FORTY YEARS TOGETHER AND NEXT TO EACH OTHER (FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY AND SHREDS OF NOTES OF A CZECH SOCIOLOGIST ABOUT CZECHO-SLOVAK RELATIONS IN SOCIOLOGY) (Ctyricet let spolu i vedle sebe. (Strípky pameti ..k cesko-slovenskym vztahum v sociologii))

The starting point of the article is a thesis about typological likeness of the founders of Czech and Slovak sociologies (Stefanek and Masaryk) who rather than being academic sociologists were 'action sociologists' focused on the sociology of small nations. Slovak sociology partly cultivated Stefanek's heritage but in the 1960s set out on its own course in a close cooperation with Czech sociology and eventually with world sociology as well. The article pays close attention to conflicts of interest between audacious Slovak sociologists and totalitarian ideological power. Obviously, author relies on his own personal experience and contacts since a synthetic and critical assessment of the development of Slovak sociology between 1969 and 2009 is still unavailable. He appreciates the courage to develop unconventional theoretical topics and also the fact that Slovak sociological journal 'Sociologia' was open - according to possibilities in that period - even for those Czech sociologists (Mozny, Stritecky, Petrusek and others) who were in the Czech lands formally excommunicated from sociology. After the establishing of independent states in 1993 the development of sociology in both countries took off for different directions, which shall be comparatively analyzed in the immediate future.