In the present study, the author focuses on selected military-historical contexts of the tragic events, known in the historical sphere as the so-called Prešov Revolt. In particular, this was the revolt of the Austro-Hungarian Army reserve units, which took place in Prešov from the night of the 31st October to the 1st November 1918. The aforementioned revolt was subsequently brought to an end by the intervention of the called-in assistance units and the mass execution of 43 people in the centre of the town. In this context, the author is interested only in the return of the reserve battalion of Infantry Regiment 67 to Prešov in 1918, the issue of the deployment and activities of the local military garrison in the period in question, the position of the revolt among other similar turning points in the reserve units of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and also the situation in the civilian sector. The author’s effort was to bring some new information, or the context of the so-called Prešov Revolt, and at the same time to draw the attention of researchers to other potential research directions.
In the introduction, the author informs that the Military exhibition of the 16th Home Guard (Patriotic) Infantry was inaugurated on 29 June 1918 in Banská Bystrica. The exhibition was installed in the rooms of the so-called small training ground of the regiment. The opening was attended by several social elites of the town of Banská Bystrica as well as the County of Zvolen, officers of the replacement battalion or the field regiment and other invited guests. The exhibition was aimed at presenting various works of art of the regiment members (active and reserve ones), originating since the outburst of the conflict. In addition, the military booty materials and other items captured at battlefields were exhibited. The central motive of this presentation was to document the so-called lived history, in this case the combat operation of the regiment and its activities in the background. At the same time, the authors wanted to emphasize the unity and symbiosis of the regiment and the local (Hungarian) society. In 1918, a catalogue was published from the exhibition, in Hungarian language. The catalogue was printed in the Filip Machold Printing Works in Banská Bystrica, on a relatively low quality “war” paper. The pages of the brochure were numbered, starting with a preface. At the time, the catalogue is archived in the Central Slovakia Museum in Banská Bystrica.
In his present study, the author deals with the case of criminal activities of two military deserters from the Czechoslovak Army. These were Ján Dulanský and Gašpar Peer, who, especially at the turn of 1920-1921, unsettled the surroundings of Bratislava (especially the villages in the Little Carpathians area) with their criminal activities. They committed approximately 34 thefts, burglaries, and robberies (including one homicide). At a hearing in July 1922, the Divisional Court in Bratislava sentenced them both to death by hanging, which was later adjusted to long imprisonment by way of pardon.
In his scientific study, the author undertook to clarify the issue of duels in Slovakia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which was paid little attention in Slovak historiography so far, and only in the perimeter of the officer’s environment. The author has extended the range of attention to civilians as well. On the basis of the analysis of legal norms of the era and the subsequent presentation of duels in the period press, the study provides an interesting insight into the phenomenon of the “duel of honour”, which was already an anachronism at the time, but despite the efforts of the relevant authorities it could not be eradicated. What is valuable is the author’s observation that although the legal norms stipulated relatively severe penalties for duels, the practice at the beginning of the new century was diametrically opposed, with each duel being specific and unique. They were not dominated by killings or serious injuries, and the punishments were also very light, mostly a few days of imprisonment.
In his contribution, the author follows the text of historian René Grégr published in the Vojenská história magazine in 1999. Specifically, he provides the reader with two redacted documents from the expertise on the potential use of a mini-submarine by the Hungarian Army on the Czechoslovak section of the Danube. The author of the report was the then commander of the Engineer Combat Regiment 6 in Bratislava, Colonel Josef Klicpera. The document was dated 21 February 1938.
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