Dagmar Kusa analyses the formation of the Czechoslovakian nation and aims to present its (un)desirability from different points of view, especially those of minorities involved in the process, such as Hungarians and Germans. Not even Slovaks felt particularly at ease within the new, largely Czech, national project. The so-called “tragedy” of Central European histories, constructed around an inferiority complex and embracing an aura of victimhood, can be related to contemporary identity and political community issues in this space. In other words, exclusive understandings of “us” and the necessary rejection of “the other”, characterizing many societies in Central and Eastern Europe can be seen as the result of 100 years of history accentuating periphery, marginalization and colonial and imperial domination harming the national ethos. 

Event report