Jozef Jablonický in memoriam

Jozef Jablonický was a Slovak historian and dissident. He was born on 3 January 1933 in Zavar. He studied history at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. From 1960 he worked at the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In the 1960s he offered an interpretation of the Slovak National Uprising that differed from the one the Communist Party wished to promote. In 1969 he published the book Z ilegality do povstania (From Illegality to Uprising), in which he also documented the non-communist resistance. In doing so, he challenged the Communist Party's efforts to appropriate the Slovak National Uprising.

He was persecuted for this work. In 1974 he was forced to leave the institute and was persecuted by the communist State Security (StB). He was subjected to interrogations, surveillance and wiretapping. The StB frequently searched his home, looking for his writings. Despite the persecution, he persevered in his research. Although he was barred from publishing, he disseminated his works through samizdat and in exile, especially in Canada and the United States. In 1987 he was one of the signatories of the Declaration on the Deportations of Jews from Slovakia. He also co-authored a letter of protest to the Prime Minister of the Slovak Socialist Republic against the imprisonment of the dissident Miklós Duray.

After 1989 he returned to the Slovak Academy of Sciences. From 1990 to 1998 he headed its Institute of Political Science and later served as chairman of its scientific council. From 1990 to 1992 he was chairman of the Slovak and vice-chairman of the Czechoslovak Government Commission for the Analysis of the Events of 1967 – 1970. Jozef Jablonický wrote 10 monographs and numerous samizdat letters and speeches. He became a key voice in establishing an objective interpretation of the Slovak National Uprising. In his books he stripped away the layers of communist propaganda and restored to the Uprising its historical authenticity, supported by facts.

For his lifetime contribution he was awarded the Pribina Cross, 1st Class, and in 2008 he received the Dominik Tatarka Award for Samizdat o disente (Samizdat on Dissent).

Jozef Jablonický remains for us a symbol of scholarly honesty and moral integrity. Today we pay tribute to a historian who had the courage to restore to history its true face. Jozef Jablonický would have turned 93 on 3 January 2026.