In 1787, a learned Slovak priest, Anton Bernolak (1762-1813), printed his codification of literary Slovak. Many literary and educational works were printed in this language. Slovak scholars, in the interest of spreading the ideas of literature and science, founded a learned society called the Slovak Learned Guild. The most significant person to write in the new language was Jan Hollý. Along with his own poetry commemorating the Slovak past, he translated important classical works into Bernolak’s language.The century of enlightenment that saw the reforms of Maria Theresia (1740-1780), and her son Joseph II (1780-1790), provided fertile soil for the above activities. But as in France, here also the century ended in bloodshed. In Hungary, under the influence of French revolutionary ideas, a secret movement of Jacobins was formed with the aim of overthrowing the monarchy and proclaiming a republic. Slovaks were also among the Hungarian Jacobins. It is interesting, that, apart from social reform, the Jacobins also sought to federalize Hungary on an ethnic basis. The Slovaks wanted autonomy. The Jacobin movement was discovered, its 18 leaders condemned to death, and 7 of them executed on Buda’s Field-of-Blood. Old Bratislava where the Slovak language was born Old Bratislava where the Slovak language was born.

Old Bratislava where the Slovak language was born

 

At the end of the century, the era of reform was over, and Napoleonic wars shook Europe. A spiritual movement known as the pan-Slav Brotherhood saw the light of day at this time. The defeat of Napoleon at Moscow was an indirect reason for this event. In 1805, after the battle of Austerlitz, the peace-treaty had been signed in Bratislava at the newly built Primates Palace, and then some eight years later, in 1812, Napoleon’s army was destroyed on the retreat from Moscow. The Russian defeat of Napoleon’s army infused Slavic sentiment in the Slovaks. They became aware that Russians were linguistically close to them. For the ethnic Slovaks, who had struggled against the Hungarian attempt to substitute Latin with Hungarian, the feeling of kinship with other Slavic peoples was encouraging.

It is not by the chance that the idea of pan-Slavism has roots in Slovakia. Its most significant representatives were Jan Kollar (1793-1852), poet and linguist, and Pavel Jozef Safarik (1795-1861), historian and ethnologist. In 1824, Jan Kollar, wrote a lengthy poem Slavy Dcera (Daughter of Slavs), in which he foresees a Slav millenium. Representatives of pan-Slav Brotherhood, Kollar and Safarik, were also supporters of Czecho-Slovak unity and continued to use the official Czech language. Kollar formulated the idea in verse that Slavs were in fact a huge tribe divided into four branches, one of which was the Czecho-Slovak branch. Thus, Kollar and Safarik became important representatives, not only of the Slovak, but also of the Czech national movement. During this period, Slovaks were divided linguistically. The Catholic majority used Bernolak’s codified language, but most Protestants remained true to the Czech language. This situation did not change until the 1840’s, when Ludovit Stur (1815-1856), became the chief figure of the Slovak movement.