Ludovít Štúr
Encyclopedia
Ľudovít Štúr known in his era as Ludevít Velislav Štúr, was the leader of the Slovak
national revival in the 19th century, the author of the Slovak language
standard eventually leading to the contemporary Slovak literary language. Štúr was an organizer of the Slovak volunteer campaigns during the 1848 Revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary
, and a member of the Diet
of the Kingdom of Hungary, as well as a politician, Slovak poet, journalist, publisher, teacher, philosopher, linguist.
This situation did not change until the 1840s, when Ľudovít Štúr became the chief figure of the Slovak national movement.
At the same time, modern nations started to develop in Europe and in the Kingdom of Hungary. But the Hungarians favoured the idea of a centralized state, although the Magyar population numbered only some 40% of the population of the Hungarian Kingdom in the 1780s. This was unacceptable to other nations, including the Slovaks, and they expressed their disapproval.
(preparatory high school and college) in Pressburg (Pozsony, modern Bratislava
) where the Czech-Slav Society (also called the "Society for the Czechoslovak Language and Literature") had been founded in 1829. Initially, the society operated in accordance with the ideas of Ján Kollár
, a Protestant minister, poet, and academic, supporter of Czech-Slovak unity and of the users of the language of Bible of Kralice
. In the latter part of the decade, when Ľudovít Štúr came to the fore, its activities intensified. In the spirit of European Romantic nationalism
and Pan-Slavism
, these young Slovaks burned with the idea of national independence. The most prominent representatives of the new generation were, along with Ľudovít Štúr, Jozef Miloslav Hurban
(1817–1888) and Michal Miloslav Hodža
(1811–1870).
Ľudovít Štúr expressed his philosophy in one sentence: "My country is my being, and every hour of my life shall be devoted to it." Štúr, a Lutheran, was aware of the fact that Czech, the language of educated Lutherans, was not enough to carry out a national campaign, and that Slovaks, if they were ever to become autonomous and be an effective force against Magyarization
, needed a language they could call their own. The central Slovak dialect was chosen as the basis of a literary language. Štúr's codification work was disapproved by Ján Kollár and the Czechs, who saw it as an act of Slovak withdrawal from the idea of a common Czecho-Slovak
nation and a weakening of solidarity. But the majority of Slovak scholars, including the Catholics (using Bernolák's codification until then), welcomed the notion of codification. The standard language thus became an important political tool.
Štúr's notions (Autonomous Slovak area in the Kingdom of Hungary, a Slovak Diet, schools etc.) came to fruition simultaneously with the 1848 Revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary, which dealt with the liberation of peasants from serfdom
and other national and ethnic issues. Hungarian revolutionaries called for Hungary’s separation from Vienna
, but at the same time they wanted to see the Kingdom of Hungary one nation with one language and one educational system. But the desires of the Magyars for a centralized Hungarian state ran contrary to the wishes of ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary, including Slovaks. Slovak and Hungarian revolutionary claims ran contradictory to each other.
In the spring of 1848, Slovak leaders spread their ideas throughout Upper Hungary
. Slovak nationalists, mainly in the progressive western and central Upper Hungary
, joined them. In May 1848, a huge public meeting gathered in Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš (Liptószentmiklós, present Liptovský Mikuláš
), where a pan-Slovak program, known as the "Requirements of the Slovak Nation" was proclaimed and accepted. Ethnic Slovaks sought to back this revolutionary manifesto by force of arms. The provisional Hungarian revolutionary government was not willing to accept the Requirements of the Slovak Nation and the situation developed into open hostility between Hungarian and Slovak revolutionaries.
In September 1848, the Slovak National Council
was established in Vienna and it forthwith proclaimed the secession of a Slovakian territory from Hungary. The so-called September campaign (including 6000 volunteers) took place in western Upper Hungary
. Slovak demands remained unfulfilled. Between November 1848 and April 1849, the armed Slovaks helped the Habsburg king – along with imperial troops in present-day Hungary – to defeat Hungarians and their revolutionary government on present-day Slovak territory (the so-called Winter Campaign or Volunteer Campaigns). In March 1849, Slovaks even temporarily managed to start to administer Slovakia themselves and they sent a petition (the March Petition) to the emperor. However, in the summer of 1849, the Russians helped the Habsburg king to defeat the revolutionary Hungarians and in November, when the Slovaks were not needed anymore, the Slovak corps were dissolved in Vienna. Then in December 1851, King Franz Joseph
abolished the last vestiges of constitutionalism
and began to rule as absolute master. Francis Joseph continued his centralistic policies. This came to be known as the period of neo-absolutism. Certain Slovak demands were met, however. In the northern counties of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Slovak language was allowed for official communication and was introduced in lower schools, but in higher courts, the Slovaks faced the same Germanisation
as all the other ethnicities. Ján Kollár, who became a professor at Vienna University, obtained permission to print Slovak newspapers and was appointed a court adviser.
(Zayugróc) in the Kingdom of Hungary
(interestingly, in the same house where Alexander Dubček
was later born) as the second child of Samuel and Anna Štúr. He was baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran church in Uhrovec. He acquired his basic education, including the knowledge of Latin, from his father Samuel, who was a teacher. From 1827–1829, he studied at Győr
, where he attended a lower grammar school
. There he improved his knowledge of history, and of the languages Hungarian, German and Greek
. These studies provoked his admiration of Pavel Jozef Šafárik
, Ján Kollár and Jiří Dobrovsky. In 1829 he decided to change school.
From 1829–1836, Ľudovít Štúr studied at the prestigious Lutheran Lýceum (preparatory high school and college) in Pressburg and became a member of the Czech-Slav Society, which stimulated his interest in all Slav nations. There was a famous Department of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature of the old Professor Juraj Palkovič at the school, the only such department at a Protestant school of higher education in the Kingdom of Hungary:
In 1831 Ľudovít Štúr wrote his first poems. From January–September 1834, he temporarily interrupted his studies due to lack of finances and returned to Uhrovec, where he worked as scribe with Count Karol Zay. Later that year he resumed his studies, was active in the historical and literary circle of the Czech-Slav Society, was responsible for the correspondence with members of the Society, gave private lessons in the house of a merchant in Pressburg, taught younger students at the Lýceum and established contact with important foreign and Czech scholars. On December 17, he was elected secretary of the Czech-Slav Society at the Lýceum.
In 1836, Štúr wrote a letter to the important Czech historian František Palacký
, where he stated that the Czech language used by the Protestants in Upper Hungary
had become incomprehensible for the ordinary Slovaks, and proposed the creation of a unified Czechoslovak language
, provided that the Czechs would be willing to use some Slovak words – just like Slovaks would officially accept some Czech words. But the Czech were unwilling to accept this, and so Štúr and his friends decided to introduce a completely new Slovak language standard instead. On April 24 of that year, the famous trip to Devín Castle
(Dévény, now part of Bratislava
) by the members of the Slovak national movement took place, led by Štúr as the vice-president of Czech-Slav Society. The beginning of his group's extensive efforts on behalf of national awareness are linked to this visit to the ruins of Devín Castle, woven about with legends of the past with reminders of Great Moravia
. The members of the Czech-Slav Society swore here to be true to the national cause, deciding to travel around Upper Hungary
to drum up support for their ideas. At the castle, they also adopted additional Slavic names (e.g., Jozef Hurban became Jozef Miloslav Hurban, etc.).
From 1836–1838, as deputy (non-stipendiary assistant) for Professor Palkovič, Chair of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature at the Lyceum, where he was previously student, he taught history of Slavic literature. He continued to write poetry and under his leadership, the number of members of the Czech-Slav Society was constantly increasing. In this year, a poem of Štúr's was published in printed form for the first time: Óda na Hronku ("An ode to Hronka"). In April 1837, the Czech-Slav Society was prohibited due to student commotion at the Lyceum. One week later Štúr founded the Institute of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature, within which the activities of the Czech-Slav Society continued. In that year he continued to write articles for newspapers and journals, including Tatranka, Hronka, Květy (Czech), Časopis českého musea, Danica (Croatia
n) and Tygodnik literacki (Polish
).
in Germany, where he studied linguistics, history and philosophy. He was influenced by the works of the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
and Johann Gottfried Herder
. Also during this period, his poetic cycle Dumky večerní ("Evening thoughts" written in Czech) was published in the Czech journal Květy. He left Pressburg for Halle in September 1838. On his way to Halle, he spent more than one month in Prague
surrounded by Czech patriots. In the spring of 1839, Štúr made a long journey to the Upper and Lower Lusatia
in Germany (inhabited by Slavs) and got in touch with the Slavs there. He wrote the short travelogue Cesta do Lužic vykonaná na jar 1839 ("A journey to Lusatia made in the spring of 1839"), written in Czech and published in the Czech journal Časopis českého musea.
In 1840, he returned to Bratislava via Prague and Hradec Králové
(Königgrätz), where he spent some time in the house of the publisher Jan Pospíšil. From October, he was once again working as deputy for Professor Palkovič at the Department of the Czecho-Slav Language and Literature at the Evangelic Lutheran Lyceum, teaching courses of grammar and Slav history, and continuing his activities at the Institute of Czechoslovak language.
During 1841–1844, Štúr was co-editor of Palkovič's literary magazine Tatranka. In 1841, he started activities aimed at publishing a Slovak political newspaper. He wrote defensive and polemic
texts as well as his Starý a nový věk Slovákov ("The old and the new age of the Slovaks"), written in Old Czech and published in 1935 (in Slovak only in 1994). On August 16, 1841, Štúr and his friends ascended Kriváň
(a symbolic mountain in Slovak culture), an event that is now commemorated by annual excursions to its summit. In 1842 he initiated the first Slovenský prestolný prosbopis, a Slovak petition to the Royal Court in Vienna requiring the government to stop national persecutions by the Hungarians in Upper Hungary
. His application for a licence to publish a newspaper was turned down in the same year.
".
In July of that year, his defensive work Die Beschwerden und Klagen der Slaven in Ungarn über die gesetzwidrigen Übergriffe der Magyaren ("The complaints and grievances of the Slavs in Hungary about the illegal misfeasances of the Hungarians"), which editorial offices in the Kingdom of Hungary had refused to publish, was published in Leipzig
, Germany. From July 11–16, at the parish house of J. M. Hurban in Hlboké
(Luboka), the leaders of the Slovak national movement – Štúr, J. M. Hurban and M.M. Hodža – agreed on how to codify the new Slovak language standard and how to introduce it to the public. On July 17, they visited Ján Hollý
, an important writer and representative of the older Bernolák Slovak language standard, in Dobrá Voda
(Jókő) and informed him about their plans. On October 11, although the committee did not find anything illegal about Štúr's activities, Štúr was ordered to stop lecturing and was removed from the function of deputy for Prof. Palkovič. However, Štúr continued to give lectures. On December 31 he was definitively deprived of the function of deputy for Prof. Palkovič. As a result, in March 1844, 22 students left Pressburg in protest; 13 of them went to study at the lyceum in the town of Levoča
(Lőcse).
From 1843–1847, Štúr worked as a private scientist. In 1844 he wrote Nárečja slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí ("The Slovak dialect or the necessity to write in this dialect"). On May 19, 1844 a second Slovenský prestolný prosbopis was sent to Vienna, but had little influence. But in 1844 other Slovak authors (often Štúr’s students) started to use the new Slovak language standard. On August 27, he participated in the founding convention of the Slovak association Tatrín, the first nation-wide association.
On August 1, 1845, the first issue of Slovenskje národňje novini ("Slovak National Newspaper"; published till June 9, 1848) was published. One week later, its literary addendum Orol Tatranský ("The Tatra Eagle"; published till June 6, 1848) was also published. In this newspaper, written in the new Slovak language, he gradually shaped a Slovak political program. He based this on the precept that the Slovaks were one nation and that they therefore had a right to their own language, culture, schools, and particularly political autonomy within Hungary. The projected expression of this autonomy was to be a Slovak Diet. Also that year, his brochure Das neunzehnte Jahrhundert und der Magyarismus ("The 19th century and Magyarism"), written in German, was published in Vienna.
In 1846, Štúr got to know the yeoman
Ostrolúcky family in Zemianske Podhradie
(Nemes-Podhrágy), who later helped him to become a deputy in the Hungarian Diet in Pressburg. He also fell in love with Adela Ostrolúcka. In addition, his books Nárečja Slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí (1844) and Nauka reči Slovenskej ("The Theory of the Slovak language") were published in Pressburg. In Nárečia Slovenskuo, he refused Kollár's concept of only four Slavic tribes (Russians, Poles, Czechs and Southern Slavs) and listed reasons for the introduction of the new language, which is based on central Slovak dialects and uses phonetic spelling. In Nauka reči Slovenskej he explained the grammar of the new language standard. In the same year, the upset Kollár and his followers published the compilation work „Hlasové o potřebě jednoty spisovného jazyka pro Čechy, Moravany a Slováky“ ("Voices in favour of the necessity of a unified literary language of the Czechs, Moravians
and Slovaks"), written in Czech.
In August 1847, at the 4th convention of the Tatrín association in Čachtice
(Csejte), Catholics and Protestants "definitively agree to use only the newly codified Štúr language standard". On October 30 that year, he became a deputy for the town of Zvolen
(Zólyom) in the Hungarian Diet in Pressburg. From November 17, 1847 to March 13, 1848 he gave five important speeches at the Diet, in which he required the abolishment of serfdom in Hungary, the introduction of civil rights
and the use of the Slovak language for teaching in elementary schools. The Diet met only until April 11, 1848 due to the 1848 revolution.
In May that year, he was one of the authors of the official petition Žiadosti slovenského národa ("Requirements of the Slovak Nation"). The Žiadosti slovenského národa was publicly declared in Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš, with Janko Francisci as the reader. In it, the Slovaks demanded autonomy within Hungary, a proportional representation in the Hungarian Assembly, the creation of a Slovak Diet to administer their own region, where Slovak would become the official language and educational institutes from elementary schools to universities would use Slovak. They also called for universal suffrage
and democratic rights – e.g., freedom of the press
and public assembly. They requested that peasants be released from serfdom and that their lands be returned to them. But on May 12, the Hungarian government issued a warrant on the leaders of the Slovak movement: Štúr, Hurban and Hodža. The persecuted Štúr arrived in Prague on May 31. On June 2 he participated in the Slavic Congress there.
On June 19 he went to Zagreb
, Croatia
, because the Slavic Congress was interrupted by fighting in Prague, and becomes an editor of the Croatian magazine Slavenski Jug. With financial support from some Serbs, he and J. M. Hurban started to prepare an uprising against the Hungarian government. The "Slovak Uprising
" occurred between September 1848 and November 1849. In September 1848 Štúr travelled to Vienna and participated in the preparations for the Slovak armed uprising. On September 15–16 the Slovak National Council, the supreme Slovak political and military organisation consisting of Štúr, Hurban and Hodža (as politicians) and the Czechs B. Bloudek, F. Zach and B. Janeček (as military experts), was created in Vienna. On September 19 in Myjava
(Miava), the Slovak National Council declared independence from the Hungarian government and called on the Slovak nation to start an armed uprising. But the Council only managed to control the surrounding Slovak region.
Štúr, Hurban and others met in Prague on October 7 to discuss further proceedings concerning the uprising. Upon returning to Vienna in November, Štúr and Slovak volunteers – on one of the so-called Volunteer Campaigns – traversed northern Hungary
from Čadca
(Csaca) up to Prešov
(Eperjes) until March in 1849. On March 20, he participated in a deputation that visited the Austrian king, in the Czech town of Olomouc
, presenting him requirements concerning the Slovak nation. From March until June, Štúr – along with Hurban, Hodža, Bórik, Chalúpka and others – negotiated in Vienna about a solution to the Slovak requirements. But on November 21, 1849 the Slovak volunteer corps was officially demobilized in Pressburg, and the disappointed Štúr retreated to his parents' home in Uhrovec.
(Modor, near Pressburg) to care for his seven children; he lived there under police supervision. On July 27 that same year his father died; his mother moved to Trenčín
(Trencsén).
In October 1851 he participated in meetings in Pressburg concerning a reform of the codified Slovak language standard. The reform, involving mainly a transition from the phonetic spelling to an etymological one, was later introduced by M. M. Hodža and Martin Hattala in 1851–1852, but Štúr, among others, also participated in the preparations. The result of this reform was the Slovak language standard still used today, with minor changes.
In Modra in 1852, Štúr finished his essay O národních písních a pověstech plemen slovanských ("On national songs and myths of Slavic kins"), written in Czech and published in Bohemia
the next year. In addition he wrote his important philosophic book Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft ("The Slavdom and the world of the future"), written in German, published in Russian in 1867 and 1909 (published in German in 1931; in Slovak in 1993). Among other things, he recapitulated there the events that brought the Slovaks in their disconsolate situation at that time and suggested as a solution to cooperate with Russia, thus basically passing from his Slovak national idea to pan-Slavism
.
In 1853, his platonic girlfriend, Adela, died in Vienna on March 18. He also went to take care of his ill mother in Trenčín, before she died on August 28. The only compilation of his poetry, Spevy a piesne ("Singings and songs") was also published in Pressburg that year. On May 11, 1854 he held a speech at the unveiling of the Ján Hollý monument (Ján Hollý having died in 1849) in Dobrá Voda; he had also written a poem in honour of that man.
On December 22, 1855 Štúr inadvertently shot and wounded himself during a hunt near Modra. In the last days of his life, he was mainly supported by his friend Ján Kalinčiak. On January 12, 1856, Ľudovít Štúr died in Modra. A national funeral was held there in his honour.
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
national revival in the 19th century, the author of the Slovak language
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
standard eventually leading to the contemporary Slovak literary language. Štúr was an organizer of the Slovak volunteer campaigns during the 1848 Revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
, and a member of the Diet
Diet (assembly)
In politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is mainly used historically for the Imperial Diet, the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, and for the legislative bodies of certain countries.-Etymology:...
of the Kingdom of Hungary, as well as a politician, Slovak poet, journalist, publisher, teacher, philosopher, linguist.
Kingdom of Hungary
The territory of present-day Slovakia had been a part of the Kingdom of Hungary since the 10th century. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Slovaks were divided concerning the literary language to be used:- CatholicCatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
s continued to use the standard that had developed in Slovak writing by 1610. Anton BernolákAnton BernolákAnton Bernolák Anton Bernolák Anton Bernolák (1 October 1762 in Slanica (a now inundated village near Námestovo – 15 January 1813 in Nové Zámky) was a Slovak linguist and Catholic priest and the author of the first Slovak language standard.-Life:...
's language codified in the 1780s was an attempt to blend that standard with the west-Slovakian idiom of the university town of TrnavaTrnavaTrnava is a city in western Slovakia, 47 km to the north-east of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of a kraj and of an okres . It was the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishopric . The city has a historic center...
(Nagyszombat), but most authors respected Bernolák’s standard only to the degree that it did not diverge from the traditional written standard; - Most Lutherans diverged from that standard in the late 17th – early 18th century and began to adhere strictly to the archaic language of the Moravian Bible of KraliceBible of KraliceThe Bible of Kralice was the first complete translation of the Bible from the original languages into the Czech language. Translated by the Unity of the Brethren and printed in the town of Kralice nad Oslavou, the first edition had six volumes and was published between the years 1579 and 1593...
, whose imitation became a matter of faith with them during their persecution by the Habsburgs.
This situation did not change until the 1840s, when Ľudovít Štúr became the chief figure of the Slovak national movement.
At the same time, modern nations started to develop in Europe and in the Kingdom of Hungary. But the Hungarians favoured the idea of a centralized state, although the Magyar population numbered only some 40% of the population of the Hungarian Kingdom in the 1780s. This was unacceptable to other nations, including the Slovaks, and they expressed their disapproval.
Slovak language
In the 1830s a new generation of Slovaks began to make themselves heard. They had grown up under the influence of the national movement at the prestigious Lutheran LýceumLyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
(preparatory high school and college) in Pressburg (Pozsony, modern Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
) where the Czech-Slav Society (also called the "Society for the Czechoslovak Language and Literature") had been founded in 1829. Initially, the society operated in accordance with the ideas of Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
, a Protestant minister, poet, and academic, supporter of Czech-Slovak unity and of the users of the language of Bible of Kralice
Bible of Kralice
The Bible of Kralice was the first complete translation of the Bible from the original languages into the Czech language. Translated by the Unity of the Brethren and printed in the town of Kralice nad Oslavou, the first edition had six volumes and was published between the years 1579 and 1593...
. In the latter part of the decade, when Ľudovít Štúr came to the fore, its activities intensified. In the spirit of European Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
and Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
, these young Slovaks burned with the idea of national independence. The most prominent representatives of the new generation were, along with Ľudovít Štúr, Jozef Miloslav Hurban
Jozef Miloslav Hurban
Jozef Miloslav Hurban , pseudonyms Slavomil F. Kořennatý, Ľudovít Pavlovič, M. z Bohuslavíc, M...
(1817–1888) and Michal Miloslav Hodža
Michal Miloslav Hodža
Michal Miloslav Hodža was a Slovak national revivalist, Protestant priest, poet, linguist, and representative of the Slovakian national movement in 1840's as a member of "the trinity" Štúr - Hurban - Hodža...
(1811–1870).
Ľudovít Štúr expressed his philosophy in one sentence: "My country is my being, and every hour of my life shall be devoted to it." Štúr, a Lutheran, was aware of the fact that Czech, the language of educated Lutherans, was not enough to carry out a national campaign, and that Slovaks, if they were ever to become autonomous and be an effective force against Magyarization
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
, needed a language they could call their own. The central Slovak dialect was chosen as the basis of a literary language. Štúr's codification work was disapproved by Ján Kollár and the Czechs, who saw it as an act of Slovak withdrawal from the idea of a common Czecho-Slovak
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
nation and a weakening of solidarity. But the majority of Slovak scholars, including the Catholics (using Bernolák's codification until then), welcomed the notion of codification. The standard language thus became an important political tool.
March 1848 – August 1849
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
and other national and ethnic issues. Hungarian revolutionaries called for Hungary’s separation from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, but at the same time they wanted to see the Kingdom of Hungary one nation with one language and one educational system. But the desires of the Magyars for a centralized Hungarian state ran contrary to the wishes of ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary, including Slovaks. Slovak and Hungarian revolutionary claims ran contradictory to each other.
In the spring of 1848, Slovak leaders spread their ideas throughout Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
. Slovak nationalists, mainly in the progressive western and central Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
, joined them. In May 1848, a huge public meeting gathered in Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš (Liptószentmiklós, present Liptovský Mikuláš
Liptovský Mikuláš
Liptovský Mikuláš is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River. It lies in the Liptov region, in Liptov Basin near the Low Tatra and Tatra mountains...
), where a pan-Slovak program, known as the "Requirements of the Slovak Nation" was proclaimed and accepted. Ethnic Slovaks sought to back this revolutionary manifesto by force of arms. The provisional Hungarian revolutionary government was not willing to accept the Requirements of the Slovak Nation and the situation developed into open hostility between Hungarian and Slovak revolutionaries.
In September 1848, the Slovak National Council
Slovak National Council (1848-1849)
The Slovak National Council was a Slovak political body, which was created in Vienna on September 15-16, 1848 during the Revolutions of 1848...
was established in Vienna and it forthwith proclaimed the secession of a Slovakian territory from Hungary. The so-called September campaign (including 6000 volunteers) took place in western Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
. Slovak demands remained unfulfilled. Between November 1848 and April 1849, the armed Slovaks helped the Habsburg king – along with imperial troops in present-day Hungary – to defeat Hungarians and their revolutionary government on present-day Slovak territory (the so-called Winter Campaign or Volunteer Campaigns). In March 1849, Slovaks even temporarily managed to start to administer Slovakia themselves and they sent a petition (the March Petition) to the emperor. However, in the summer of 1849, the Russians helped the Habsburg king to defeat the revolutionary Hungarians and in November, when the Slovaks were not needed anymore, the Slovak corps were dissolved in Vienna. Then in December 1851, King Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
abolished the last vestiges of constitutionalism
Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism has a variety of meanings. Most generally, it is "a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law"....
and began to rule as absolute master. Francis Joseph continued his centralistic policies. This came to be known as the period of neo-absolutism. Certain Slovak demands were met, however. In the northern counties of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Slovak language was allowed for official communication and was introduced in lower schools, but in higher courts, the Slovaks faced the same Germanisation
Germanisation
Germanisation is both the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, and the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...
as all the other ethnicities. Ján Kollár, who became a professor at Vienna University, obtained permission to print Slovak newspapers and was appointed a court adviser.
Early life
Ľudovít Štúr was born on October 29, 1815 in UhrovecUhrovec
Uhrovec is a village and municipality in the Bánovce nad Bebravou District of the Trenčín Region of Slovakia.-Geography:The village lies at an altitude of 258 metres and covers an area of 22.95km². It has a population of 1478 people...
(Zayugróc) in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
(interestingly, in the same house where Alexander Dubček
Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...
was later born) as the second child of Samuel and Anna Štúr. He was baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran church in Uhrovec. He acquired his basic education, including the knowledge of Latin, from his father Samuel, who was a teacher. From 1827–1829, he studied at Győr
Gyor
-Climate:-Main sights:The ancient core of the city is Káptalan Hill at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába and Rábca. Püspökvár, the residence of Győr’s bishops can be easily recognised by its incomplete tower. Győr’s oldest buildings are the 13th-century dwelling tower and the...
, where he attended a lower grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
. There he improved his knowledge of history, and of the languages Hungarian, German and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. These studies provoked his admiration of Pavel Jozef Šafárik
Pavel Jozef Šafárik
Pavol Jozef Šafárik Pavol Jozef Šafárik (Safáry / Schaffáry/ Schafary/ Saf(f)arik / Šafarík/ Szafarzik, Czech Pavel Josef Šafařík, German Paul Joseph Schaffarik, Serbian Павле Јосиф Шафарик, Latin Paulus Josephus Schaffarik, Hungarian Pál József Saf(f)arik) Pavol Jozef Šafárik (Safáry /...
, Ján Kollár and Jiří Dobrovsky. In 1829 he decided to change school.
From 1829–1836, Ľudovít Štúr studied at the prestigious Lutheran Lýceum (preparatory high school and college) in Pressburg and became a member of the Czech-Slav Society, which stimulated his interest in all Slav nations. There was a famous Department of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature of the old Professor Juraj Palkovič at the school, the only such department at a Protestant school of higher education in the Kingdom of Hungary:
In 1831 Ľudovít Štúr wrote his first poems. From January–September 1834, he temporarily interrupted his studies due to lack of finances and returned to Uhrovec, where he worked as scribe with Count Karol Zay. Later that year he resumed his studies, was active in the historical and literary circle of the Czech-Slav Society, was responsible for the correspondence with members of the Society, gave private lessons in the house of a merchant in Pressburg, taught younger students at the Lýceum and established contact with important foreign and Czech scholars. On December 17, he was elected secretary of the Czech-Slav Society at the Lýceum.
Slovak national movement
In May 1835, Ľudovít Štúr persuaded Jozef Hurban to become involved in the Slovak national movement. Also that year, he was co-editor of the Plody ("Fruits") almanac, a compilation of the best works of the members of the Czech-Slav Society, including poems of Štúr's. He became vice-president of the Czech-Slav Society, teaching older students at the Lyceum the history of the Slavs and their literatures.In 1836, Štúr wrote a letter to the important Czech historian František Palacký
František Palacký
František Palacký was a Czech historian and politician.-Biography:...
, where he stated that the Czech language used by the Protestants in Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
had become incomprehensible for the ordinary Slovaks, and proposed the creation of a unified Czechoslovak language
Czechoslovak language
The Czechoslovak language was a political sociolinguistic concept used in Czechoslovakia in 1920–1938 for the definition of the state language of the country which proclaimed its independence as the republic of two nations, Czechs and Slovaks.- Language legislation in the First Czechoslovak...
, provided that the Czechs would be willing to use some Slovak words – just like Slovaks would officially accept some Czech words. But the Czech were unwilling to accept this, and so Štúr and his friends decided to introduce a completely new Slovak language standard instead. On April 24 of that year, the famous trip to Devín Castle
Devín Castle
Devín Castle is a castle in Devín, which is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia....
(Dévény, now part of Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
) by the members of the Slovak national movement took place, led by Štúr as the vice-president of Czech-Slav Society. The beginning of his group's extensive efforts on behalf of national awareness are linked to this visit to the ruins of Devín Castle, woven about with legends of the past with reminders of Great Moravia
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
. The members of the Czech-Slav Society swore here to be true to the national cause, deciding to travel around Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
to drum up support for their ideas. At the castle, they also adopted additional Slavic names (e.g., Jozef Hurban became Jozef Miloslav Hurban, etc.).
From 1836–1838, as deputy (non-stipendiary assistant) for Professor Palkovič, Chair of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature at the Lyceum, where he was previously student, he taught history of Slavic literature. He continued to write poetry and under his leadership, the number of members of the Czech-Slav Society was constantly increasing. In this year, a poem of Štúr's was published in printed form for the first time: Óda na Hronku ("An ode to Hronka"). In April 1837, the Czech-Slav Society was prohibited due to student commotion at the Lyceum. One week later Štúr founded the Institute of the Czechoslovak Language and Literature, within which the activities of the Czech-Slav Society continued. In that year he continued to write articles for newspapers and journals, including Tatranka, Hronka, Květy (Czech), Časopis českého musea, Danica (Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n) and Tygodnik literacki (Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
).
Travels in Germany and early political works
From 1838–1840, he attended the (Protestant) University of HalleHalle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
in Germany, where he studied linguistics, history and philosophy. He was influenced by the works of the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
and Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
. Also during this period, his poetic cycle Dumky večerní ("Evening thoughts" written in Czech) was published in the Czech journal Květy. He left Pressburg for Halle in September 1838. On his way to Halle, he spent more than one month in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
surrounded by Czech patriots. In the spring of 1839, Štúr made a long journey to the Upper and Lower Lusatia
Lusatia
Lusatia is a historical region in Central Europe. It stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Elbe valley in the west, today located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg as well as in the Lower Silesian and Lubusz voivodeships of western Poland...
in Germany (inhabited by Slavs) and got in touch with the Slavs there. He wrote the short travelogue Cesta do Lužic vykonaná na jar 1839 ("A journey to Lusatia made in the spring of 1839"), written in Czech and published in the Czech journal Časopis českého musea.
In 1840, he returned to Bratislava via Prague and Hradec Králové
Hradec Králové
Hradec Králové is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Hradec Králové Region of Bohemia. The city's economy is based on food-processing technology, photochemical, and electronics manufacture. Traditional industries include musical instrument manufacturing – the best known being PETROF pianos...
(Königgrätz), where he spent some time in the house of the publisher Jan Pospíšil. From October, he was once again working as deputy for Professor Palkovič at the Department of the Czecho-Slav Language and Literature at the Evangelic Lutheran Lyceum, teaching courses of grammar and Slav history, and continuing his activities at the Institute of Czechoslovak language.
During 1841–1844, Štúr was co-editor of Palkovič's literary magazine Tatranka. In 1841, he started activities aimed at publishing a Slovak political newspaper. He wrote defensive and polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
texts as well as his Starý a nový věk Slovákov ("The old and the new age of the Slovaks"), written in Old Czech and published in 1935 (in Slovak only in 1994). On August 16, 1841, Štúr and his friends ascended Kriváň
Kriván (peak)
Kriváň is a mountain in the High Tatras, Slovakia, that dominates the upper part of the former Liptov County. Multiple surveys among nature lovers have ranked it as the country's most beautiful peak. Readily accessible along maintained marked trails and with the exceptional vistas afforded from...
(a symbolic mountain in Slovak culture), an event that is now commemorated by annual excursions to its summit. In 1842 he initiated the first Slovenský prestolný prosbopis, a Slovak petition to the Royal Court in Vienna requiring the government to stop national persecutions by the Hungarians in Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
. His application for a licence to publish a newspaper was turned down in the same year.
"Treason of the Hungarian homeland"
On February 2, 1843 in Pressburg, Štúr and his friends decided to codify the Slovak language standard used today, based on central Slovak dialects – a common language that would unify all Slovaks speaking many different dialects. From June 26–29, a special committee met to investigate against the Institute of Czechoslovak Language at the Lyceum, also interrogating Štúr. The main accusation was "treason of the Hungarian homelandTreason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
".
In July of that year, his defensive work Die Beschwerden und Klagen der Slaven in Ungarn über die gesetzwidrigen Übergriffe der Magyaren ("The complaints and grievances of the Slavs in Hungary about the illegal misfeasances of the Hungarians"), which editorial offices in the Kingdom of Hungary had refused to publish, was published in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Germany. From July 11–16, at the parish house of J. M. Hurban in Hlboké
Hlboké
Hlboké, is a village and municipality in Senica District in the Trnava Region of western Slovakia.-History:In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1262. In 1843 the Štúr's Slovak language was codified in the village.-Geography:...
(Luboka), the leaders of the Slovak national movement – Štúr, J. M. Hurban and M.M. Hodža – agreed on how to codify the new Slovak language standard and how to introduce it to the public. On July 17, they visited Ján Hollý
Ján Hollý
Ján Hollý was a Slovak poet and translator. He was the first greater Slovak poet to write exclusively in the newly standardized literary Slovak language. His predecessors mostly wrote in various regional versions of Czech, Slovakized Czech or Latin...
, an important writer and representative of the older Bernolák Slovak language standard, in Dobrá Voda
Dobrá Voda
Dobrá Voda is a municipality of Trnava District in the Trnava region of Slovakia.-External links:*http://www.statistics.sk/mosmis/eng/run.html...
(Jókő) and informed him about their plans. On October 11, although the committee did not find anything illegal about Štúr's activities, Štúr was ordered to stop lecturing and was removed from the function of deputy for Prof. Palkovič. However, Štúr continued to give lectures. On December 31 he was definitively deprived of the function of deputy for Prof. Palkovič. As a result, in March 1844, 22 students left Pressburg in protest; 13 of them went to study at the lyceum in the town of Levoča
Levoca
Levoča is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,600. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Renaissance church with the highest wooden altar in Europe, carved by Master Paul of Levoča, and many other Renaissance buildings.On 28 June 2009,...
(Lőcse).
From 1843–1847, Štúr worked as a private scientist. In 1844 he wrote Nárečja slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí ("The Slovak dialect or the necessity to write in this dialect"). On May 19, 1844 a second Slovenský prestolný prosbopis was sent to Vienna, but had little influence. But in 1844 other Slovak authors (often Štúr’s students) started to use the new Slovak language standard. On August 27, he participated in the founding convention of the Slovak association Tatrín, the first nation-wide association.
On August 1, 1845, the first issue of Slovenskje národňje novini ("Slovak National Newspaper"; published till June 9, 1848) was published. One week later, its literary addendum Orol Tatranský ("The Tatra Eagle"; published till June 6, 1848) was also published. In this newspaper, written in the new Slovak language, he gradually shaped a Slovak political program. He based this on the precept that the Slovaks were one nation and that they therefore had a right to their own language, culture, schools, and particularly political autonomy within Hungary. The projected expression of this autonomy was to be a Slovak Diet. Also that year, his brochure Das neunzehnte Jahrhundert und der Magyarismus ("The 19th century and Magyarism"), written in German, was published in Vienna.
Career in the Hungarian Diet
Yeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
Ostrolúcky family in Zemianske Podhradie
Zemianske Podhradie
Zemianske Podhradie is a village and municipality in Nové Mesto nad Váhom District in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia'.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 248 metres and covers an area of 8.231km². It has a population of about 783 people.-External...
(Nemes-Podhrágy), who later helped him to become a deputy in the Hungarian Diet in Pressburg. He also fell in love with Adela Ostrolúcka. In addition, his books Nárečja Slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí (1844) and Nauka reči Slovenskej ("The Theory of the Slovak language") were published in Pressburg. In Nárečia Slovenskuo, he refused Kollár's concept of only four Slavic tribes (Russians, Poles, Czechs and Southern Slavs) and listed reasons for the introduction of the new language, which is based on central Slovak dialects and uses phonetic spelling. In Nauka reči Slovenskej he explained the grammar of the new language standard. In the same year, the upset Kollár and his followers published the compilation work „Hlasové o potřebě jednoty spisovného jazyka pro Čechy, Moravany a Slováky“ ("Voices in favour of the necessity of a unified literary language of the Czechs, Moravians
Moravians (ethnic group)
Moravians are the modern West Slavic inhabitants of the historical land of Moravia, the easternmost part of the Czech Republic, which includes the Moravian Slovakia. They speak the two main groups of Moravian dialects , the transitional Bohemian-Moravian dialect subgroup and standard Czech...
and Slovaks"), written in Czech.
In August 1847, at the 4th convention of the Tatrín association in Čachtice
Cachtice
Čachtice is a village in Nové Mesto nad Váhom District in western Slovakia with a population of 3,630 .The village is situated between the Danubian Lowland and the Little Carpathians. It is best known for the ruins of the nearby Čachtice Castle, home of Elizabeth Báthory who is alleged to be the...
(Csejte), Catholics and Protestants "definitively agree to use only the newly codified Štúr language standard". On October 30 that year, he became a deputy for the town of Zvolen
Zvolen
Zvolen |Slatina]] rivers, close to Banská Bystrica. With its ancient castle, the town has a historical center, which represents the seat of an okres .-History:...
(Zólyom) in the Hungarian Diet in Pressburg. From November 17, 1847 to March 13, 1848 he gave five important speeches at the Diet, in which he required the abolishment of serfdom in Hungary, the introduction of civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
and the use of the Slovak language for teaching in elementary schools. The Diet met only until April 11, 1848 due to the 1848 revolution.
1848/49 Revolution
On April 1, 1848 in Vienna, Štúr and his colleagues prepared the Slavic Congress of Prague. On April 20 he arrived in Prague on the invitation of the Czech J. V. Frič, where he won the support of Czech students that were members of the association Slávie regarding his attempts to enforce the Slovak language. On April 30, he initiated the establishment of "Slovanská lipa" (Slavic lime) in Prague – an association aiming at promoting the mutual cooperation of the Slavs.In May that year, he was one of the authors of the official petition Žiadosti slovenského národa ("Requirements of the Slovak Nation"). The Žiadosti slovenského národa was publicly declared in Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš, with Janko Francisci as the reader. In it, the Slovaks demanded autonomy within Hungary, a proportional representation in the Hungarian Assembly, the creation of a Slovak Diet to administer their own region, where Slovak would become the official language and educational institutes from elementary schools to universities would use Slovak. They also called for universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
and democratic rights – e.g., freedom of the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
and public assembly. They requested that peasants be released from serfdom and that their lands be returned to them. But on May 12, the Hungarian government issued a warrant on the leaders of the Slovak movement: Štúr, Hurban and Hodža. The persecuted Štúr arrived in Prague on May 31. On June 2 he participated in the Slavic Congress there.
On June 19 he went to Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, because the Slavic Congress was interrupted by fighting in Prague, and becomes an editor of the Croatian magazine Slavenski Jug. With financial support from some Serbs, he and J. M. Hurban started to prepare an uprising against the Hungarian government. The "Slovak Uprising
Slovak Uprising
Slovak Uprising may refer to:* Slovak Uprising 1848-1849, Slovak Volunteer Campaigns against Magyar domination in Upper Hungary , within the 1848-49 revolutions in the Habsburg Monarchy....
" occurred between September 1848 and November 1849. In September 1848 Štúr travelled to Vienna and participated in the preparations for the Slovak armed uprising. On September 15–16 the Slovak National Council, the supreme Slovak political and military organisation consisting of Štúr, Hurban and Hodža (as politicians) and the Czechs B. Bloudek, F. Zach and B. Janeček (as military experts), was created in Vienna. On September 19 in Myjava
Myjava
Myjava is a town in Trenčín Region, Slovakia.-Geography:It is located in the Myjava Hills at the foothills of the White Carpathians and not far from the Little Carpathians. The river Myjava flows through the town...
(Miava), the Slovak National Council declared independence from the Hungarian government and called on the Slovak nation to start an armed uprising. But the Council only managed to control the surrounding Slovak region.
Štúr, Hurban and others met in Prague on October 7 to discuss further proceedings concerning the uprising. Upon returning to Vienna in November, Štúr and Slovak volunteers – on one of the so-called Volunteer Campaigns – traversed northern Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
from Čadca
Cadca
Čadca is a district town in northern Slovakia, near the border with Poland and the Czech Republic.-Geography:It is located south of the Jablunkov Pass, surrounded by the Javorníky, Kysucké Beskydy and Turzovská vrchovina mountain ranges. It lies in the valley of the Kysuca river, around 30 km...
(Csaca) up to Prešov
Prešov
Prešov Historically, the city has been known in German as Eperies , Eperjes in Hungarian, Fragopolis in Latin, Preszów in Polish, Peryeshis in Romany, Пряшев in Russian and Пряшів in Rusyn and Ukrainian.-Characteristics:The city is a showcase of Baroque, Rococo and Gothic...
(Eperjes) until March in 1849. On March 20, he participated in a deputation that visited the Austrian king, in the Czech town of Olomouc
Olomouc
Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...
, presenting him requirements concerning the Slovak nation. From March until June, Štúr – along with Hurban, Hodža, Bórik, Chalúpka and others – negotiated in Vienna about a solution to the Slovak requirements. But on November 21, 1849 the Slovak volunteer corps was officially demobilized in Pressburg, and the disappointed Štúr retreated to his parents' home in Uhrovec.
Later life
The later years of Štúr's life saw him engage in further scientific and literary work. In the autumn of 1850 he attempted but failed to receive a licence to publish a Slovak national newspaper. In December of that year he participated in a deputation to Vienna concerning Slovak schools and the Tatrín association. Several personal tragedies also occurred during his later life. His brother Karol died on January 13, 1851. Štúr moved into the house of Karol's family in ModraModra
Modra is a city and municipality in the Bratislava Region in Slovakia. It has a population of 8,704 as of 2005. It nestles in the foothills of the Malé Karpaty and is an excellent centre of hiking.Modra is famous for its pottery industry...
(Modor, near Pressburg) to care for his seven children; he lived there under police supervision. On July 27 that same year his father died; his mother moved to Trenčín
Trencín
Trenčín is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 56,000, which makes it the ninth largest municipality of the country and is the seat of the Trenčín Region and the Trenčín District...
(Trencsén).
In October 1851 he participated in meetings in Pressburg concerning a reform of the codified Slovak language standard. The reform, involving mainly a transition from the phonetic spelling to an etymological one, was later introduced by M. M. Hodža and Martin Hattala in 1851–1852, but Štúr, among others, also participated in the preparations. The result of this reform was the Slovak language standard still used today, with minor changes.
In Modra in 1852, Štúr finished his essay O národních písních a pověstech plemen slovanských ("On national songs and myths of Slavic kins"), written in Czech and published in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
the next year. In addition he wrote his important philosophic book Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft ("The Slavdom and the world of the future"), written in German, published in Russian in 1867 and 1909 (published in German in 1931; in Slovak in 1993). Among other things, he recapitulated there the events that brought the Slovaks in their disconsolate situation at that time and suggested as a solution to cooperate with Russia, thus basically passing from his Slovak national idea to pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
.
In 1853, his platonic girlfriend, Adela, died in Vienna on March 18. He also went to take care of his ill mother in Trenčín, before she died on August 28. The only compilation of his poetry, Spevy a piesne ("Singings and songs") was also published in Pressburg that year. On May 11, 1854 he held a speech at the unveiling of the Ján Hollý monument (Ján Hollý having died in 1849) in Dobrá Voda; he had also written a poem in honour of that man.
On December 22, 1855 Štúr inadvertently shot and wounded himself during a hunt near Modra. In the last days of his life, he was mainly supported by his friend Ján Kalinčiak. On January 12, 1856, Ľudovít Štúr died in Modra. A national funeral was held there in his honour.
External links
- Josette A. Baer, "National Emancipation, Not the Making of Slovakia: Ludovit Stur's Conception of the Slovak Nation" (2003) In: Studies in Post-Communism Occasional Papers Series published by Center for Post-Communist Studies, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada.
- Website dedicated to Ľudovít Štúr (in SlovakSlovak languageSlovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
) - Text of Nauka reči Slovenskej (in the Štúr's Slovak language standard)