Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

nearly seven hundred kilometres of the Hungarian-Slovak border
perhaps signifies the only real success of diplomacy, although we
should consider this as the absolute minimum for two member
states of the European Union.
A shared history in a multi-ethnic state
Both Hungarian and Slovak nation-based societies have used
contemporary romantic and nationalist historiography to trace their
national historical narrative back to the early Middle Ages for the
sake of their own national self-image. Thus, historical processes in
which opposition and conflict are evident have a place in the national
historical narrative. While the ethno genesis of the Slovak nation
is tied to Great Moravia, Hungarian national history is tied to the
conquest of Hungary’s territory, in which the trade and cultural differences
between the Hungarians arriving in the Carpathian Basin
and the Avar and Slav peoples that lived there feature prominently.
There are significant differences between Slovak and Hungarian
historiography of the medieval Hungarian state that developed from
the 11 th century. These concern the benefits and consequences of
the Hungarian dynasty, its ethnic and power-based nature, and the
relations between the ethnic groups living on the country’s territory.
Especially regarding the age of the kings of the House of Árpád,
who ruled until the beginning of the 14 th century as well as the century
and a half before and after the 1526 Battle of Mohács, Slovak
historiography clings to three points of reference. Firstly, it stresses
the ethnic and political continuity between Great Moravia and Slovakia.
Secondly, it involves great efforts at ‘de-Magyarisation’ of
Slovak history, rejecting Hungarian dominance. These were most
pronounced in the 1980s and 1990s. Thirdly, it maintained the contradictory
myths of a thousand years of Hungarian oppression and
a thousand years of happy co-existence, in stubborn persistence of
a variety of versions: plebeian, class based, and regional.
Essentially, four kinds of discourse can be distinguished in the
historical interpretation of the struggles between Hungarians and
Slovaks. Firstly, there are the Hungarian and Slovak historiographies
that evaluate the nature of their common history in a critical
manner. Clashing with the nation-state view of history, they try and
183 László Szarka