with the strikes in Poland and forming the independent trade union Solidarity, the Czechoslovak authorities started to be afraid of the free travel possibilities between two countries. There were two causes for this fear: political and economic. The author very precisely documents the official measures and economic circumstances, which for more than a decade regulated the travel transfer between the Czechoslovakia and Poland. The last chapter of the book by Juraj Marušiak bridges the history and contemporary development. It is an analysis of the perception of the past by the Slovak society and of its influence on the development after the November 1989. The author concentrates on the perception of the two totalitarian regimes – that of the war Slovak state and of the communist period. He comes to conclusion that in the Slovakia the roots of democratic tradition are not strong enough, which should be the result of the political system before 1918. Both totalitarian regimes of the 20th century used these behavior patterns of the population and on the other hand a great part of the people identified themselves with these regimes.
Politics / Political Sciences --- Christian Theology and Religion --- Politics --- History --- Social Sciences --- Sociology --- Diplomatic history --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Theology and Religion --- Security and defense --- History of Communism --- Ethnic Minorities Studies --- Slovakia --- History.
Choose an application
The book Rok 1968 Eto vaše delo is based on lecture cycle, organised by the Slovak Institute in Prague in cooperation with the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute for Contemporary History of the ASCR. The aim of this lecture cycle was to remember about the 40th anniversary of the reform process in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The lectures presented by Slovak historians, were extended and collected as papers, that are part of this book. The aim of the particular papers is to analyse the main aspects of the reforms, further their ideological roots, as well as their political, social and economic casualties. The authors intended to reflect the immanent development of the autonomous reform process in Czechoslovakia, taking into account both political, constitutional, national-political, socioeconomic, cultural and confessional issues. The opening paper written by Professor Ivan Laluha is an authentic testimony about the gradual maturation process, that was proceeding the reforms in the field of economic theory, which is the main field of interest of the author. The author’s goal was to outline the efforts undertaken in order to achieve a further development of reforms in the constitutional and national-political sphere. Jozef Žatkuliak is analysing the genesis of the ideas proposing a new, federal constitution for Czechoslovakia. The key focus of Slavomír Michálek’s study is based on the American political context of the Czechoslovak attempt for reform of Socialism. There is no doubt, that, during that time, the United States of America and the Soviet Union were trying to reach an agreement and that both sides were conducing a bipolar détente politics. On the one hand, in Washington there was a kind of sympathy for the reform process taking place in Czechoslovakia, but on the other hand, it was perceived as an internal problem of the Soviet Bloc. Two following studies writen by Stanislav Sikora are dealing with the ideological background of the Prague or Bratislava Spring, involving a critical analysis of the term „Socialism with human face”. In his study, Miroslav Londák is explaining the main principles of the economic reform in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by going to the roots and anatomising the process of industrialisation of Slovakia since 1948. Furthermore, Londák is paying close attention to the efforts of Slovak economists undertaken in order to replant the special economic needs of Slovakia; these efforts were closely connected with the preparations for a federalization of the Czechoslovak state. The study of Jan Pešek is dealing with the process of a limited regeneration, under conditions of the Communist regime, of Churches. Elena Londáková is broaching the issue of reform movement in culture. She emphasised, that it were above all the exponents of cultural life, who acted as the pioneers of the reform movement and, in the same time, as the main critics of the whole social and political system.
Christian Theology and Religion --- History --- Fine Arts / Performing Arts --- Cultural history --- Photography --- History of Church(es) --- Diplomatic history --- Economic history --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Theology and Religion --- Post-War period (1950 - 1989) --- History of Communism --- History of Religion --- Czechoslovakia --- Politics and government.
Choose an application
The book presents the results of new research in Slovak history in the field or period called “the long 19th century”, i.e. dating from the rule of Joseph II. in the late 18th century until the First World War. The focus of research was on the themes and domains which were either neglected in the past or needed reconsidering. The book centres on five fields and is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is called “The Nation and the national issue”. It presents new aspects by exploring one of the most principal themes of 19th century. In his study, László Vörös reflects about the modern concept of the nation, which won recognition by the most contemporary historians, ethnologists and sociologists: the nation as an imagined community and an imagined tradition which is connected with the modernisation epoch. Nationalism is specifically an urban phenomenon. In the Slovak historiography, the national movement had been explored mostly in the rural area, in the peasant milieu, because the majority of the Slovak ethnic population was composed of peasants. Eva Kowalská aimed to change this perspective and concentrated on explaining urban aspects of Slovak nationalism. In case of Slovakia, these aspects are more interesting since the Slovaks in the 19th century had no important central city, and only small towns in the countryside (like Turčiansky Sv. Martin), had tried to compensate this lack. In his contribution, Peter Macho summarises how the symbol of the Tatra mountains as well as other Slovak geographic-territorial symbols were present in the Slovak nationalist discourse. Peter Šoltés elaborates on the theme and the activities of the Slovak Evangelical intelligentsia in the first half of the 19th century. The second chapter “The National movement in foreign and domestic politics” deals with the important connection of nationalism and politics. Slovak foreign political thought was traditionally orientated toward the Russian Empire. In his contribution, Dušan Kováč shows the other side of the Slovak foreign orientation: their attitude to the Western powers England and France. Dušan Škvarna attempts at a reconsideration of the role and inspiring function of the Slovak National Council, established during the 1848 revolution. The Swiss political scientist Josette Baer, a specialist in the field of Slavonic and lately mainly of Slovak political thought, presents her analysis of the early political activities of Vavro Šrobár (an important personality of Slovak politics in the 20th century), especially his leading role in the so-called “Hlasist movement”. The third chapter is dedicated to the juridical system and economic issues. Tomáš Gábriš presents a very useful survey of the juridical system in Hungary and its changes in the era of modernization during the 19th century. His paper shows that in Hungary the tendency to modernize was clashing with very difficult obstacles, mainly ideological and political ones. The attempt to create the centralised “nation state” in Hungary restrained the most important liberal-democratic reforms of the juridical system. In her contribution, Eva Ondrušová deals with the traditional studies of economic cameralism and its influence on the economic theory and practise in the 19th century. Ľudovít Hallon and Miroslav Sabol follow the history of the Pittel and Brausewetter architectural company, which was much closely connected with and active in the very broad Pressburg (Bratislava) area. Very new themes are presented in the forth chapter named “Society, social life and environment”. Gabriela Dudeková outlines the system of poor relief in the Habsburg monarchy; her focus is on the mechanisms how the authorities denied social care to specific groups in Hungary. Slovak emigration to America is a very traditional issue in Slovak historiography. Igor Harušťák tries to consider this problem in the broader Central- and East-European context. Prior to 1989, research about the nobility as a social strata was neglected in Slovak historiography. Even after 1989, this theme was intensively researched mainly in the period of middle ages and the early modern times. However, from the social point of view, important and interesting issues are e. g. the nobility’s life style as well as the attempts of these “high society” members to preserve their status in the modern 19th century. Daniel Hupko deals with these issues focussing on the example of Lucia Wilczek. Roman Holec presents a completely new approach in his contribution about the changes in the relationship ‘man – animal’ as manifestation of a new attitude to nature during the 19th century. The last chapter of this volume is dedicated to “The Churches in the social – modernizing processes “.Ingrid Kušniráková analyses the controversial interferences of Joseph II. into the life of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the closing-down of some cloisters. Tomáš Králik focuses on the relations of the Vienna court to the St. Elisabeth convent in Pressburg (Bratislava). The chapters of this collective monograph will serve as a basis for the draft of a new synthetis on Slovak history in the “long 19th century”.
Christian Theology and Religion --- History --- Anthropology --- Social Sciences --- Economy --- Fine Arts / Performing Arts --- Cultural history --- Architecture --- Energy and Environmental Studies --- Sociology --- Economic history --- Political history --- Modern Age --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Theology and Religion --- Culture and social structure --- Family and social welfare --- Nationalism Studies --- 19th Century --- Socio-Economic Research --- Identity of Collectives --- Slovakia --- History.
Listing 1 - 6 of 6 |
Sort by
|