family

The article analyses the careers of a particular group of participants of the Declaration assembly that took place on 30th October, 1918, in Turčiansky Sv. Martin/Turócszentmárton (present day Martin in Slovakia). At the assembly, the Declaration of the Slovak Nation was proclaimed, by which the participants declared the "will of the Slovak nation" to become a part of the newly established Czechoslovak Republic. The author focuses particularly on 33 male participants who hailed from Turčiansky Sv. Martin, the very town where the declaration assembly took place.

Property disputes have always been one of the main reasons of misunderstandings and conflicts among family members. Big conflicts among the family of Pálffy members were caused by the testament of Palatine János Palffy and the consequent property division. The author analyzes the correspondence between Károly Pál Pálffy and Rudolf (I.) Pálffy, and offers a portrait of the complicated family relationships during the long-lasting conflict.

A significant feature of the family relation terminology in the Slovak language is its big cognitive value from the linguistic and extra linguistic point of view. They reflect not only an internal language development but mainly extra linguistic factors that give a possibility to identify a cultural development context in a space and time. The author pays attention to the development of two groups of words: 1st: expressing of consanguinity – nomina consanguinitatis, and 2nd: expressing of a kinship acquired by marriage – nomina afinitatis.

Family exists at every stage of human development and in every system. Family is the basic social unit consisting of the spouses, their children and other relatives, tied by blood and social bonds. The most important task of the family is the organisation and maintenance of their household, taking care of basic needs and emotional life of its members as well. One of the external features enabling to recognise members of a particular family is a common surname or a name traditionally shared by the family.

The Second World War had a damaging impact upon many Polish families. As a result of the decision carried out by the Allies, the Poles settled in the territory of the Second Polish Republic (Rzeczpospolita II) were forced to leave their homes. The tragic circumstances related to their expulsion, the difficult journey to other lands and conditions under which they were rebuilding their existence in a new, unknown land, were described in diaries and memoirs. In this paper the writer subjects these texts to a detailed analysis.

The Second World War affected the Jewish population in a specific way. In a critical state appeared especially the traditional Jewish family and, in fact, it ceased to exist. It is possible to speak about torsos of families – children without parents, spouses without their partners and other family members. The return to a society exhibiting complicated social relations, harsh socio-economic conditions and a post-war psychosis was tremendously difficult for the Jews. In this context, they had three possible options: to preserve their identity, to get assimilated, or to emigrate.

An impact of the war events and war regimes upon the family opens space for comparative studies of social consequences of the WWI and WWII. Survival and behavioural strategies may be another starting point for a study of models of behaviour and mental reactions to extraordinary conditions created by a war conflict. The study focuses on these two schemes and highlights their potential to become universal concepts acceptable for studying an impact exerted by war on a society in general.

The family history of the writer Tereza Vansová (1857-1942) was affected by two world wars. She lived through the Great War and World War II as an adult person – as the wife, later widow of an Evangelical pastor, socially engaged member of the Slovak intelligentsia aware of their national identity. There is no doubt that her distinguished position in society and her religion as well as her social status determined the character of her personal and family experience; furthermore, they influenced her conditions during and after the wars in terms of the applied "strategies of survival".

War is not an exclusively political or military phenomenon, though these have been its aspects traditionally approached by historical research. It is distinctive of the great wars of the 20th century that they influenced all spheres of the life of society. As a result, the focus of historians´ interest has shifted from military-diplomatic and political-economic background to a broader social and cultural field in the last decades.

Negotiations focused on full diplomatic recognition of the USSR by Czechoslovakia, which was the main task of Alexandr J. Arosev (head of the soviet mission to Prague from 1929-1933), required intense and friendly contacts with local political, economic and cultural elites. On the other hand, these contradicted the expectations of the local Communist community, which was relying on the production of an image of the USSR as the "homeland of all proletarians" and as their protector from alien bourgeois regimes.