Publication details
Broken Hopes? Imagining Byzantium as a Federating Force in 1920s Czechoslovakia
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | The Czechoslovak participation in the first Congress of Byzantine Studies in 1924, though modest, reflects the ambitions of a young state, established in 1918, to position itself within an international academic landscape dominated by well-established traditions. Represented by three scholars from diverse academic backgrounds – Matija Murko, Alois Grünwald, and Karel Svoboda – this delegation highlights the intellectual diversity of a country undergoing an identity-building process. Matija Murko, the spokesperson for this delegation, emphasized during the congress and in his subsequent writings the importance of Byzantine and Slavic studies for the Czechoslovak Republic, particularly within the framework of its political and cultural project of Slavic unity. This vision, supported by intellectual and political figures such as Lubor Niederle and Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, took shape in the creation of key institutions, such as the Slavonic Institute in Prague and the journal Byzantinoslavica. However, this dream of Slavic unity faced the complex political realities of the interwar period, marked by international upheavals and rising internal tensions. This paper explores this pivotal period through two main angles: the role of Byzantine studies in the First Czechoslovak Republic and the gradual failure of the Slavic unity project in the face of political and social challenges. |
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