Shifting Identities in Mixed Marriages - The Case of the
Population of Koš ice (Slovakia) in the 20th Century
© Zoltán Fejos, Éva Kovács, László I. Gyurgyík,
János Vasik, Kata Kádek, Szilvia Németh
e-mail: kova@compuserve.com
I. A brief summary of research activities
In our project we completed and analyzed the data base of
mixed marriages in Koš ice and in whole Slovakia for the 1920-1991 period. The
results of historical demographical analysis will be summarized below.
After conducting regular trainings with students, in which
they got acquainted with the technique of making narrative interviews, we
selected the families. Then, we completed life-story interviews focusing on the
topic of marriage. Now we have finished the case-analyses of the biographical,
social and family background of mixed marriages, and reconstructed the
narratives in family "private history" and their changes, the major
instances of cultural exchange, the family traumas and the attempts at treating
them. Nevertheless, we classified the mechanism and strategies of
identity-developing on the individual and the family level.
II. Project results
II.1. Historical and political background
Slovakia, like most of the Central European "new"
countries demosntrates a peculiar pattern of socio-historical development in the
20th century. In the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Slovakia as part of
Hungarian Kingdom, constituted a region, namely the Highland ("Felvidék")
with Hungarian public administration, education system, etc. Hungarian rule was
introduced in spite of the fact, that this region had a pre- or semi-modern,
multi-ethnic (Hungarian, Slovakian, German, Jewish, Ruthenian, Polish)
population. Under the pressure of assimilation (Magyarization) in the
last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, ethnic revival of Slovaks got
institutionalized step by step. A nationalist movement emerged, which in its
political program called for an independent Slovak state.
In 1920, after the collapse of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy,
Slovakia obtained sovereignty as one of the two fellow-nations in the First
Czechoslovak Republic. Among the successor states of the Monarchy the
Republic had to design its new national "physiognomy" and create the
history of the imagined "Czechoslovak" nation. Parallelly, it wanted
to modernize not only the political system but also the society. These ambitions
overlapped in a strange form of modern nationalism, which tried to constructed a
new nation from the Czech and Slovak ethnic groups (which even now have
different languages and cultures), and subordinated the other ethnic groups (the
Hungarians, the Germans, the Jews, etc.) to this nation. After hundred years of
Magyarization, the decades of Czechoslovak assimilation began in Slovakia. This
political atmosphere restructured the society, not only in terms of ethnicity
but also of social mobility. Moreover, the new, modern nationalist ideology
tried to turn the Slovaks and Czechs against the other ethnic groups with the
help of xenophobic propaganda, which characterized the Czechoslovak Republic
since its birth.
Nevertheless, it was the First Republic that produced the
most successful and democratic period of the (Czecho)slovak history until now.
In 1938, as a result of the Second Vienna Decision Hungarian troops occupied
East-Slovakia (the Eastern part of the former Highland), while in
West-Slovakia a fascist regime came into power and Bohemia was annexed by
the German Reich. Like in the early twenties, the reorganization of the
new states and regions led to immense population changes, and the regrouping of
the society. The Slovak and Czech state officials had to escape from the
occupied territories, while Hungarian civil servants immigrated. The Hungarian
minority became again the majority. Simultaneously, under the influence of
Hitler’s Germany, the Hungarian government began the deportation of Jews to
the concentration-camps from the occupied regions. This happened despite the
fact that this religious group was part of Hungarian minority, its members spoke
Hungarian and supported Hungarian culture in the decades of Slovak assimilation.
After the second World War, Czechoslovakia recovered its
national sovereignty with the help of the Soviet Union. Still in the turbulent
post-war period, before the Paris treaty (1947), the new communist government
of Czechoslovakia executed the biggest "ethnic cleansing" in Europe
(the so-called "change of inhabitants"), when it forced the German and
Hungarian minorities, the "guilty folks" to leave the country. The
communist regime continued the nationalist politics of the first Czechoslovak
Republic under the pretext of "internationalism". In the newly written
history of the Czechoslovak nation at that time, Hungarians became the enemies
of Slovak national revival, while the other minorities (Germans, Jews, etc.) did
not appear as actors of social history. The communist economic system totally
restructured and acculturated the society.
This situation was changed only in 1990 by the "velvet
revolution". The new Czechoslovak government tried to continue the
First-Republic traditions with the democratization of political institutions and
the liberalization of economy. As a consequence of pluralization, ethnic
minorities established their political and cultural organizations, too. The
assimilation pressure seemed to be softer than ever: political parties were
founded on the basis of ethnicity and won seats in the Parliament.
After a short period and following a Slovak initiative, the
Czechoslovak Republic was divided in two autonomous states, the Czech and
the Slovak Republics. In Slovakia, an extreme nationalist government came to
power, which stopped the liberalization and democratization processes and won
the election with a xenophobic, racist campaign against the Hungarian minority.
Since then, the minority rights have gradually been withdrawn, although this
politics basically impedes Slovakia joining the European Union.
II. Ethnic coexistence under unfavorable political conditions
in Slovakia between 1920 and 1996
Mixed marriage is an indicator of ethnic coexistence,
because it shows the opening of ethnic boundaries. Marriage with a person who
belongs to another ethnic group embodies a more effective rapproachement between
the two groups, than e.g., those education strategies, in which the parents
choose a school for their child to learn the language of the majority groups,
because in the marriage cultural change roots not only in formal or civil life,
but also in emotional, private everyday practices. However, the chances for a
cultural change are not necessarily equal in a mixed marriage. When living
together, one of the partners sometimes has to give up more of his or her
national identity. Moreover, the political atmosphere can bias against equal
ethnic change, too. If political life is full of ethnic prejudices, these
stereotypes can infiltrate into the family and restructure the marriage
conditions.
In the case of Slovakia, the long-term trends show a rise
of the rates of mixed marriages between 1920 and 1990. (See Table 1-3.)
Particularly, we can observe the highest rise in the largest minority group, the
Hungarians, while in the majority group (between 1920 and 1945 they were the
"Czechoslovaks", after 1945 the Slovaks) only a modest change of the
rates occurs. The other ethnic groups (Germans, Jews, Russians between 1920 and
1945, and Czechs after 1945) were or became too small to keep their ethnic
boundaries and maintain ethnically homogeneous marriages in Slovakia.
1. Ethnic groups in Slovakia between 1921-1991
|
Ethnic groups
Years |
Czech |
Slovak |
Hungarian |
German |
Russian |
Others |
Total |
|
1921 |
72,635 |
1.952,368 |
650,597 |
145,844 |
88,970 |
90,453 |
3.000,870 |
|
1930 |
121,696 |
2.251,358 |
582,337 |
154,821 |
95,359 |
114,222 |
3.329,793 |
|
1950 |
40,365 |
2.982,524 |
354,532 |
5,179 |
48,231 |
11,486 |
3.442,317 |
|
1961 |
45,721 |
3.560,216 |
518,782 |
6,259 |
35,435 |
7,633 |
4.174,046 |
|
1970 |
47,402 |
3.878,904 |
552,006 |
4,760 |
42,238 |
11,980 |
4.537,290 |
|
1980 |
57,197 |
4.317,008 |
559,490 |
2,918 |
39,260 |
15,295 |
4.991,168 |
|
1991 |
52,884 |
4.519,328 |
567,296 |
5,414 |
30,478 |
98,935 |
5.274,335 |
2. The rates of mixed marriages in the Slovak population
according to nationality (1920-1935)
|
Year
Nationality |
1920 |
1925 |
1930 |
1935 |
|
Czechoslovak |
2.5 |
3.7 |
3.7 |
5.9 |
|
Hungarian |
5.7 |
9.3 |
3.7 |
10.4 |
|
Jewish |
0.7 |
3.6 |
3.2 |
5.6 |
|
Russian |
1.9 |
3.1 |
3.1 |
2.4 |
|
German |
13.0 |
21.2 |
24.1 |
22.7 |
|
Others |
8.1 |
48.1 |
78.0 |
48.5 |
|
Total |
4.8 |
6.1 |
4.7 |
6.6 |
3. The rates of mixed marriages and divorces in the Slovak
population according to nationality (1950-1990)
|
Period
Nationality |
1950-59
marriage divorce |
1960-69
marriage divorce |
1970-79
marriage divorce |
1980-1989
marriage divorce |
|
Slovak |
4.49 6.47 |
6.24 7.42 |
6.82 6.68 |
6.13 6.63 |
|
Czech |
82.47 68.80 |
90.01 70.38 |
91.44 68.34 |
72.15 70.32 |
|
Hungarian |
20.63 22.55 |
17.51 23.00 |
23.66 27.89 |
25.32 27.69 |
|
Total |
7.90 11.60 |
10.76 13.05 |
12.00 12.01 |
10.90 12.17 |
On the one hand, these data show the assimilation creativity
of Hungarian minority vis a vis the Slovaks and also those cases, in which this
creativity is not a spontaneous choice, but a result of integration pressure. On
the other, we can also interpret the relatively high rates of mixed marriages in
this minority group as the permeability of ethnic bounaries. The real question
is, what is beyond the data, how this minority managed the coexistence or ethnic
and cultural change in private and communal life.
From other socio-historical and sociological research
projects we know, that the crucial political events of the 20th century left
deep traces on all ethnic groups of the region, and in many cases traumatized
them. All families have their own "private histories", sometime
tabooed, sometimes openly recounted. In most cases these tragedies had a clear
national or ethnic undertone. It can be assumed that in mixed marriages, in
which the partners belonged to politically opposed ethnic groups, it was
especially difficult to treat these traumas.
III. Inter- and intragenerational conflicts in mixed
marriages
On the basis of our three-generations case studies we tried
to classify the main mechanisms and strategies of identity development and
conflict-management on the individual and the family level. In the
following, we briefly summarize our first project results.
Our interviewees were chosen according to the snowball
principle. We asked the selected family members representing three generations,
i.e., the grandparents, the parents (they were the ones who took part in mixed
marriages) and their adult children to tell us their life stories. At the
present stage of our research project we are already able to summarize some
general features of mixed marriages. From most of the interviews it became clear
for us that mixed marriages and cultural exchange generate conflicts within the
individual generations and between them. These conflicts were managed in
different ways depending on the cultural, social, etc., background of the
families.
III.1. Eradication of family roots
A typical source of conflicts stemming from mixed marriages
is the destruction of family background and the eradication of family roots.
These seem to be a precondition to peaceful coexistence. Part of our
interviewees broke their relationship with the parents or with the culture
represented by them. In the latter case the parents were not rejected as mothers
and fathers, it was "only" their social roles and ethnic identities
that became taboos. In some cases the narratives of the family past were lacking
with both parents, but we also found families in which only one of the parents
broke with his or her parents and their tradition, and accepted the parents and
cultural identity of his or her spouse. This was demonstrated by the family
trees drawn by the interviewees: some of them drew the family tree starting with
their own generation (see Figure 1) while others did not include their own
ancestors in the picture. At the same time, they depicted the family tree of
their spouses starting from many generations back in the past (see Figure 2).
I. generation (Grandparents)
------------------------------------
II. generation (Parents)
Husband (Wife)
b.1925. b.1930.
V 1950.
-------------------------------------
III. generation (Children)
Daughter Daughter Son
b.1950 b.1952. b.1956.
--------------------------------------
Figure 1. Family dendogram Type A.
0. generation
father of the mother of the father of the mother of the father-in-law 1.
mother-in law 1. father-in-law 2. mother-in law 2.
b.1888. b. 1892. b.1890. b.1894.
V 1910. V 1915.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. generation
Father-in-law Mother-in-law
1916. b.1920.
V 1940.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. generation
Husband (Wife)
b.1940. b.1943.
V 1966.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. generation
Son Son
b.1968. b.1970.
-----------------------------------------------------
Figure 2. Family dendogram Type B.
The tabooization of family history and the suppression of
intergenerational communication seems to be a successful solution to conceal the
conflicts between ethnic groups and exclude them from family life. Nevertheless,
it puts an immense emotional burden on the shoulders of both generations and
affects the socialization of the third generation as well.
III.2. Overcompensation by the third generation
This burden may cause overcompensation in terms of ethnic
identity in the third generation. Children of mixed marriages were brought up in
the thick of family secrets, realize (usually in adolescent age) that their
parents and grandparents were silent about their own ethnic differences and the
mixed origin of the children. This conflict is typically solved by the third
generation through reconstructing the hidden part of family history with the
help of external sources such as schooling and marriage and through increasing
solidarity with the "silenced" parent. In an extreme case, the
formation of ethnic identity may result in rejecting on of the parents.
Furthermore, family conflicts may tale an ethnic character whereby differences
in origin can be passionately debated. Then. on the micro-level, the family
reproduces the ethnic conflict in society at large. Small wonder that as a rule,
that parent will be the winner whose ethnic group enjoys a privileged position
in society anyway.
A peculiar solution for the problems caused by mixed
marriages was provided by one of our interviewees who - in order to ease the
tension in the family and its environment - married a man who was a member of
Hungarian minority in another neighboring country, Romania. In this way she
retained and even reinforced her Hungarian identity. At the same time, she
managed to change the space of the conflict while part of her identity (i.e.,
being a member of a minority group) was maintained via her husband.
In most cases, however, we found that discontinuity in family
history and cultural shift lead to an unbridgeable gap between the generations.
The majority of children who decided to subscribe to one of the family
traditions, languages, etc., lost their links to the culture and past of the
other parent.
III.3. Changing/losing the language, changing/losing the
culture
In the families we observed hardly experienced bilingualism,
that is, mixed marriage resulted in abadonding the language in the case of one
of the spouses. Typically, it is the language of the wife that is spoken in the
family irrespective of the fact whether it is a majority or a minority language.
In order to balance this effect, if the wife was Slovak, the parents decided to
send their children to Hungarian schools or to have them study German
optionally. However, this resulted in the fact that the children were not able
to bring these languages up to the level of their mother tongues. Also, they
were mocked in the Hungarian schools because of their imperfect knowledge or
improper accent. The change in languages made the communication with
grandparents difficult and weakened the role of the first generation as
tradition transmitters.
III.4. Decline of social mobility
Some of our interviews show that mixed marriages lead to a
radical decline of social mobility. In those cases in which the spouses
maintained the ethnic differences, upward mobility became impossible, especially
for that parent which belonged to the majority ethnic group. Prior to 1990,
leading positions in public life (such as that of the school director of the
party secretary) could not be filled in Czechoslovakia by a person who married
someone from the minority group, because he or she was considered
"politically unreliable".
Social mobility was inhibited in the third generation, too,
if its members insisted on their minority position. It was the education system
that jeopardized the study of certain professions in the minority language. In
the best case, schooling in that language needed more money even if the person
did not go abroad.
There were simply no good solutions for the language problem,
therefore belonging to a minority limited upward mobility once for all. After
1990, there occurred some improvement because the borders opened up also for the
young people of Hungarian, German or Jewish origin. Today they can be enrolled
at institutions of higher education (including graduate studies) and obtain
scholarships in Hungary, Germany, the US and Israel.
III.5. Conflicts in public life
In public space ethnic stigmatization causes the most
conflicts pertinent to mixed marriages. It may even result in geographical
mobility: some of our interviewees had to leave their home town or village
because they were stigmatized and excluded from their original community. One of
the families in our sample, however, began to fight against the stigmatizers:
our Slovak interviewee went round the town to paint white the racist graffiti
provoking the minority group of her husband.
Basically, the conflicts in public life are due to the lack
of civil society (even the germs of it) and of the forms of ethnic coexistence
in Slovakia. In official discourse mixed, multicultural identity is an anathema,
though there is a growing need for it some os the communities. The members of
mixed marriages are therefore in an uncomfortable position not only when being
stigmatized but also when they serve as an example of coexistence. We saw quite
a few families with a missionary commitment. They believed that the higher
quality of the family lives symbolizes an opportunity for peaceful coexistence
of ethnic groups. This mission makes them privileged in the given community,
nonetheless, it also bothers them to a great extent. Frequently, they have to
conceal the difficulties of their everyday lives from the community and even
from themselves.
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FINAL FINANCIAL REPORT
Budget item Plan (USD) Fact (USD)
I. Travel costs
(Budapest-Bratislava, Budapest-
Kosice, return, with train and car) 1.000 1.150
II. Accomodation and food expenses
(6 persons, 8 day) 2.800 2.600
III. Research material
(tapes, floppy discs, stationery,
photocopying) 600 650
IV. Data analysis expenses
(6 case studies) 600 600
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Total project costs 5.000 5.000
Budapest, Jun 1, 1997.
Dr. Zoltán Fejos
Project Leader
