MODERN GREEK STUDIES IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA: THEIR ROLE IN CONSTRUCTING THE NATIONAL IDENTITY OF GREEK IMMIGRANTS

Abstract

This article deals with the education of Greek immigrants during their forced stay in Czechoslovakia after the end of the Greek Civil War. Education for young refugees was organized by the Greek Communist Party in cooperation with the Czechoslovak government.

The education system was tuned to ideological indoctrination; its aim was to build a new national identity as well as to form a new elite for the "People's Republic of Greece." This paper also focuses on the history of Modern Greek philology at Charles University in Prague and Masaryk University in Brno from the postwar period until the present. The article is based on archival sources from the National Archives in Prague and Charles University.

Keywords

• Greek emigration
• education
• national identity
• greek civil war
• modern greek studies