Mgr. Marek Machýl, Visiting Fellowship 2024/25

Biography

Marek Machýl is currently a PhD student at the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.

His current research explores the memory politics of war veterans’ organizations during the late socialist and post-socialist period in Slovakia in the context of political narratives and propaganda. This research also includes the study of anti-fascism as an ideology that underwent significant transformations in Central Europe between 1980 and 1999. Additionally, his work examines political and societal discourse concerning national history, shaped by organizations such as the Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters (SZPB). Once a directly political organization, the SZPB changed after 1989, redefining itself as an apolitical entity within civil society, distancing itself from any political narrative and emphasizing its role in historical commemoration and education.

Visiting Fellowship February 2025

Motivation

I am excited about the opportunity to join the research community at the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana. This program would allow me to deepen my research on how communist regimes in Europe used the memory of antifascist fighters to shape public narratives and collective identities, and how these war veterans’ organizations changed after the fall of the communist regime.

Access to archival materials, including the magazine Borec from the Zveza združenj borcev za vrednote NOB Slovenije, would be invaluable for my study. I aim to analyse these sources and, through comparative analysis, examine similar organizations in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. I look forward to contributing to and learning from the Institute’s dynamic academic environment.