CONGRESSES OF THE SLAVIC GEOGRAPHERS AND ETHNOGRAPHERS—CHRONOLOGICAL RETROSPECTION

Abstract

The end of the First World War brought changes in international relations and new socio-economic and social challenges. A specific segment was the organization of scientific work. Geographical science and the related disciplines were also looking for their place. A significant qualitative change to the research was brought by the gatherings of the Slavic geographers and ethnographers. At the initiative of Jovan Cvijić, the First Congress was organized in Prague in 1924. In the interwar period, three more congresses were held—in Poland (1927), in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1930), and in the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1936). The aim of this paper is an overview of the subjects and outcomes of those events in the social circumstances of that time. The work of the Congresses was divided into several thematic areas, with the dominance of physical geographic, cartographic, and ethnographic research. The importance of the congresses is proven by the fact that the governance structures wholeheartedly supported them. Even though they had a strong impact, the Congresses of the Slavic Geographers and Ethnographers did not provide answers to numerous questions that “troubled” the post-war societies in the second half of the 1920s and 1930s. The results undoubtedly pointed to the symbolic representation of anthropogeographic, demographic, geo(political), and socio-economic subjects. The data on the demographic losses in the Great War were omitted. There were no projections of future trends in the Slavic countries, especially in the context of the new conflict and its consequences.

Keywords

• Slavs
• geographers and ethnographers
• congresses
• 20th century
• interwar period