1|2013 ISSN 2084-8250 | £4.99 | PLN 16.00 1(3)|2013 MY HERO, YOUR ENEMY TEACHING HISTORY IN CENTRAL WWW.VISEGRADINSIGHT.EU WWW.VISEGRADREVUE.EU EUROPE Oldřich Tůma Mária Schmidt Juraj Marušiak Gábor Gyáni Paweł Ukielski NEIGHBORS AND SHADOWS Pavol Rankov Viktor Horváth Krzysztof Varga Memory Beyond Nations interview with Péter Balázs REPORTAGE BY JÁNOS DEME Abandoned Soviet Barracks 1 (3)|2013 CIRCULATION: 6,000 FREQUENCY: twice a year EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Wojciech Przybylski (Res Publica Nowa, PL) ECONOMY Martin Ehl (Hospodářské noviny, CZ) INTELLIGENT MIND Éva Karádi (Magyar Lettre Internationale, HU) and Marta Šimečková (www.salon.eu.sk, SK) BOOKS Marek Sečkař (Host, CZ) INTERVIEW AND COMMUNITIES Máté Zombory (HU) VISEGRAD ABROAD AND LOOKING BACK/ARTS in cooperation with Europeum (CZ) ARTS SECTION GUEST EDITOR Anna Wójcik (Res Publica Nowa, PL) LANGUAGE EDITORS C. Cain Elliot (Res Publica Nowa, PL/USA) PROOFREADING Adrianna Stansbury (PL/USA), Vera Schulmann (USA) ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR Anna Wójcik (Res Publica Nowa, PL) PHOTO EDITOR Jędrzej Sokołowski (Res Publica Nowa, PL) GRAPHIC DESIGN PUBLISHED BY Fundacja Res Publica im. H. Krzeczkowskiego ul. Gałczyńskiego 5, 00-362 Warsaw, Poland tel.: +48 22 826 05 66 ORDERS AND INQUIRIES: [email protected] WEBPAGE www.visegradinsight.eu WEBZINE UPDATED WEEKLY, EDITED BY EUROPEUM www.visegradrevue.eu ON THE COVER: Soviet military painting (Kiskunlachaza, Hungary 2012) © Tamas Dezso We kindly thank researchers working for this issue: Jędrzej Burszta, Helena Kardová, Zofia Penza, Veronka Vaspál, Antoni Walkowski. With special thanks to Magdalena Cechlovska and Dáša Čiripiová. Visegrad Insight is published by the Res Publica Foundation with the kind support of the International Visegrad Fund. The magazine maintains full editorial independence and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily have to reflect or represent the official position of the International Visegrad Fund, the Visegrad Group, or the publisher. 2 VISEGRAD INSIGHT 1 (3)|2013 EDITORIAL THE HERO-ENEMY NARRATIVE HAS Memory PROVEN PARTICULARLY TENACIOUS IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY Beyond IN CENTRAL EUROPE. While it previously strengthened national identity based on unjustified preju- dice, today it is an aging relict of compromised ideology. Recent interest in post- war history has only made this simplistic division more obsolescent. If anything, the records and archives only intensify the ambiguity of the past. The same holds true for shifts in perspective — glances from the other side of borders. Region- Heroic ally, the first generation capable of sustaining such perspectives was the genera- tion born in the 1980s. WOJCIECH PRZYBYLSKI It is remarkable that Agnieszka Holland, a director from Poland, was the Editor-in-chief first to make a non-documentary film based on the story of Jan Palach, the Czech student who committed suicide by self-immolation in a protest after the Prague Spring (the HBO mini-series Burning Bush, 2013). Tellingly, the script writer and producer of the film were very young, not yet thirty. They and their audience seem to be mouthing the same question, “What was it really like?”. In this volume of Visegrad Insight we look at how this new generation seeks out such knowledge. Memories of Cold War imprisonment are already beginning to show signs Marta Mieszczanek of wear. Until recently, contemporary graduates in the region were deprived of access to unbiased history teaching about this past. History curricula usually ended with the trauma of the Holocaust. Teachers were thereby absolved of the difficult task of explaining the world of their own youth, leaving politicians to fight over the meaning of the recent past. But new education reforms have WOJCIECH PRZYBYLSKI brought further challenges. How should we teach about friends and enemies in Editor-in-chief a shared Europe? History textbooks are controlled by the state everywhere in the world. His- tory is an extension of official ideology (democratic or authoritarian) designed to shape common memory about the past and serve as the root of collective identification. Whether we speak of the memory of speeches by Martin Luther that demanded social equality or Jan Palach’s act in the name of freedom, all such events are inscribed in history textbooks to define who we are. Hardly anyone questions the political significance of history, but few are interested in its significance in light of Visegrad cooperation. We therefore endeavor to look beyond hero-enemy narratives to draw at- tention to how neighboring nations make use of history for their co-existence. We report on changes in history education, on the politics of memory, and on the economies behind it all. The problems and promises associated with com- mon history textbooks are also explored. Can we expect a common Visegrad history textbook in the future? This issue of Visegrad Insight asks what possibili- ties rest on the as-yet-unseen horizon. 3 CONTENTS EUROPE HISTORY TEACHING MY HERO, 6 Teaching History in Central Europe (survey) Oldřich Tůma, Mária YOUR ENEMY Schmidt, Juraj Marušiak, Gábor Gyáni, Paweł Ukielski Interview with Petr Vágner 12 My Hero Your Enemy. Interview with Petr Vágner 16 We Are the Stories We Tell. Historical Conciliation of Ethnic PAGE Tensions in Central Europe Dagmar 14 Kusá Former Visegrad Fund 22 Exploring History – Towards a director explains public Common Visegrad Image role of history research Piotr Bajda and debate in Central Europe THINK TANK WATCH IDEAS FOR THE REGION 26 Response of Think Tanks to EXPLORING HISTORY Visegrad Challenges Tomáš Strážay – TOwards A COMMON ECONOMY AND BUSINESS PROFITS OF MEMORY VISEGRAD Image 29 Rise of the Tycoons Václav Štětka Piotr Bajda 34 Exhibitions Are Not Spectator Sports. Interview with Łukasz Wróbel by Martin Ehl 40 New Dilemmas About Textbooks PAGE Wojciech Przybylski 22 INTERVIEw RECONCILIATION IN FOCUS 43 History Beyond Nations. Interview with Péter Balázs INTELLIGENT MIND PRACTICE AND STEREOTYPES 46 Neighbors and Shadows. Pavol Rankov in discussion with Viktor Horváth and Krzysztof Varga 50 History Education and Regime Change: The Case of Slovak History Textbooks Slávka Otčenášová 53 A History Lesson for Good Pupils Tamás Gomperz 56 The Ghost of Judeopolonia, or the Non-Existent Eastern European Confederation Zoltán Halasi VISEGRAD ABROAD PROGNOSIS AND EVALUATION 60 Poland’s Presidency in the Visegrad Group: More Than an Eastern Element Mateusz Gniazdowski 63 Should Central Europe Worry About Putin’s Return To The Kremlin? Václav Štětka from Oxford University on Jana Kobzová economic crisis and changing media ownership in PAGE 30 Central Europe 4 VISEGRAD INSIGHT 1 (3)|2013 COMMUNITIES THE ART OF REMEMBRANCE 68 The Art of Remembrance. Artistic Strategies to Remember the Roma Holocaust Anna Lujza Szász REPORTAGE SOVIET BARRACKS 75 Dead Ends of the Socialist Arms Race. Abandoned Soviet Barracks in Central Europe János Deme URBAN TIME TRAVEL 84 Remembering the City. A Guide Through the Past of Košice István Kollai PAGE BOOKS 43 THE ART OF MEMOIRS 86 First Step Toward Hope. Introduction HISTORY BEYOND NATIONS to Jan Balabán’s prose Interview with Péter Balázs by Petr Hruška How researchers from the Center for EU Enlargement Studies look 88 Eye to Eye Jan Balabán at units larger than nations 92 Lost in Translation Jane deLynn ARTS - LOOKING BACK DEAD ENDS WHO DEFINES CENTRAL EUROPEAN PAGE OF THE ART? 75 96 The other (?) Europe Piotr Kosiewski SOCIALIST 100 Theatrical Encounters between Poland and Hungary Judit Barta ARMS OPPORTUNITIES AND RACE ANNOUNCEMENTS János Deme NEW V4 GRANT OPPORTUNITIES 106 Future of the Fund. Interview with Abandoned Soviet Karla Wursterová Barracks in Central Europe ESSAY DEMOCRATIZING ART OF REMEMBRANCE THE 108 A Different Country Marcin Król OTHER (?) EUROPE Piotr Kosiewski on what Central European art actually ON THE COVER Soviet military painting is and how and where (Kiskunlachaza, it is defined Hungary 2012) © Tamas Dezso The author is a documentary fine art photographer working on long-term projects focusing on the margins of society in Hungary, Romania, and in other parts of Eastern Europe. His work has been exhibited worldwide and has been published PAGE in TIME, The New York Times, National Geographic and Le 96 Monde Magazine, among others. 5 Teaching ISTORY i n Central Europe H6 VISEGRAD INSIGHT 1 (3)|2013 HISTORY TEACHING EUROPE [survey] We asked prominent historians with different professional backgrounds from four countries ISTORY about the role that teaching history and the politics of memory play in the region. H 7 EUROPE HISTORY TEACHING OldřICH TůMA – What do you is a Czech historian and director of the Institute of Con- temporary History at the Academy of Science in the Czech Republic. His recent work is an analysis of totalitarian re- think is specific gimes and their mechanisms. Various oral history projects developed under his direction are aimed at reconstructing to the teaching the historical memory of Czechoslovakia after 1948. of history in eaching history – and also exploring it and publishing articles about it – is not easy anywhere in the world. The old model of one big (and usually national) story Central Europe? that describes the past in order to explain and justify the present and future only rarely remains valid. Not Tonly historians, but also journalists, Internet broadcasters, and many other so called “amateurs” consider and analyze – What use history more critically than before. It is easy to teach history where freedom of the press, speech and/or education is lim- ited. However, this approach only postpones challenges. (or abuse) do we A binding perspective on past claims breaks down into many partial and subjective outlooks. It is therefore more cha- otic and polemical, as it offers different competing views. Also, make the attitude toward historical documents and sources of all kinds has changed considerably in the past decade. Materials that were previously restricted and accessible only to erudite of history? experts are now available to the broader public.