A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historica 6. (Szeged, 2003)

TÓTH István: Szlovákok a megmaradás és a beolvadás válaszútján 1900-1948. A trianoni határokon belülre vetítve

ISTVÁN TÓTH ASSIMILATION OR SURVIVAL: SLOVAKIAN MINORITY IN HUNGARY BETWEEN 1900 AND 1948 (Reflected within the Borders Defined by the Trianon Peace Treaty) The present paper by the author is part of a more extensive work he intends to defend as a doctoral thesis in near future. The thesis itself contains five chapters one of which corresponds to the following study. In his introductory part the author looks briefly over the special literature of remarkable significance related to the topic following chronological order from the earliest publication to the publications of present day. The paper is made up of two parts. The first part introduces the factors of assimilation forced by the state and the government. Therefore the author deals with the minority language usage regulated by laws and decrees; however, these were not realized in everyday practice in court, education or local administration. At the same time he throws light upon how the process of industrialization, with special regards to the status of Slovakian landowners encouraged or blocked their assimilation to the majority nation. In this part of his paper the author reveals that in some areas of the Great Hungarian Plain Slovakian minority had an advantageous economic position which helped them develop a stronger self-identity as well as support their cultural activity. Among the laws passed by the government in order to accelerate assimilation one can find the Hungarianization (Magyarization) of geographical names as well as that of personal names. However, the Hungarianization (Magyarization) of personal names was to be realized only on personal request. In the paper these factors are also considered as decrees passed by the state. After this the author outlines the effects of the changes taken place in local administration as a result of modifying the country borders. The process resulted in the change of church languages is also discussed. The practice of language usage at schools is also presented. The author throws light upon the tendency of assimilation by presenting tables providing statistical data of the day. The problem of language usage and education is discussed in full details. The problems of language usage in the schools of the Slovakian minority are introduced during three time periods: from 1900 to 1918 with regards to the legal conditions in the Austro-Hungarian Dualist Monarchy; from 1918 to 1944 referring to the legal situation of the Slovakian minority reduced in number; and finally from 1944 to the end of 1948 affected by the new legal regulations. In the second part of his paper the author studies the factors of assimilation depending on the individual. These factors refer to the active or passive knowledge of the mother tongue, as well as to the knowledge of the language of other national groups they live together with, also to the change of language, to the degree of emigration and to the number of mixed marriages. He uses tables of surveys carried out by excellent scholars of statistics of the period. The paper reveals that the Slovakian minority in Hungary lived under such a pressure that they had no other choice but assimilation.