Dějiny věd a techniky 2015, 4

ČLÁNKY / PAPERS
19 th century, being replaced by inclination toward other Slavic nations, especially
the Poles, and a critical approach to the Russians. Thus identification with
a “Slavic nation” as a unifying principle proved to be illusory, as the Great War
fully revealed.
The extensive program of pan-Slavic scientific integration can be considered
as a unique, though unsuccessful, historical attempt of integrating the periphery
and creating a new centre, in this instance Prague (or the Czech Lands) as a center
of “Slavic science”. The endeavor to launch an institutionalized cooperation of
the Slavic scientists can also be discussed in terms of building a Slavic identity
through formation of a Slavic scientific community, as well as a special case of
nationalization of scientific knowledge, in this case “Slavic nationalization” as
treated recently in the volume edited by M. Ash and J. Surman. 121 Moreover,
it could be debated in relation to practices that were employed in the Slavic
scientific communities to overcome political and linguistic borders at a time of
increasing nationalization of science. 122
Remark
The translations of Czech, Polish and other quotations into English were done
by the author.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to express her thanks to Prof. Mitchell Ash, Assoc. Prof. Jan
Janko PhD, Dr. Antonín Kostlán PhD, Dr. Jan Surman PhD, and Assoc. Prof.
Alena Šolcová PhD for their valuable advices and suggestions which helped
to improve this article, and to Mgr. Gabriela Golasová for getting important
literature not available in the Czech libraries.
Author’s address:
Kabinet pro dějiny vědy ÚSD AV ČR
Puškinovo náměstí 9
160 00 Praha 6
121
Mitchell G. ASH – Jan SURMAN (eds.). The Nationalization of Scientific Knowledge in
the Habsburg Empire (1848–1918). Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012; compare
in this connection especially, Mitchell G. ASH – Jan SURMAN. The Nationalization
of Scientific Knowledge in Nineteenth Century Europe: An Introduction, p. 1–29,
and Jan SURMAN. Science and its Publics: Internationality and National Languages
in Central Europe, p. 30–56.
122
See Note 120.
Turning “Province” to a “Centre”?
305