Slovak Newspapers

Slovak Newspapers During the Revolution The Slovak National Newspaper, was published in Bratislava by L'udovit Stur until 1845, and afterwards by Protestant lyceum students from April 1848 until the Hungarian authorities suppressed it in July 1848. Daniel Lichard published a non-political paper.

During the second half of 1848 the Hungarian government subsidized Wudce z Trnavi, in Trnava and Slovacénovini in Bratislava, to neutralize the Slovak national movement. Prjatel l'udu, published from July 1848 to June 1849 in Pest and Debrecen, was of higher quality. Substantially, they represented the Slovak version of the Hungarian journal Népbarat. These three newspapers unanimously supported the Hungarian government and the Hungarian revolutionary efforts. These newspapers combined aristocratic beliefs, deep Hungarian patriotism with national and anti-Viennese radicalism. They supported the role of gentry and middle noblemen in their efforts to establish the April Laws to defend their privileges in Hungary. On the other hand, they did not agree with the possibility of national emancipation for non-Hungarians. By stressing touchy, confessional, dialectical differences, and accusing the Slovak patriots of riotousness and violence, they tried to weaken the feeling of national unity and self-consciousness of the Slovak citizens.

Pressburger Zeitung, a German newspaper of high quality, was published in Bratislava. Powerful forces in control in Pest and Vienna determined its ideological and political orientation. During 1849, Slovak political emigrants in Vienna forwarded several petitions to the imperial government seeking to publish a Slovak political newspaper. After numerous negotiations and governmental promises, the newspaper Slovenské noviny appeared in Vienna in July 1849. This official newspaper of the imperial government propagated centralism and conservatism. At the same time, the editors Daniel Lichard and Andrej Radlinsky openly called for a solution to the Slovak question, including the right of Slovakia to separate from Hungary. They criticized the irresponsibility of the noblemen and Old- Conservative office holders in Slovakia. In addition to the newspapers, they published numerous declarations, appeals and petitions as pamphlets of the Slovak national movement.
Dusan Skvarna

Bibliography

Ruttkay, Frantisek, Prehl'ad dejin slovensk‚ho novinarstva do roku 1861 [Survey of the History of Slovak Journalism to 1861] Bratislava: 1962.

JGC revised this file (http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/slocnew.htm) on October 25, 2004.

Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu

, © 1999, 2004 James Chastain.