Between Federal Frameworks: The Slovak and Serbian Dimensions of Czechoslovak–Yugoslav Academic and Cultural Relations during Late Socialism

Abstract

This article examines the cultural, scientific, and historiographical dimensions of cooperation between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia during the late socialist period, with particular attention to the 1980s. Although the institutional and political framework examined is formally that of two federal socialist states—the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ)—the analysis concentrates on the Slovak and Serbian dimensions of this bilateral relationship. This focus reflects the available archival evidence: the study draws primarily on the fond Riadiace orgány SAV I at the Central Archive of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, which documents Slovak institutional participation in bilateral cooperation, and on Fond 465 of the Archives of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, whose holdings predominantly reflect the activities of Serbian-based federal institutions. The article reconstructs the institutional architecture, intellectual ambitions, and practical limitations of bilateral scholarly exchange across three interrelated domains: scientific-technical cooperation, cultural diplomacy through joint programmes and museum networks, and historiographical collaboration through the Czechoslovak–Yugoslav Commission of Historians. The study argues that these frameworks simultaneously served scholarly, ideological, and diplomatic purposes, and that formal institutional inclusion within inter-academic agreements was the decisive factor determining the depth of bilateral scholarly relations in this period.