Modernism: The Creation of Nation-States

Michal Chorváth: The Romantic face of Slovakia

MICHAL CHORVÁTH: THE ROMANTIC FACE OF SLOVAKIA Title: Romantická tvár Slovenska (The Romantic face of Slovakia) Originally published: Prague, Václav Petr, 1939 Language: Slovak The excerpts used are from Rudolf Chmel ed., Slovenská otázka v 20. storočí, (Bratislava: Kalligram, 1997), pp. 242–261. About the author Michal Chorváth [1910, Slovenské Pravno (Hun. Turócábrahámfalva) – 1982, Bratislava]: literary critic, essayist, poet and translator. Between 1928 and 1936 he studied medicine at Charles University in Prague. Later, between 1936 and 1940, he received degrees in philosophy and aesthetics from Comenius University in Bratislava . Chorváth belonged to the young pro-communist intelligentsia, with a close relationship to the avant-garde group DAV. In this period he wrote poetry and published in many left-wing literary and cultural journals. Later, his main interest shifted towards literary and drama criticism. In 1944, he took part in the ‘Slovak National Uprising’ and became an ardent advocate of the Uprising against its critics. After the Second World War, he occupied several official positions related to the political and cultural activities of the Communist Party. After the communist coup in 1948, he was elected a member of the ‘Slovak National Council,’ and lectured at Comenius University. Between 1953 and 1954 he was the editor-in-chief of the communist cultural weekly Kultúrny život (Cultural life) and also wrote for the daily Pravda (Truth). Together with Ladislav Novomeský he became a prominent theoretician of socialist realism as well as one of the major figures shaping Slovak communist cultural policy. After 1955, he turned again to literary and academic activity, working for publishing houses and the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He became politically active only after the suppression of the Prague Spring communist reform movement in 1968. He became a member of the federal Parliament in Prague and head of its cultural committee. Chorváth was one of the prominent advocates of a synthesis of communist ideology with Slovak culture, and in many ways instrumental in turning this idea into reality. Main works: Romantická tvár Slovenska [The romantic face of Slovakia] (1939); Za nové obzory [For new horizons] (1953); Cestami literatúry [On the paths of literature ] (1960); Davisti a film [The DAV-group and cinema] (1983); Básnické dielo Jána Kostru [Ján Kostra’s poetic work] (1962); Literárne dielo Jána Poničana [Ján Poničan’s literary work] (1972). MICHAL CHORVÁTH: THE ROMANTIC FACE OF SLOVAKIA 457 Context During the interwar period, powerful national ideologies presented a great challenge to radical socialist and communist politics in Czechoslovakia. In 1918, Slovak social democrats were supporters of the unified state with the Czechs. Later, the party merged with the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party, and, with Ivan Dérer as its principle leader, became a major site for promoting the ideals of Czechoslovakism, a political trend that aspired towards the unitary state of the Czechoslovak political nation. A completely different path, however, was taken by the left-wing branch of the social democrats , many members of which participated in the short-lived Slovak Soviet Republic in 1919—an offshoot of the Hungarian Soviet Republic—only to establish the Communist Party of Slovakia in January 1921 under the initiative of Slovak, German, Hungarian and Ruthenian radical socialists. In May of the same year, the party united with Czech, Polish, German and Jewish communists from Bohemia, creating the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPCZ) with numerous national sections and an increasingly centralized administration. As early as 1921, the issue of centralism versus autonomy was disputed among Slovak communists. Slovak nationalism, along with the changing policy of the Comintern regarding the national question, became a major issue of debate and contestation in the intra-party politics of the 1920s. At the same time, in the public sphere Slovak communists could hardly compete with Slovak autonomists represented by Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party, which styled itself as the sole defender of Slovak national interest in the Republic (see Martin Rázus, How to reach an agreement between the Czechs and Slovaks). After the Bolshevization of the party that was introduced by the new leadership of Klement Gottwald after 1929, the CPCZ launched a harsh critique of ‘bourgeois Czechoslovakia’ and ‘Czech imperialism,’ and included among its political instruments the right of self-determination for all Czechoslovakia’s nationalities up to the point of secession. This was to change only after the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and the turn...