Last week, Matica Slovenská, a scientific and cultural institution focusing on building awareness of the Slovak nation, published a controversial video about the Slovak National Uprising. The five minutes of footage uploaded to the institution's YouTube channel uses indirect questions to indicate that the historic event, which was aimed against Nazi-Germany, is a merit of the then Slovak representatives, who cooperated with Hitler's Third Reich.
Historian Anton Hruboň of Matej Bell University in Banská Bystrica disagrees with this interpretation. "Seeing links between the foundation of the Slovak War state and the start of the Slovak National Uprising is, according to me as well as many participants of the uprising, a direct insult to the people who took part in it. Many of them primarily fought against Nazi-Germans and secondly with the intention of defeating the then regime," said Hruboň. Another historian, Ivan Kamenec, joins in the criticism, calling the video a simplified interpretation of history. Stanislav Mičev, director of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising shares his opinion. "No matter how we talk to students about history, once they watch this video their values turn upside down. This video contributes to the extremist perspective of the Slovak state," said Mičev.
The Culture Ministry, which funds Matica Slovenská, also disagrees with the content of the video. As its spokesperson Jozef Bednár explained, the Ministry provides it with purpose-bound finances and can control what these resources are to be used for. However, this video was not produced using state donations. The institution should release its official reaction to the situation on Thursday.
