O sensie historii
History and meaning

Summary/Abstract: In the translated text – selected from the samizdat volume Pojetí českých dějin (The Concept of Czech History) published in January 1986 – the author defines his position in the ongoing dispute about the meaning of Czech history. In the first part, he analyses different defini¬tions of “meaning” and their applicability to national identity and history. Kohák argues that although history never imposes only one way of looking at it, objective facts may exclude some ways of interpretation. Looking at Czech national history, he concludes that we should consider the existence of contradictory, yet equally important elements as its defining factor. The second part of the study focuses on the life of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and his Czechoslovak idea. Kohák defines ideal Czechoslovakia not as a national state, but a “good state”, providing all of its inhabitants with equal rights and opportunities. He also points out the dissonance between Masaryk’s idea of a just and democratic state and the heavy reliance of interwar Czechoslovakia on Czech nationalism.

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