http://www.economist.com/world/europe/d ... d=10926692
Slovakia's history
Textbook wars
Mar 27th 2008 | BRATISLAVA
An intolerant attitude to a controversial history
HISTORY textbooks are a test of a country's tolerance. Do they bristle with grudges, or do they see other countries' point of view? In Germany, for example, historians have worked successfully on joint textbooks with Polish and French colleagues.
But in Slovakia, where relations with the former imperial power, Hungary, have deteriorated sharply since 2006, the mood has swung the other way. The education minister, from the Slovak National Party, has sidelined plans for a joint history textbook. That follows a decision by Slovakia's parliament last year to endorse the Benes decrees, which legalised brutal measures against the country's supposedly Hitlerite German and Hungarian populations in 1945-48.
Shortly afterwards, Hungary's president, Laszlo Solyom, paid a “private” visit to Komarno, a majority Hungarian town in Slovakia. That infuriated the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, who said that “Slovaks cannot allow political representatives of Hungary to behave in southern Slovakia as if they were in northern Hungary”. The two countries have not spoken at a high level since.
Although the Hungarian minority is bigger in Romania, at least 500,000 Hungarians live in Slovakia. This reflects the fall of the Habsburg empire and the Treaty of Trianon 90 years ago, a moment of national rebirth for Slovaks, but of dismemberment and humiliation for Hungarians. Some Hungarian textbooks still call Slovakia “Upper Hungary”.
Joining the European Union, which both countries did in May 2004, was supposed to salve these wounds. “EU members cannot isolate themselves in a fabricated history,” says Attila Simon, a member of the joint historians' committee. It will produce its textbook as planned next year, along the lines of those already used in Slovakia's Hungarian-language schools.
Yet the Slovak National Party dismisses the book as the work of Marxists. As the education ministry controls textbooks and the curriculum, it has little chance of getting into classrooms. Officials insist that patriotism need not thwart reconciliation. “National pride is a necessary prerequisite for appreciation of other nations' history,” says Dusan Caplovic, the deputy prime minister responsible for minorities.