Czechoslovak-Hungarian Cultural Clash in the Interwar Period. The Memory of Francis II Rákóczi in Košice (1906–1938)

Francis II Rákóczi (1676–1735) had a crucial part in the Hungarian identity. His war of independence and exile made him a national hero. One of the greatest events of the Hungarian political scene was the reburial of him and his comrades in 1906 Košice. After the First World War (1918) Austria-Hungary was dissolved and new states formed from its territory. The birth of Czechoslovakia consisted of two nations (Czechs, Slovaks) within a multiethnic state. The cold relationship between Czechoslovakia and Hungary had taken its toll on the Hungarian minority, who were insisted to join the new Czechoslovak state. One area of conflict was the politics of memory, where each of the participants (Czechs, Slovaks, and Hungarians) sought to prioritize their own narratives. It was here that the Hungarians turned to the memory of Rákóczi, which they wanted to offer to the Slovaks as well as to the Hungarian population. One of the centres of the memory struggle was the prince’s resting place in Košice. In the diplomatic struggles of the Western powers, Czechoslovakia failed to defend itself from German claims, and after the Munich Agreement (1938) other states sought to gain territory from them. Thus, in October 1938, the annexation of the Felvidék (Upper Hungary, Uplands or Horní země) to Hungary took place, when the memory of Rákóczi was also commemorated in a symbolic inauguration.