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

of peoples became the ideological counterbalance to 19th-century
Hungarian nationalism. It did not, however, have any real impact on
the nationalist practices of Hungarian governments before 1918.
The Hungarian feudal and civil nationalism, that pitted itself against
Habsburg centralisation, wanted to free itself from the predominance
of Latin and German, and to replace them with Hungarian.
At the same time it defied similar linguistic desires of the non-Hungarian
peoples in the country. Furthermore, it also demanded the
restoration of Hungary as it was before the age of the Turks. Such
Hungarian national hegemony was impossible, however, because
of the radical changes that had taken place in the country’s ethnic
composition.
The conflicts between Hungarians and Slovaks in the 19 th century
concerned the language laws approved by the feudal parliament of
the Kingdom of Hungary, but also the armed battles that took place
at the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849. This period
is crucial for the development of both modern Hungarian and modern
Slovak nation-based society. However, while Slovak historio -
graphy usually refers to open, armed conflict, Hungarian
historiography stresses the military acts ordered by the Slovak
National Council but also, in contrast, the thousands of Slovak
soldiers who fought in the Hungarian army.
The 1848 Revolution is still a central historical point of reference for
Hungarian identity. It is the focal point of the annual commemoration
of the age of political reforms. Remembering the birth of an independent
Hungarian government, the creation of an independent
army, and the whole array of civil laws, it also commemorates the
battles won and lost in the fight for freedom and the heroic gesture
of the deposal of the Habsburgs, the failed fight for freedom, and
the retaliation of the Austrian government. For Slovaks, this period
produced the 1848-49 political program, which underscored the
significance of the military efforts of Slovak troops.
The myth of a thousand years of oppression constitutes the historical
frame for the historical interpretation of the Compromise of
1867, the rejection of the Nationalities Act and the loss of some
half a million capable Slovaks to emigration and three hundred thousand
to assimilation respectively. This virulent component of Slovak
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