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

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These diametrically differing responses from Slovak and Hungarian respondents suggest that their responses to these questions are clearly influenced by their ethnicity. This very marked fact implies that there is still a long way to go towards convergence of opinions on this set of issues, and that the key to tackling this lies in perceiving history from a standpoint other than the ethnic one. One of the more important factors influencing the responses was the respondents’ age. Dividing them into age categories enabled us to analyse the issue from an inter-generational point of view. In this case, we considered whether individual age categories of respondents were in any way influenced by the times in which they lived. For example, the generation aged over 55 had lived most of its active life during the period when the Communist regime was in power, or in the wartime or post-war period, while the group of respondents aged under 34 had lived most of their active life after 1989, and so they were influenced by other attitudes, whether at school, in society or in their families. The results of this research implied to us that, when it came to these historically loaded questions, the age of the respondents played a significant role. This is illustrated in the following table. Table 1 Age-specific opinions of respondents of Hungarian nationality about the Beneš decrees. Data in %. Age Categories Legend: 1 2 Yes No Yes No Under 34 82.93 17.07 10.26 89.74 35-44 71.43 28.57 23.53 76.49 45-55 46.51 53.49 20.93 79.07 Over 55 88.89 11.11 25.00 75.00 1 – Slovaks should apologise to Hungarians and Germans for the Beneš decrees. 2 – Hungarians should apologise to Slovaks for the 1938 Vienna Arbitration. 197 Štefan Šutaj
While more than 80% of the oldest and the youngest generations of respondents of Hungarian nationality thought that the Slovaks should apologise for the Beneš decrees, only 46.51% of respondents in the generation aged 45 to 55 thought this – a marked contrast with respondents in the youngest age category, where the percentage of positive responses was close to that of the over- 55s. When it came to evaluating the Vienna Arbitration, age did not have such a significant role: surprisingly, it was not in the older categories of respondents that the highest percentage of negative or positive responses was obtained, but from respondents under 35. The results of our analysis of age-specific responses showed that the opinions of the youngest generation of respondents of Hungarian nationality, who had completed their schooling after 1989, were not convergent with the opinions of Slovak respondents, but that the figures came strikingly close to – and in the case of opinions about the Vienna Arbitration, even exceeded – the evaluations made by respondents over 55. Nor, in cases where we had thought that Slovak respondents’ opinions on the issue might come close to those of Hungarian respondents (for example, acknowledgement of the unjust nature of some of the legislation stemming from the principle of collective guilt) was there any convergence from the Slovak side either. In the context of our project‚ ‘The Hungarian minority in Slovakia during the post-1989 transformation of society’ (2006-2009), we carried out further sociological research, this time in the form of a representative survey of the Hungarian minority, focusing on the issue of how history is perceived. A total of 800 respondents of Hungarian nationality took part in this research. Drawing on experience from our previous research, we wanted to confirm or disprove the accuracy of our research findings and also try to identify the internal factors influencing responses from people of Hungarian nationality. 198
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Twenty years after the end of the C
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Dedicated to Bronisław Geremek Bro
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Table of contents Preface: Never Ag
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Preface Never again 7 Martin Schulz
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Preface The Past Does Not Go Away A
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Introduction by the Editors In 2008
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about the tense and ambivalent rela
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another debate formulated by Richar
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theoretical and practical impossibi
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History and national identity Histo
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the subject of much controversy, th
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everything on Stalin and communism:
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Prague Spring: “In the mid-1950s,
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Literature Arendt, Hannah (1951) Th
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Common Memory and European Identity
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cried the Ossies as the Berlin Wall
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the first phase of negotiations aft
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eference to a common destiny, and t
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The ‘enlargement fatigue’ obser
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on each other. The only way of chan
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“The Word Concentration Camp mean
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I think history is essential to thi
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denying it is like saying evil does
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Soviet camp, not because he had don
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Q: In Germany there is a strong fee
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the 17 th century so that the South
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forests near Minsk. I was taken the
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harmonious and prosperous, with the
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were doing and why they were doing
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an explanation. I told him that I e
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This movement once had a big meetin
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guests of Imre Pozsgay, minister of
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HISTORICAL DILEMMAS
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National myths Every society has a
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confessions. The culmination of thi
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First, few countries undertake a th
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Finally, confronted with the experi
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no better placed than governments t
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compartments, and that one must som
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Such an approach certainly has its
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History and Politics: Recommendatio
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The tension between academic histor
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oth a collective and individual exo
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Europe’s responsibilities It is c
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egimes provides a deeper understand
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and accounts for professionals deal
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This shift later inspired the devel
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In Germany, public historical cultu
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Historical Bias in Poland: Lustrati
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The Polish United Workers’ Party
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The right’s criticism of the meth
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epresents one more step in the broa
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European Social Democracy and 20 th
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the KPD - even now - is not about p
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esisted them in many cases. The ove
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turned some of them against the SPD
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The Interpretation of the Soviet Un
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the result of a war of liberation a
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Molotov-Ribbentrop protocol? How di
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pen in Lithuania. The idea was adva
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and politician Giovanni Amendola to
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The most influential analytical mod
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2. A single mass party consisting o
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their differences. Most comparative
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communism are legal heirs of the En
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the world war and to exculpate the
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They also criticized “revisionist
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seen above, after careful scrutiny
Page 148 and 149: The Real Problem Latvians Have with
Page 150 and 151: not see it as something important e
Page 152 and 153: structures Latvian domestic politic
Page 154 and 155: the language of instruction in scho
Page 156 and 157: Diversity in Historical Education:
Page 158 and 159: and sometimes in adjustment and ada
Page 160 and 161: For the Record: PSE MEPs react 159
Page 162 and 163: F. especially the Nazi- and the Sta
Page 164 and 165: having always been victims, trying
Page 166: SPECIAL REPORT: SLOVAKS AND HUNGARI
Page 169 and 170: Much has happened in the last two y
Page 171 and 172: The conference concentrated, as the
Page 173 and 174: aristocratic, Estates-based ‘nati
Page 175 and 176: A person’s identification with a
Page 177 and 178: ians to evaluate the extent to whic
Page 179 and 180: more intensive part in forming the
Page 182 and 183: A Common Past, a Divided History 18
Page 184 and 185: nearly seven hundred kilometres of
Page 186 and 187: It is extremely important to note,
Page 188 and 189: historical public opinion and self-
Page 190 and 191: thousands of Hungarian and Slovak c
Page 192: enewed historiography will also be
Page 195 and 196: we shall turn our attention to two
Page 197: In response to these questions, two
Page 201 and 202: Table 2 Opinions of respondents of
Page 203 and 204: 6,0 5,5 5,0 4,5 4,0 3,5 3,0 2,5 ▼
Page 205 and 206: we consider the trends suggested be
Page 208 and 209: Resistance and Exile Miguel Angel M
Page 210 and 211: it was necessary to formulate socia
Page 212 and 213: degree of generosity, activism and
Page 214: the ICFTU. There my work focused on
Page 217 and 218: After Stalin’s death, most of the
Page 220 and 221: Moscow versus Prague 219 Boris Orlo
Page 222 and 223: Of all the problems that my country
Page 224 and 225: Social Democracy and the Prague Spr
Page 226 and 227: comprehend the overwhelming contrad
Page 228 and 229: Renaissance of Socialism Observatio
Page 230 and 231: My Personal Encounters with History
Page 232 and 233: Over a decade later, political chan
Page 234 and 235: monument, its location and particul
Page 236: Minister, Dimitri Rupel, I founded
Page 239 and 240: people exactly know what actually w
Page 241 and 242: tablished democracies. What was the
Page 244 and 245: Memory is a Loaded Gun An Epilogue
Page 246 and 247: Post office, Gdansk
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Solidarność Memorial
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Krzysztof Pomian, a well known Poli
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effective and positive factor in gi
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Martin Schulz, leader of the PSE Gr
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