Slovakia and the First World War

Historický časopis, 2015

Ferenčuhová, B. - Zemko, M. Eds. In interwar Slovakia 1918-1939. Book review by Baka

"Folia Historica Cracoviensia", 2019

The aim of this article is to show the attitude of Polish interwar literature (political commentary, historiography) towards the role of Slovaks in building the First Czechoslovak Republic and their situation in the state they shared with Czechs. The collected material has been divided into three categories: pro-Hungarian, pro-Czech (pro-Czechoslovak) and pro-Slovak, but the author also notes an interest in Slovakia related to the Slavic studies conducted during the Second Polish Republic. The works discussed in this article attempted to compare the Slovaks’ situation under the Hungarian rule and in Czechoslovakia; to answer the question whether the Czechoslovak nation existed; and to suggest with whom the Polish state should see its future on the international arena (support Hungary’s aspirations to recover Slovakia, establish good relations with Prague, or support the Slovak nationalist movement against Czechs).

Codrul Cosminului, 2017

This analysis considers the way in which Romania managed the more and more complex relations within the Axis during the year 1943. At the beginning of the year, the military situation on the Eastern front had changed substantially. Germany's defeat at Stalingrad had changed the relation between Germany and its allies. The tension between Germany and Romania, on the one hand, and between Slovakia and Hungary on the other hand, would also mark the relations within the Axis. However, the armies of the three allies continued to support the German war effort. The Slovak Rapid Division participated during the year in the military defensive operations of the Crimean Peninsula. Its effort led to the erosion of the combat capabilities, especially after the disaster caused by the Battle of Kakhovka. Instead, the Slovakian army had to face an unprecedented number of defections. The Slovak soldiers moving to the enemy had forced the Germans to disband the Rapid Division, some of which being...

Problems of World History

In the Slovak Republic (SR), after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 in Czechoslovakia and the collapse of ČSFR in 1993, the problem of creating a national narrative of historical memory, in particular about the Second World War, as one of the important elements of the transformation of Slovak society and systemic post-communist transformations in the young state, became more urgent. The article deals with the official version of preserving and popularizing the historical memory of the Second World War in the Slovak Republic, the main state institution for the implementation of which is the Institute of National Remembrance established in 2002, as well as various interpretations by Slovak historians and politicians of such key events of the Second World War as the history of the Slovak state in 1939-1944, the Hungarian-Slovak “Little War” in March 1939, the participation of Slovak military units in the war on the Eastern Front, the Slovak National Uprising of 1944, the Holocaust. Variou...

Bylye Gody, 2013

The article, based on significant historiographic data considers the 14th Grenadier Division of the SS 'Galichina' tour of duty within Slovakia in 1941-1945. The process of formation and military operation has been restored. Special attention is attached to the open pages of the history of this unit.

2020

A few weeks after the Czechoslovak State has been proclaimed in Prague (October 28, 1918), Slovak territory is still a battleground for political and military control. Mid-January, the Czechoslovak forces are about to control the demarcation line under the command of Italian officers. But still, at that time, political and material problems surrounding the real control of the territory are hardly overlapped (and won’t be for almost a semester). This paper intends to observe and analyze this short period of time (February–June 1919) when the material and psychological consequences of World War I cumulate with a weak legitimacy of the (Czecho)Slovak authorities, multiple material obstacles and the lack of experience of the so-called government in Bratislava. Those uncertainties are cruelly reminded in the personal–official and unofficial correspondence–of the main Slovak protagonists who describe a situation far from being controlled as the propaganda puts it. The paper is based on ar...

Archaeologia Polona, 2023

On the Slovak side of the Carpathian mountains, the archaeology of the First World War had long been completely outside the scope of research interest. At the same time, conflicts in this regionhad played a very important role in the initial phase of the war. Here, the Austro-Hungarian army blocked the invasion of the Russian army into Hungary with all its might. This lack of attention changed in the last decade with surveys conducted by our team from Masaryk University. In this short overview we describe and evaluate our main research conclusions so far based on surveys conducted at sites bearing the names of the hills of Staviská, Kobyla, Cingov and Wertyszów. Each of the sites is a place where various military events took place, so we have applied different, mostly non-destructive, methods to their study. Our results are mostly an introduction to the state of research and a review of a decade of expeditions to this unique field of conflict, where the armies learned how to fight in mountainous areas.

Historicky časopis, 2020

TASIĆ, Dmitar. Friends and foes: Czechs/Slovaks and Serbia during the First World War. Historický časopis, 2020, 68, 5, pp. 797-814, Bratislava. By presenting the most recent scholarship on the intense, although not turbulent, relations between Serbia on one side and Czechs and Slovaks on the other, this article aims to show how the unique experience of being on opposite sides during the First World War did not necessarily lead toward creation of animosities and controversies. On the contrary, it not only resulted in support, understanding and cooperationm but also led to the creation of new and deepening of existing liaisons in the decades that followed the first global conflict.

2009

Slovakia in History Until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia's identity seemed inextricably linked with that of the former state. This book explores the key moments and themes in the history of Slovakia from the Duchy of Nitra's ninth-century origins to the establishment of independent Slovakia at midnight 1992-1993. Leading scholars chart the gradual ethnic awakening of the Slovaks during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and examine how Slovak national identity took shape with the codification of standard literary Slovak in 1843 and the subsequent development of the Slovak national movement. They show how, after a thousand years of Magyar-Slovak coexistence, Slovakia became part of the new Czechoslovak state from 1918 to 1939, and shed new light on its role as a Nazi client state as well as on postwar developments leading up to full statehood in the aftermath of the collapse of communism in 1989. There is no comparable book in English on the subject.

Archaeologia Polona, 2023

On the Slovak side of the Carpathian mountains, the archaeology of the First World War had long been completely outside the scope of research interest. At the same time, conflicts in this region had played a very important role in the initial phase of the war. Here, the Austro-Hungarian army blocked the invasion of the Russian army into Hungary with all its might. This lack of attention changed in the last decade with surveys conducted by our team from Masaryk University. In this short overview we describe and evaluate our main research conclusions so far based on surveys conducted at sites bearing the names of the hills of Staviská, Kobyla, Cingov and Wertyszów. Each of the sites is a place where various military events took place, so we have applied different, mostly non-destructive, methods to their study. Our results are mostly an introduction to the state of research and a review of a decade of expeditions to this unique field of conflict, where the armies learned how to fight in mountainous areas.