Bratislavská medzinárodná škola liberálnych štúdií
Grösslingova 53, 811 09 Bratislava
Summer School
Photo essay
Katarína Lehocká
Selective nationalism (nationalism of convenience)
Introduction
In Slovakia the term nationalism has always had negative connotation.
Whoever had been marked as a nationalist was supposed to be oppressive to
others (minorities especially), xenophobic or even extremist. Even a sense of
proudness towards anything Slovak is considered to be negative. This is why
Slovakia always scores low in the National proudness survey (last time it was
around 30. - 34. place) and Slovaks are most proud when their national
sportsmen are internationally successful.
But back to the issue of nationalism and its negative meaning it has in
Slovakia. According to Auer’s paper on Nationalism in Central Europe what we
deal with in Slovakia is called either illiberal nationalism or ethnocentric
nationalism, which mean that this kind of nationalism seek to exclude other
ethnicities while it sees the dominant nation superior to them and it even should
seek to dominate others. The main difference between liberal and illiberal
nationalism is not only how it perceive the role of its own nation but it is also in
how nationalist approach the history of their nation and according to Tamir in
Auer’s paper, liberal nationalists should have a critical attitude towards the
history of their nation – they should seek change it, develop it or redefine what is
wrong. In Slovakia the present governing party had indeed redefined some
historical facts (I’m referring to the Old Slovaks concept, king Svätopluk, etc.)
however the ideas they present as facts are lies (claimed by many historians –
there were no Old Slovaks and Svätopluk was not a king) that are only meant to
prove their “Slovakness” (“they were the ones who discovered it”), create a sense
of proudness among the population and to further prove to the other nation or
minorities that “we were here long time ago”.
And here we arrive at the point of my photo essay which is to focus on the
fact that the building of monuments and statues, and providing new historical
“facts” (Old Slovaks) is only used in Slovakia for political purposes hence
nationalism (and I specifically mean the sense of proudness) is abused in order
to cover up real problems and to gain electorate. Because as this essay will show
in some pictures, what matter for the functioning of the state (education, health
care, state institutions – everything state owned basically) is mostly being
neglected by these “nationalists” and selfishness (or not caring for the nation) is
very popular among the Slovak politicians (hence the name selective nationalism
that I have chosen).
At first the paper will show and describe how and why some
statues/monuments are misused, then the paper will discuss the some of the
representations (building mostly) of why I find the Slovak nationalism to be
selective in its implementation.
Photos and pictures
Part I.
This statue of “King Svätopluk” came from the initiative of Robert Fico
and his party SMER. Therefore this statue was erected not because of a wide
consensus of the Slovak population but because of a few ruling elites. There was
also an unmistakeable political agenda behind the unveiling of the statue as it
happened so a week before parliamentary elections.
Besides calling Svätopluk king is not historically accurate as the is no
mentioning of Svätopluk having this title and another supposed fact associated
with Svätopluk is that he ruled Old Slovaks, which is also a false statement
created by Fico and SMER.
If there was a criticism of this statue and its importance, and placement,
these critics were always labelled as czechoslovakists and nostalgists from the
Habsburg monarchy era, thus they were against everything Slovak.
This picture shows the statue of Cyril and Metod in Komárno. There are
quite a few of Cyril and Metod statues around Slovakia (one university in Nitra is
named after Metod) and it is because they brought education and first alphabet
to Great Moravia (now the lands of Slovakia) hence many claim that they are
most important for Slovak culture.
The placement of this statue is meant as a signal for the Hungarian side
and also for the Hungarian minority (majority in Komárno) that we consider
ourselves as independent nation and Hungary no longer has a claim over us (to
antagonize Hungary) and also it can be a sign for the Hungarian minority that
they are living in Slovakia not Hungary as in Komárno a statue had been erected
for the first Hungarian emperor King Stephen I. (this was seen as an act of
provocation since as Fico claims hungarisation of Slovaks began with this
emperor).
The statue had been damaged a couple of time and government blamed
the locals however the manager of Matica Slovenská (Slovak heritage
foundation) claims that it was probably work of vandals not from Komárno but
from some national organizations (Jobbik from Hungary or Hlinkove gardy from
Slovakia).
This was another statue revealed by Fico days before parliamentary
elections.
This picture shows the Slovak Trianon Memorial. It was unveiled on the 90th
anniversary of signing the Trianon Treaty after which Hungary lost a significant
part of their territory - in Hungary it is still considered a greatest injustice done
to Hungary. The monument was unveiled by Slovak national party leader Ján
Slota who also clearly stated that this is our land and anything Hungarian is not
welcomed, the fact that this monument is placed directly on the border just
underlines his words.
The two pictures above show the statues of M.R. Štefánik who is considered to be
a Slovak hero (the hero claim was changing with regimes). During the
communist regime any Štefánik statue was not welcome as it symbolised the
Czechoslovak Republic hence the statues were removed and the one in
Bratislava (with the lion) was supposedly melted down.
But Štefánik was never really used as a form of political propaganda (not the way
Cyril and Metod was) but the circumstances of his death are sometimes used in
political context as a way to fight czechoslovakism – according to some
conspiracy theories his plane was shot down on orders by czechoslovakist
politicians (though no bullet holes in the plane were ever found).
The pictures above show important figures for Slovak culture. The first is a
statue of Anton Bernolák who was the first to come up with a concept of correct
Slovak language but was unsuccessful.
The second picture portrait the statue of Ľudovít Štúr who was successful in
codification of first correct Slovak language. Before Štúr the statue of Maria
Theresia occupied the square but was taken down as a unwanted symbol of the
monarchy.
The third picture shows the statue of P.O. Hviezdoslav who was famous Slovak
poet.
I have chosen these statues for they are not usually a target of any theatrics of
the Slovak nationalists as it happens with Cyril and Metod, Svatopluk or Trianon
memorial. The reason for this may be that the historical evidence of these figures
(their asset for Slovak culture) was either never unclear and they were real
nationalists although not in the negative sense but they were liberal nationalists
hence they sought to emancipate Slovaks in Hungary not to oppress other
nations.
Part II.
The first two pictures are of buildings in Komárno. I have chose the first building
as it is Matica Slovenská, which is supposed to be almost like a temple for
nationalist, at least it was during Habsburg empire. The way it looks in Komárno
is not really representative – an old building (wich can be overlooked) where
Matica reside together with casino and gambling club. The second picture is of
former hospital building. When Steven asked me whether I think it is closed I
have that it may be still open (but yes it was closed), as in my experience the
hospital buildings in Slovakia are not in a good shape.
The last two pictures are of a Komenius University building , which is in such a
bad shape that a balcony fell off in 2010. The reason why this building was not
renovated is that there is not enough money. However in 2013 the rektor of UK
has bought new car with the university money – a limusine Mercedes class E for
aroud 63 000 eur (apparently there was enough money for this car but not for
renovation of a collapsing building). The reason he offered is that he does not
feel safe in a cheaper car. He precisely said: “I cannot let myself get killed in a old
crock”. Clearly he got his priorities straight.
Conclusion
As it was apparent throught the essay from pictures as well as the
descriptions, our politicians tend to have a rather special kind of nationalistic
feelings. First of all they are nationalist but only when it comes to getting more
votes from the population (the erections of statues of Svätopluk, and Cyril and
Metod by Fico few days before elections). But when it comes to what matters
(state buildings or any state services) the nationalistic feelings just miracuosly
dissapear and suddenly there isn’t enough money for anything but what directly
affect the lives of our politicians and the people connected to them (the rektor of
UK was Karol Mičieta who has connections with SMER).
Another thing that I have noticed while writing this essay is how most of
Slovak politicians tend to live in the past (erecting of staues and looking for
historical roots) then in the present, which is in this essay represented by
collapsing old buildings.