Publication Details
Changing Conception of Nationalism in Milan Hodža (Prewar Period and the Period between Two Wars)
Abstract
The paper discusses the conception of nationalism in the works of M. Hodža, an outstanding Slovak thinker an politician of the first four decades of the 20th century. As the analysis shows, he always saw the problems of nationalism as closely related to the position of Slovak nation in particular political conditions. His approach to nationalism changed from a critical one of the prewar period (refusing nationalism as a destructive, socially pathological element) to its understanding as a constructive, culturally stimulative force in the postwar period. In the author’s view this transformation of Hodža’s views was brought about by the new position of the Slovak nation in the first Czechoslovak Republic. Yet Hodža apprehended its degeneration into an aggresive form.