O przeszłości Słowaków w średniowieczu i erze nowożytnej

On the Past of the Slovaks in the Middle Ages and the Modern EraThis review is about a book by Slovak authors dealing with the shaping of Slovak national identity (Martin Homza, Naďa Rácová, K vývinu slovenskej myšlienky do polovice 18. storočia. Kapitoly k základom slovenskej historiografie. Učebné texty, Bratislava 2010, Vydavateľstvo Stimul). The publication discusses the process of moulding myths and ideas, which during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries remained part of Slovak reflections about the local past. The author of the review concentrated on questions pertaining to the Middle Ages, treated as a further part of a discussion relating to assorted aspects of the Hungarian-Polish Chronicle, and proposed other, alternative interpretations of facts. M. Homza demonstrated, frequently applying methods of cultural anthropology, the development of dynastic cults whose purpose was to create an ideological foundation for the principality ruledbyKocelontheBalaton.Atthesametime,heaccentuatedtheroleplayedby St. Methodius, whose archbishopric for a brief time also encompassed the lands of Pannonia. Much attention is paid to the white and black legends of Svatopluk, the mightiest of the rulers of Great Moravia, who appeared in mediaeval historical writings of Central Europe and Rus’ as well as the Hungarian-Polish Chronicle. Naďa Rácová depicted the development of reflections about Svatopluk and the mission of Cyril and Methodius in Slovakian lands during the modern era. The publication deserves to be recognised as an interesting contribution to intellectual life in the lands of the Crown of St. Stephen across theages