CONTENTS - NUMBER 1, JUNE 1997

A r t i c l e s

MOJMÍR BENŽA: Ethnic Composition of Present-day Europe ...3
RICHARD MARSINA: Ethnogenesis of Slovaks ...15
JÁN BUNČÁK: Approaches to the Social Transformation of Slovakia ...24
RÓBERT ROŠKO: On Democratism of the Citizens of Slovakia Comparatively ...34
PAVOL PETRUF: French Diplomacy and Some Aspects of the 1946 Elections in Czecho-Slovakia ...47
SUSUMU NAGAYO: Slovakia and Hungary - the Most Complicated Bilateral Relations in Central Europe - Focusing on the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Problem ...64
IVETA NÁMEROVÁ: Contemporary Slovak Society and Agrarian Reform ...77
MARIÁN GÁLIK: On the Necessity of the "Third Covenant" and Interreligious Understanding: Confessions of an Idealist ...86

R e p o r t s  a n d  B o o k  R e v i e w s

Rural Employment and Rural Regeneration in central Europe By Iveta Námerová and Nigel Swain...94
A New Project of Slovak EthnologyBy Rastislava Stoličná...97
Atlas ľudovej kultúry Slovákov v Maďarsku (Stav súčasnej existencie a poznania) A magyarországi szlovákok népi kultúrájának atlasza (A mai ismeretek és gyakorlat alapján) By Juraj Zajonc...98

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ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF PRESENT-DAY EUROPE

Mojmír Benža
Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Jakubovo nám. 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

Everybody, who intends to pursue the issues of the rights and the status of persons belonging to ethnic minorities in Europe, should primarily realize the political, demographic and ethnic composition of the whole of Europe, which is the result of long, complex and often also conflicting historical development. Within European international politics, the issues of ethnic minorities and the rights and position of persons belonging to them have in recent years been presented as if these problems existed only in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as if persons belonging to ethnic minorities lived only there. However, this is not true, members of ethnic minorities live in all European countries, including Western Europe.
pp. 3-14

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ETHNOGENESIS OF SLOVAKS

Richard Marsina
Faculty of Humanities, University of Trnava,
Hornopotoèná 23, 918 43 Trnava, Slovakia

The generally prevailing opinion is that Slovaks are descendants of the Slavs (Slovens) who lived in this territory during and before the 9th century. The Hungarian historian J. Karácsonyi (1901) was the only one to suppose that the local indigenous Slavs had died out or had become Magyars and that contemporary Slovaks are the progeny of the White Croats who arrived from the north and north-west by the twelfth century. The Czech historian Václav Chaloupecký (1923) maintained that the Slovaks are really Czechs by origin but their almost 1000-years' existence in the Kingdom of Hungary led to their separation from the Czechs. This is not correct since, according to contemporary sources (Annals of Fulda) the Moravians (living to the west of the Slovaks) were also considered to be an independent people in the 9th century. The Slovaks also have to be regarded as an independent people, who have not created their own ethnonymum but their female is "Sloven-ka", language is "sloven-ský", the country is "Sloven-sko".
pp. 15-23

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APPROACHES TO THE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION OF SLOVAKIA

Ján Bunčák
Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 913 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The social changes taking place in Slovakia since 1989 have had a number of consequences for the everyday life of its inhabitants. A new nation-state with a democratic political regime has been formed, a market economy has been restored, human values, human aspirations, and models of behaviour, the way of life has also changed. Democracy and the market mechanism create a new milieu which provides new possibilities and simultaneously limits other earlier habituated modes of satisfying demands. The consequences of democracy and the market mechanism in economic life have changed the way of life of the people.
pp. 24-33

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ON DEMOCRATISM OF THE CITIZENS OF SLOVAKIA COMPARATIVELY

Róbert Roško
Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The article rests on the database obtained in summer 1995 within the Czech-Polish-Slovak research project "Actors and strategies of social transformation and modernization". The author compares the democratization potential of Slovak citizens (956 respondents) with the compatible potential of Czech citizens (1,233) and Polish citizens (2,000). In agreement with the project he underlines the necessity to distinguish three types of civil actors: individual, associated in groups (political parties, civic movements), and generalized (state administration).
pp. 34-46

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FRENCH DIPLOMACY AND SOME ASPECTS OF THE 1946 ELECTIONS IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA

Pavol Petruf
Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The article examines the question of which issues of the 1946 parliamentary elections in Czecho-Slovakia received primary attention from French diplomats working in Prague and in Bratislava: the issue concerning the elections, which was in the centre of the interest of French diplomats, namely to what extent the election results would affect the solution of the relations between the Czechs and Slovaks after the war, is analysed separately. Some confidential talks between the Ambassador Maurice Dejean and President Edvard Beneš concerning the electoral prognoses and election results are described and commented on.
pp. 47-63

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SLOVAKIA AND HUNGARY - THE MOST COMPLICATED BILATERAL RELATIONS IN CENTRAL EUROPE - FOCUSING ON THE GABÈÍKOVO-NAGYMAROS PROBLEM

Susumu Nagayo
Waseda University, 1-104 Totsuka-machi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-50, Japan

It is undeniable that after the collapse of the socialist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, the bilateral relations between Slovakia and Hungary, which had been apparently calm during the previous forty years, again turned into a grave international issue. Especially after the formation of the independent Slovak Republic on January 1, 1993, Slovak-Hungarian relations became sharper and more direct in character, to become the most complicated bilateral relations in Central Europe.
pp. 64-76

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CONTEMPORARY SLOVAK SOCIETY AND AGRARIAN REFORM

Iveta Námerová
Research Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics,
Trenèianska 55, 824 80 Bratislava, Slovakia

The paper is concerned with the problems of agrarian reform in Slovakia in a historical context. It looks at the development of cooperatives, state farms and private agriculture.
In 1990, research was done on views of privatization in agriculture. Later development confirmed that interest in private enterprise was less than expected.
In the framework of the international research project "Rural Employment and Rural Regeneration in Post Socialist Central Europe", the impact of transformation on the countryside and agriculture was studied. The research was done in cooperation with Liverpool University, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. It was supported by funds from the European Union. The transformation process in the countryside was accompanied by negative phenomena: increased unemployment and growing criminality. Positive developments can be seen in the area of small and middle sized businesses.
pp. 77-85

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ON THE NECESSITY OF THE "THIRD COVENANT" AND INTERRELIGIOUS UNDERSTANDING: CONFESSIONS OF AN IDEALIST

Marián Gálik
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

This is slightly enlarged speech delivered at the opening session of the workshop entitled: The Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact, June 23-28, 1996, at the Maiersdorf Faculty Club, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Mount Scopus. Its aim is to point out the importance of one of the most weighty problems of our times: the spirit of interreligious understanding on the basis of the biblical legacy.
pp. 86-93

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REPORTS AND BOOK REVIEWS

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