In Labyrinths of Trianon”
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Following the track of Ariadne’s thread. Reflexions to the Miroslav Michela’s work “In labyrinths of Trianon” Ondrej Ficeri, Centre of Social and Psychological Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Social Sciences, Košice, [email protected] FICERI, Ondrej. Following the track of Ariadne’s thread. Reflexions to the Miroslav Michela’s work “In labyrinths of Trianon”. Človek a spoločnosť [Individual and Society], 2016, roč. 19, č. 4, s. 101-111. Abstract: In 2016, one of the most renowned Slovak historians Miroslav Michela published collection of his earlier essays and papers in the book “Trianon labirintusaiban” (“In Labyrinths of Trianon”) written in Hungarian language. A dominant part of the book is devoted to analysis of mutually influencing and overlapping Slovak-Hungarian national interpretation frames and author’s pursuits of their comprehension and explication. In the book, the author renders several substantial theses—smashing the classic Slovak national narrative—which from the part of Slovak historians have not been formulated yet in such a compact form. Therefore, the book shall by classified as a pioneering and, at the same time, successful attempt for archaeology of antagonism in the Slovak and Hungarian “regimes of truths” (in the Foulcauldian way). By publishing the book, the primal aim of the author was to supply the profession with raw material which would stir discussion about ideological starting points and various terminological and interpretative strategies in Slovak and Hungarian historical writing. Michela’s main auctorial intention is to make clear that both parts (the Slovak one and the Hungarian one as well) are responsible for the construction of antagonism between the two national communities, and especially those historians on both sides of the border who reproduce antagonism by their ethnocentric and non-analytic approach in history writing. My reflexive text—a reaction to his requisition—contains commentaries on significances and values which stem from the narrative strategies and discursive practices applied in the book. Last but not least, I attempt to explain to the reader why the book “In Labyrinths of Trianon” is pioneering in Slovak historiography and why one day it will become a significant material for studies of intellectual history in Slovakia and the whole Central European area. Containing an extensive critique of work of Slovak historians, the book belongs to a series of the most reflexive texts ever written in Slovak historiography (Ľubomír Lipták, Ján Mlynárik, Dušan Kovác, Roman Holec). The author argues why professional historiography in Slovakia is politized, polarized and burdened with a nationalistic paradigm in interpretation of history. However, the deficiency of the whole Michela’s narrative about bipolarization of Slovak history writing lies in presenting the two fractions (“established historians” versus “rehabilitators of Tiso’s regime”) equal in the amount of personnel, institutional anchoring, foreign acknowledgements, and partially in the quality of historiographical production as well. Despite considering the text of the book “In Labyrinths of Trianon” as a moderate condemnation of rehabilitators of the Tiso’s regime, it is one of the most erudite and very needed critiques produced in this agenda by Slovak scientists. Keywords: Trianon. Slovak-Hungarian relations. National narrative. Discussion. Critique of Slovak historiographie. Note: This text is an English version of the Slovak original, which is available at: https://sav-sk.academia.edu/OndrejFiceri Historian Miroslav Michela, a representative of the middle generation among Slovak historians employed mostly abroad, has—in a relatively short time—gained respect not only in foreign scholarly circles, but also in domestic ones, which was recognizable this year (2016), when he 101 Človek a spoločnosť [Individual and Society], 2016, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 101-111. Following the track of Ariadne’s thread. Reflexions to the Miroslav Michela’s work “In labyrinths of Trianon” was almost called to the chair of the Slovak Historical Association (he was missing only three voices to the appointment). There are not many historians coming from Slovakia with similar social capital and status. His Slovak-Hungarian bilingualism, knowledge of wold languages, a prestigious institutional base in Czechia and Slovakia, transnational problematization of his research subjects and its interdisciplinary operationalisation, yet adopting the most actual scholarly concepts, it all together allows to classify him as a “national” historian only with regard to his birthplace (Komárno in Slovakia). Due to a technique of his work, it is possible to label Miroslav Michela as an faithful operator of „memory work“ (in the sense of Ricoeur). The narration of his works is characterized by attempts for a reconciliation of historiographic polemics, criticism of injustices and disclosure of grievances, first of all in the Slovak-Hungarian relations. Undoubtedly, this are the qualitative reasons why representatives of the Slovak Scholarly Board in Hungary and Institute of History of Hungarian Academy of Sciences decided to make available for the broader Hungarian public a collection of his scholarly articles and reflexive texts published in one monograph with a symbolic name “In Labyrinths of Trianon – History, Politics of Memory and Parallel Histories in Slovakia and Hungary”.1 By publishing the book in Hungarian, a Slovak reader is anyhow left short for, because all of its three thematic blocks (I. establishment of Czechoslovakia and the reaction on Lord Rothemere’s campaign;2 II. memory studies and the Slovak-Hungarian relations;3 III. the character of Slovak historiography4) have been already published in a form of journal studies in Slovakia or Czechia in the period of 2004–2015, hence, they are very well known in scholarly circles. For a laic reader, on the other hand, a disadvantage of the book could constitute the fact, that various chapters of the book—originally addressed to scholarly audience—were published basically without any comprehensive supplements of the text, and therefore, many of noted historiographic polemics are not explained into details and could be perceived as unclear for a laic reader without any farther additional reading. In respective chapters, the author does not handle the chosen research areas in complexity, his primal aim was to bring raw material which would stir a discussion about 1 Trianon labirintusaiban : Történelem, emlékezetpolitika és párhuzamos történetek Szlovákiában és Magyarországon. Békéscsaba; Budapest : Magyarországi Szlovákok Kutatóintézete; Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 2016, p. 272. 2 Vznik Československa a slovenská otázka 1918-1920 [online]. In Moderní Dějiny - Vzdělávací portál pro učitele, studenty a žáky [cit. 15. 9. 2016]: <http://www.moderni-dejiny.cz/clanek-vznik-ceskoslovenska-a-slovenska- otazka-1918-1920-2221/>; Reakcia slovenských politických kruhov a tlače na Rothermerovu akciu (1927–1928). In Historický časopis, 2004, vol. 52, no. 3, p. 503-522. 3 Pamäť, politika a Trianon : kontextualizácia "nového začiatku" v novodobých slovensko-maďarských vzťahoch. In Slovanský přehled, 2007, vol. 93, no. 4, p. 521-528; Svätoštefanská tradícia na Slovensku v medzivojnovom období. In Národ - cirkev - štát. Eds. Tatiana Ivantyšynová. Bratislava : Spoločnosť pre dejiny a kultúru strednej a východnej Európy; Centrum pre európsku politiku; Historický ústav SAV, 2007, p. 119-127; Percepcia svätého Štefana na Slovensku v medzivojnovom období. In HLAVAČKA, Milan - MARÉS, Antoine - POKORNÁ, Magdaléna (eds.). Paměť míst, událostí a osobností : Historie jako identita a manipulace. Praha : Historický ústav AV ČR, 2011, p. 218- 243; Národné ujmy ako naratívna konštanta. K oficiálnym reprezentáciám Trianonu a prvej Viedenskej arbitráže v prvej polovici 20. storočia. In Dvě století nacionalismu : Pocta prof. Janu Rychlíkovi. Ed. Michal Macháček. Praha : Masarykův ústav a Archiv AV ČR; Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta, 2014, p. 272-283; Človek vo vojne a vojna v človeku – slovenské zamyslenie [online]. In Moderní Dějiny - Vzdělávací portál pro učitele, studenty a žáky [cit. 15. 9. 2016]: <http://www.moderne-dejiny.sk/clanek/clovek- vo-vojne-a-vojna-v-cloveku-slovenske-zamyslenie/>; There is also one unpublished conference paper which belongs to the third thematic block: Welcoming the Admiral on a White Horse: on the Representations of Horthy’s Regime in Slovak Historical Culture. 4 Pripomínanie a kanonizovanie minulosti. Úvaha na margo niektorých diskusií o dejinách Slovenska [online]. In Forum historiae : odborný internetový časopis pre históriu a príbuzné spoločenské vedy, 2008, vol. 1, p. 1-13 [cit. 15. 9. 2016]: < http://www.forumhistoriae.sk>; Strážcovia strateného času. Diskusie o dejinách a historici na Slovensku. In Historický časopis, 2011, vol. 59, no. 4, p. 617-637. 102 Človek a spoločnosť [Individual and Society], 2016, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 101-111. Following the track of Ariadne’s thread. Reflexions to the Miroslav Michela’s work “In labyrinths of Trianon” mutual ideological starting points and various terminological and interpretative strategies in Slovak and Hungarian historiographies. As a consequence, I do not regard this paper—my reaction to his requisition—as a regular book review in the traditional sense of this publication category, but rather as a compilation of commentaries on significances and values which stem form narrative strategies and discursive practices