The Statue of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Komárno

The Slovak national culture-heritage organization Matica slovenská decided in 1990 to erect a statue in Komárno to the two Slavonic missionaries, SS. Cyril and Methodius. They justified their request addressed to the town´s assembly on the grounds that the two missionaries crossed the Danube in 863 at this particular place and stepped on the territory of the Great Moravian Empire, which allegation, however, has not been historically proven. The assembly of the town with a Hungarian majority population rejected the request for placing the statue on a public square with the argument that the two saints are not interconnected with the town in any way. They offered an unused church for the statue´s placement instead. Matica slovenská did not accept the proposal, and they tried for several years to achieve that the almost 4 metres high statue—which has been built by that time—is placed in a public square. The wrangling over the statue´s emplacement had gradually taken on proportions and it had spread to countrywide levels, and was joined by not only locals but also top representatives of Slovak politics and of the Catholic Church. The sculptures were placed in 2003—without the town´s permission—above the entrance of the Komárno branch´s building of Matica slovenská, then in 2010, upon the intervention of the then prime minister Robert Fico, they placed it in a roundabout on a state-owned public road. This study presents the process and the background of this “statue war” lasting almost 20 years.

Eduard Nižňanský – Denisa Neštáková

The Antisemitism Policy in Slovakia and the Interventions of the Kingdom of Sweden between 1942 and 1944/45 Aimed at Rescuing in Favour of the Jews in Slovakia

This article describes a largely unknown Swedish effort to intervene in the deportations of Jews from Slovakia between 1942 and 1944. Swedish officials and religious leaders used their diplomatic correspondence with the Slovak government to rescue Jewish individuals and later on the remaining Jewish community of Slovakia from deportations with the help of their government and eventually of German officials. Despite the efforts of the Swedish Royal Consulate in Bratislava, the Swedish archbishop, Erling Eidem, and the Slovak consul, Bohumil Pissko in Stockholm, and despite efforts made by some Slovak ministries, the Slovak officials, including the then president of the Slovak Republic, Jozef Tiso, revoked further negotiations in the autumn of 1944. However, the negotiations between Slovakia and Sweden established grounds for actions for the protection of some Jewish individuals, but these were doomed to failure because of the political situation. Nevertheless, this plan and the previous diplomatic interventions are significant for a description of the almost unknown Swedish and Slovak efforts for saving the Jews of Slovakia. Repeated Swedish offers to shelter Jewish individuals and later the whole community could well have paved the way for larger-scale rescues. These, however, had never occurred, given the Slovak interest in deporting their own Jewish citizens, and later—the German occupation of Slovakia.

Situational Picture on the Roma Education in a Rural Region

The objective of this study is the description of the Roma education in the Harghita County of Romania, with a retrospective of the key moments taking place after the political turn in 1989. The analysis is based on my research conducted in the past three years, in the framework of which I dealt with the Roma education in the region, examining it from the following aspects: social–historical background, collection and analysis of data on Roma education, research of the activities and attitudes of teachers.

Language Question in Ukraine: A Legal or a Political Category?

After the turn of the millennium in Ukraine, numerous legal acts and other subordinate provisions affected negatively those speaking different languages than the official Ukrainian. In this period, the practice of language use regulations in several spheres of life changed fundamentally, in favour of the state language. Previously, the legal measures regulating the language of certain areas (taxation, finances, insurance, medicine, elections, food quality etc.) and of drafting, publication and application of official documents etc. were referred to the language law, but after 2000, all newly adopted legal acts provided for the exclusivity of the state language law. This tendency became particularly intense after the Orange Revolution when the Ukrainian nationalistic prevalence became evident within the government: the leadership of ministries connected to humanities (culture, education, minority issues) were exclusively assigned to nationally committed cadres. The ruining measures taken afterwards—disguised as education reform—included a series of regulations constituting major obstacles for education in the mother tongue in Ukraine.