Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)

6. Towns along the Hungarian and Slovak border

Cross-border relations

include Galanta, Senec, Sered' and Šaľa, and the towns with unfavourable economic performance are Levice, Veľký Krtíš, Lučenec, Rimavská Sobota, Rožňava, Revúca, Trebišov and Michalovce.

6. 2 Cross-border relations

On a historical scale, new countries with new borders were marked out around Hungary after World War I. The decision of the great powers, which was based on superior strength, has led to a number of tragic events since then. Therefore, the steps taken recently to solve the contradictory situations caused by the great powers are in the focus of interest.

After the establishment of the Czechoslovak state after 1918, it took years to organize the separation along the border that had been marked out artificially. While the cooperation between the dismembered Hungary and the new states, among them Czechoslovakia, was getting ever weaker, it was difficult for the people along the border, due to their former way of living, to take notice of the new situation. Only gradually could the Czechoslovak power enforce restrictions on cross-border travel for family or business reasons. As a result of unchanged ownership, people also cultivated the fields that were in the territory of the other state.

The second establishment of the Czechoslovak state in 1945 and the introduction of the communist dictatorship implemented the state form that confirmed the borders and had them accepted in the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947. This coincided with the ethnic cleansing in Czechoslovakia, during which German people were forced to leave the new country and there was an attempt to carry out the complete elimination of the Hungarian population. The victorious powers, however, did not approve the liquidation of such a huge crowd of people, so the original plan was implemented only partially and temporarily. They tried to achieve their aim by deportation, denationalization, population exchange, re-Slovakization or the simple expelling of persona non grata. With communist dictatorships established, the relations between the two countries had to be consolidated in the spirit of peoples’ friendship and brotherhood, therefore the main aim of the assimilation of Hungarian people became Czechoslovakization of the mind and language usage in the past, and their Slovakization at present. To achieve this goal, there are open or hidden methods applied in every field of society, from schools to workplaces and when utilizing services. By such methods assimilation is forced again and again.

153