Martin Rázus

Martin Rázus

Martin Rázus (pseudonym Mrazák ) (born October 18, 1888 in Liptovský Mikuláš , † August 8, 1937 in Brezno near Banská Bystrica ) was a Slovak politician , poet , journalist and Protestant pastor . From 1929 to 1937 he was chairman of the Slovak National Party .

Life

Martin Rázus was saved as the child of a farmer and tanner . From 1899 to 1902 Rázus attended the elementary school in Vrbica and from 1902 to 1903 he briefly attended the grammar school in Banská Bystrica . From 1903 to 1907 he then attended the Evangelical Lyceum in Kežmarok and from 1907 to 1911 he studied at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Bratislava. On a scholarship from William Robert Seton-Watson , he began studying in Edinburgh in 1911 . The poverty that surrounded him all his youth awakened in him a strong national feeling and a great willingness to get involved in political election rallies. He was concerned about the catastrophic national and social situation of the Slovaks. He looked for a way out in literary work and journalism. He openly opposed the nationality policy of Austria-Hungary, but also against the Czechoslovakism of Czech politicians and Slovak capitalists. After the First World War , Rázus became the chief ideologist of the Slovak National Party and, from 1929 until his death in 1937, also its party leader. In 1935 he entered into a political alliance with Andrej Hlinka's Slovak People's Party . For Rázus, the solution of the Slovak question within Czechoslovakia meant the solution of the cardinal question of the state . That is why he wrote in the Národne noviny (national newspaper ) in 1934 critical of the Slovak Czechoslovakists Ivan Dérer and Milan Hodža (the latter a former party colleague of Rázus):

Dérer, Hodža and their supporters had almost sixteen years to dismiss the Slovak problem. If this problem persists today, it means that both the concept and the methods of the previous regime and its Slovak representatives are not good. The basis of Slovak discontent is not a lack of patriotism or a lack of love for the state, but the mistakes and errors of the rulers, namely the ruling Slovaks.

In 1933, Rázus addressed the Czech MPs in a parliamentary language:

Why do you hold on to such representatives for Slovakia who do not tell you the truth about Slovakia in plain English? Look, here are two people who are responsible for what is happening in Slovakia today. There are the Minister Dr. Dérer and the Minister Dr. Hodža, Slovaks!

Rázus published in traditional literary and social magazines such as Dennica, Prúdy, Živena, Stráž na Sione, Národnie Noviny, and from 1917 to the end of the First World War also in the Robotnícké noviny. His poetry addresses the world and people, their longings, pains and torments, and also took a position in them. He exposed careerism, lack of character, social and national injustice, and he also addressed his fear of the fate of the new Czechoslovak state and democracy. In addition to his artistic poetry and prose, Rázus wrote a lot of political articles, polemics and considerations in Slovak and Czech newspapers.

plant

Poetry:

• 1917 Z tichých a búrnych chvíľ
• 1919 Hoj, zem drahá
• 1919 To je vojna!
• 1925 Kameň na medzi
• 1926 Kresby a hovory
• 1929 Šípy duše
• 1934 Bača Putera
• 1935 Cestou

Prosen:

• 1926 Z drobnej prózy
• 1929 Svety
• 1930 Júlia 1 - 2
• 1935 Krčmársky kráľ
• 1936 Odkaz mŕtvych
• 1937 Bombura
• 1937 Stretnutie

Autobiographical novels:

• 1932 Maroško
• 1933 Maroško študuje

Dramas:

• 1920 Hana (ins. Aj knižne)
• 1936 Ahasver

Web links

• Martin Rázus on osobnosti.sk (Slovak)
• Entry about Martin Rázus on Literárne informačné centrum ( Slovak )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rudolf Chmel: On the national self-understanding of the Slovaks in the 20th century , in: Alfrun Kliems (Hrsg.): Slovak culture and literature in self and foreign understanding , Stuttgart 2005, p. 30. Visible here.