czechoslovakism

The story of the Slovak inter-war historiography cannot be conceptualized without reconstruction of the relationship between its founders. The most important among them were Václav Chaloupecký, the first Czech professor of Czechoslovak history at the Comenius University, and his successor – after Chaloupecký's forced departure from Slovakia in late 1938 – the first professional Slovak archivist and historian professor Daniel Rapant. The inter-war era of the Slovak historiography cannot be fully understood without putting Chaloupecký and Rapant in comparison.

Concept of the Czechoslovak history in its various modifications had without doubt great impact on the forming of the Slovak master narrative. Discussions and reflections about the existence of common Czechoslovak history builds the inseparable part in the development of Slovak historiography. Different Czechoslovakistic concepts were always a result of strictly academic, but also ideological, political, national as well as rational opinions and interests of governments, political parties, interest groups and also individuals.

This paper tries to analyze the development of discourse over the concept of Czechoslovakism, the official national narrative of the First Czechoslovak Republic. Within that frame, it focuses on the development of Slovak question during World War I. and the 1920ies. It will do so not only by trying to elaborate on the discussion on Slovak individuality within the national collective form a Czechoslovak perspective, but also will try to analyze the incorporation of "Hungarian" elements into the national narrative.