Following the track of Ariadne’s thread. Reflexions to the Miroslav Michela’s work “In Labyrinths of Trianon”
Following the track of Ariadne’s thread. Reflexions to the Miroslav Michela’s work “In Labyrinths of Trianon”

Summary/Abstract: In 2016, one of the most renowned Slovak historians Miroslav Michela published collection of his earlier essays and papers in the book “Trianon labirintusaiban” (“In Labyrinths of Trianon”) written in Hungarian language. A dominant part of the book is devoted to analysis of mutually influencing and overlapping Slovak-Hungarian national interpretation frames and author’s pursuits of their comprehension and explication. In the book, the author renders several substantial theses— challenging the classic Slovak national narrative—which from the part of Slovak historians have not been formulated yet in such a compact form. Therefore, the book shall by classified as a pioneering and, at the same time, successful attempt for archaeology of antagonism in the Slovak and Hungarian “regimes of truths” (in the Foulcauldian way). By publishing the book, the primal aim of the author was to supply the profession with raw material which would stir discussion about ideological starting points and various terminological and interpretative strategies in Slovak and Hungarian historical writing. Michela’s main auctorial intention is to make clear that both parts (the Slovak one and the Hungarian one as well) are responsible for the construction of antagonism between the two national communities, and especially those historians on both sides of the border who reproduce antagonism by their ethnocentric and non-analytic approach in history writing. My reflexive text, a reaction to his challenge, contains commentaries on significances and values which stem from the narrative strategies and discursive practices applied in the book. Last but not least, I attempt to explain to the reader why the book “In Labyrinths of Trianon” is pioneering in Slovak historiography and why one day it will become a significant material for studies of intellectual history in Slovakia and the whole Central European area. Containing an extensive critique of work of Slovak historians, the book belongs to a series of the most reflexive texts ever written in Slovak historiography (Ľubomír Lipták, Ján Mlynárik, Dušan Kovác, Roman Holec). The author argues why professional historiography in Slovakia is politized, polarized and burdened with a nationalistic paradigm in interpretation of history. However, the deficiency of the whole Michela’s narrative about bipolarization of Slovak history writing lies in presenting the two fractions (“established historians” versus “rehabilitators of Tiso’s regime”) equal in the amount of personnel, institutional anchoring, foreign acknowledgements, and partially in the quality of historiographical production as well. Despite considering the text of the book “In Labyrinths of Trianon” as a moderate condemnation of rehabilitators of the Tiso’s regime, it is one of the most erudite and very needed critiques produced in this agenda by Slovak scientists.

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