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Full profile page: Bc. Jakub Šimkovič

In the history and development of states, individuals who have been the bearers of historical development are often extracted from the comprehensive assessment of the period. Especially in the face of crisis situations, historiography tends to look for leaders. No wonder, then, that this is happening even against the background of the greatest war conflict the world has ever suffered. On a global scale, other personalities than the Slovak President Jozef Tiso translated here were important. However, while in the case of the giants of world politics, the image of personalities is already thoroughly constituted, the image of personalities of regional significance is still undergoing some development.

Introduction In the history and development of states, individuals who have been the bearers of historical development are often extracted from the comprehensive evaluation of the period. Especially in the face of crisis situations, historiography tends to look for leaders. No wonder, then, that this is happening even against the background of the greatest war conflict the world has ever suffered. On a global scale, other personalities than the Slovak President Jozef Tiso translated here were important. However, while in the case of the giants of world politics, the image of personalities is already thoroughly constituted, the image of personalities of regional significance is still undergoing some development.

1. Biographical profile of Jozef Tisa Jozef Tiso came from a large family from the north of Slovakia. As in other Slovak families, some of the descendants had to try a career of clergy for financial reasons. In addition, it combined several advantages at once, but in a strongly Christian country it was mainly a guarantee of considerable social seriousness.

2. The Controversy of Historians After the change of political conditions after November ´89 in Czechoslovakia and the return of some exiled historians, the need for a new reassessment of the period of the Slovak state increased in Slovak society. It was a period in which many historians had already entered ideologically biased, but as with any new beginning, there was a certain presumption of change and success. Gradually, although the clear boundaries between critical and non-critical, even revisionist camps, sharpened, in 1992 it was possible to organize a later, unfortunately, unique event.

3. The Image of Jozef Tiso in Contemporary Society Like historians, contemporary Slovak society cannot fight for a unified, ideologically unadulterated and unmarked personal experience. After November 1989, there was a renewed talk of this period. For some individuals and groups in politics, Slovak statehood before and during World War II was the key to a new independent Slovak Republic. It is paradoxical that such a procedure was adopted by the Slovak National Party, which was absorbed by the HSĽS even during the short Slovak autonomy in the second Czechoslovak Republic. For other political parties, which in the history of independent Slovakia have gone beyond the threshold of election to the National Council of the Slovak Republic, the topic of reconstructing the image of Slovakia in the early 1940s is of very little interest.

Conclusion Jozef Tiso and the entire regime in general will withstand positive evaluations only in the case of fundamental relief from the evaluators. At other times, the definitely positively perceived act of achieving the nation's independence on its own territory is in this case "tainted" by several negative phenomena of the regime at that time. Also, the undemocratic authoritarian regime, which, through propaganda, wanted to create a uniform mass under the flag of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, is not a manifestation worthy of following.