Slovenské dejiny ako vrcholné dielo Františka Hrušovského
(Slovak History as Masterpiece by František Hrušovský)
Róbert Letz
Download PDFLETZ, Róbert. Slovak History as Masterpiece by František Hrušovský. In Historický zborník, Vol. 34, 2024, No. 1, pp. 47–70.
Abstract: The historian František Hrušovský’s work „Slovak History“ ranks among the basic history books on Slovak modern historiography. It was created thanks to Hrušovský’s scientific potential and at the same time his work as a history teacher and headmaster at the Gymnázium – grammar school in Kláštor pod Znievom. He probably wrote his work from 1936, i.e. in the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic. However, it was published during the changed polity and political situation in October 1939, i.e. during the First Slovak Republic. It was published in a total of six editions (the first three in 1939, the next three in 1940). The significance of the work „Slovak History“ is that it was the first modern synthesis of Slovak history, which included not only a scientific, but also a popularizing and didactic dimension. Hrušovský’s concept of Slovak history as the history of an independent Slovak nation, living on its territory since the 5th century, followed the concepts of František V. Sasinek and Július Botto, but at the same time it was also a successful attempt at an organic connection with the earlier works of Samuel Timon, Juraj Sklenár, Juraj Fándly, and Ján Baltazár Magin. At the same time, it defined itself against the concepts of Czechoslovak or Hungarian history.
Keywords: František Hrušovský; Slovak Historiography; Syntheses of Slovak History.