Mezi slovanskou vzájemností a orientalismem : české zobrazování Podkarpatské Rusi a jejích obyvatel v publicistice dvacátých let minulého století

• Authors: Stanislav Holubec

Title variants

EN

Between Slav reciprocity and orientalism : the depiction of Carpathian Ruthenia, the land and its people, in Czech journalism of the 1920s

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

CS

a2_Další dvě zdejší etnické skupiny, Maďary a Židy, naproti tomu Češi zobrazovali převážně negativně, jako orientálce protikladné Evropanům, jejichž vliv je nutné marginalizovat. Podobně záporné hodnocení platilo také pro podkarpatské komunisty, ukrajinské emigranty a řeckokatolickou církev. Sami Češi se podle autora často charakterizovali jako racionální a efektivní nositelé západní civilizace, avšak někdy též jako příliš mírní nebo idealističtí. Zcela odlišný obraz Podkarpatské Rusi, jak ukazuje autor, nabízela publicistika československých komunistů. Ti zde byli ve dvacátých letech nejsilnější politickou stranou a jejich diskurz nastoloval především narativ české buržoazní diktatury, okupace a koloniálních praktik. V závěrečných kapitolách studie podává autor přehled o tom, jak byla od třicátých do současnosti Podkarpatská Rus přítomná v české kulturní paměti a jak je Československo přítomno v kulturní paměti a historii Zakarpatí.

EN

a1_The author examines Czech journalism of the 1920s to find out what ideas and images Czechs had at that time about Carpathian Ruthenia, the easternmost part of their new country, the Czechoslovak Republic. In his research on this topic, the author employs Orientalism, a concept that originates in postcolonial studies, and, after analyzing his sources, he presents Carpathian Ruthenia as it appeared to Czechs at that time, that is, as the Czechoslovak Orient, with the characteristic features of the exotic, the picturesque, the wild, the backward, and with a different sense of time. For Czechs (and to a lesser extent Slovaks too) who came to Carpathian Ruthenia after 1918 as clerks, teachers, and police, in the role of the new administrators, or as tourists, this was initially an almost unknown environment. The need to get one´s bearings in it, to integrate it into the new republic, and to legitimate the new government led the Czechs to conceive of the local Rusyns either as fellow Slavs who had for centuries suffered under Magyar oppression or as simple-minded natives who need civilizing. According to the author, the depiction of the Rusyns as ''good folk and heart'' was, however mixed with descriptions of them as indolent and irrational beings, with an inclination to drink and, in their naiveté, susceptible to Communist or Ukrainian nationalist propaganda. By contrast, the other local ethnic groups, the Magyars and the Jews, were depicted by Czechs in a mainly negative way, as Orientals, the opposite of Europeans, whose influence had to be minimalized. A similarly negative assessment applied also to the Communists of Carpathian Ruthenia, Ukrainian immigrants, and the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church.

EN

a2_Czechs, according to the author, often described themselves as rational and efficient bearers of Western Civilization, but were, they felt, sometimes excesively lenient or idealistic. A quite different picture of Carpathian Ruthenia, the author argues, was offered by the journalism of the Czechoslovak Communists. In the 1920s, the Communists were the strongest political party here and it was mainly their discourse that established the narrative about a Czech bourgeois dictatorship, occupation, and colonial practices. In the concluding sections of the article, the author presents a summary of how, from the 1930 to the present, Carpathian Ruthenia was present in Czech cultural memory and Czechoslovakia was present in the cultural memory and history of Carpathian Ruthenia.

Keywords

CS

historiografie; demografie; Rusíni; publicistika

EN

historiography; demography; Ruthenians; publicistic

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 529-562
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Stanislav Holubec

• Soudobé dějiny, redakce, Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i., Vlašská 9, 118 40 Praha 1, Czech Republic