Preliminary Programme

Comparison will be realised on example of political elites in many countries and regions in two periods:
1. till 1918 – Kingdom of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, regions of future Poland included in Austria and region of future Slovakia included of Kingdom of Hungary
2. after 1918 – Poland, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria
From point of view of agrarian political elites and parties the research will present how the historical memory was formed, which parts of history were remembered (peasant uprisings, abolition of feudal subjection 1848 etc.), how were these events prepared and publicly celebrated and utilised, which symbols were used, how the leaders were dressed and other important details (speeches, monuments etc.). The national and international comparison of similarities and differences will present the state of political culture, intentions of agrarian political elites and social conditions in generally.
The question of common characteristic features is not identical with the issue of identity. Common characteristic features represent something that objectively exists as a result of common historical and cultural development. These common characteristic features are manifested by namely their differences from other region. On the other side, the question of identity presupposes presence of a subjective factor (nationalism, national stereotypes, form of agrarianism etc.).
The memory of every nation (state) is a very malleable thing, which easily succumbs to the most varied deliberate influences. (Show less)

Public celebrations, commemorations, monuments and memory places in Pierre Nora’s conception theory are slowly gaining ground in Central European historiographies. Similar process is happening in the case of researches focusing on the society’s elites, i.e. a social group which was marginalized from sociohistorical research by Central European historiography of totalitarian regimes. We are going to set open the subject of political elites and their public self-presentation with an example of German political elites and means of their presentation in agrarian regions of the Czech lands in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. And why is the topic defined right this way? Political elites of Sudeten Germans in Cisleithania were not the center of attention of Czech communist historiography, firstly, they were elites, and secondly they were elites of an ethnic group which was banished after the war.If we want to get better knowledge of national animosities in the period of social nacionalism in multi-ethnic regions in Europe, we have to come down to the level of regional history. In this aspect, the research of agrarian regions is very specific – they were inhabited by people with no defined identity, population which had just started to find its place in the forming modern society, and towards which the political elites from the centers paid more and more attention, because with the spreading right to vote they were seen as prospective voters. The way how to attract these ‘voters’ was to hold celebrations and commemorations and to create memory places. The remembrance culture didn’t so much reflect on the ‘completed‘ ethnic identity as it helped to co-create it. (Show less)