Page:East European Quarterly, vol15, no1.pdf/9

 National consciousness was strengthened by the assumption that the Czech language had once been a civilized language used by the higher social classes. It was argued that the Czech language had even surpassed other languages in its wealth of expression and the elegance of its vocabulary. The national complex of smallness and insignificance on the international scene was offset by the vast dimensions of the national and linguistic base of the Slavs. The greatness and antiquity of Czech history and national culture served as proof of the equality of the Czech nation with other European nations. Historical facts were employed to dismiss the old notion of the Czechs holding no rights to their own national existence because they had never created their own culture and had never possessed their own state. At this time, when the Czech state had vanished and Czech literature, science, and art had disappeared, only history, the political and cultural past of the Czechs, could act as a source of national hope and proof of national vitality. History assumed great value in remarkably affecting the national development. In this way, history and historiography became a vital aspect of national feeling and thought, thereby assuming an unusual social function.

The socio-political fiction and illusion of the positive feeling of the ruler toward the Czech nation led Czech intellectuals to formulate, from the 1770’s on, political, linguistic, and cultural claims in various so-called apologies and in public speeches. The apology dedicated to Emperor Joseph II, in Czech, by the lexicographer Karel Hynek Thám in 1783; Josef Dobrovský’s address to Emperor Leopold II during his coronation in Prague, in 1791 and delivered at the meeting of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences; the inaugural address of the first Professor of Czech language at Prague University, František Martin Pelcl, in 1793; the articles written in 1790–92 by the journalist Václav Matěj Kramerius about the political successes of the anti-Habsburg opposition in Hungary, and the speeches written by the village mayor and peasant-annalist, František Vavák, for the coronation of Francis II in Prague in 1792 represented the climax of Czech patriotism and nationalism during the period of the French Revolution and the era of the Estates’ opposition to Emperor Joseph II.

In spite of its many vigorous attacks against the alienated nobility, this generation considered the privileged classes a significant factor in the state and nation and attempted to persuade them to participate in the Czech national movement. The French Revolution, however, convincingly refuting the indispensable character of the privileged classes of a nation, generated a completely negative attitude on the part of the younger