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

3. The settlement structure of Slovakia

Urban structure in Slovakia

rather than language. Simultaneously with the appearance of linguistic nationalism in the 18th century, or, even more typically, in the 19th century, the structure of the economy changed. Small-scale production was replaced by large factories. Meanwhile, economic dynamism accelerated and the economy prospered in the period of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Consequently, the Hungarian-speaking residents of the Hungarian state were an overwhelming majority in the towns of Felvidék, too. This was how these towns became towns with a Hungarian ethnic majority, but they preserved the multinational character of their long historical past. In Felvidék, multilingualism meant that Hungarian, German and Slovak languages were used to different extents in the individual regions. Besides, further ethnic groups and language communities also had their own places (Czechs, Polish, Ukrainians, Ruthenians, Russians, Jews, etc.). In modern terms, towns in Felvidék were really multicultural. Multilingualism, the existence of many different cultures, many different working cultures, ways of living and the many and ever-changing occupations were all signs of multiculturalism. This was what the new Czech, in a wider sense the new Czechoslovak power, wanted to alter in order to establish a homogeneous, monolingual and one-ethnicity state as well as monolingual towns, by means of state administration.

As a result of multilingualism, the ethnicity status of those living in Felvidék was rather uncertain. Czech and Slovak publicists were the ones to complain most at the time of the censuses about Slovak consciousness not being strong enough. Therefore they suggested asking about people’s mother tongues, since a part of the population being questioned for the censuses had no sufficiently explicit national consciousness. Antonín Boháč, the head of department of the National Statistical Office and the best-known authority on national statistics, also shared the same opinion both in 1921 and 1930. ‘In former Hungarian Felvidék, i.e. in Slovakia and Sub-Carpathia, there are villages that still show absolute indifference concerning ethnicity’ (Cited in Popély 1991, pp. 52, 75). Especially in areas with mixed ethnicities, the mixed or bilingual population had no explicitly developed national consciousness. Due to their dual identity, most people could not even decide what ethnicity they really were. What is more, they could not even name their actual mother tongue.

However, the same held true of the Hungarian population, too, particularly in settlements with mixed ethnicities, on the edge of the Hungarian ethnic block, and in sporadic settlements. Prior to the cen51