history textbooks; content analysis; didactics of history; key year 1918

October 28, 1918 represents one of the most important milestones of the Czech collective memory. The aim of the study is to capture the main traits of the explanatory reflection of the events related to the formation of the first Czechoslovak Republic in history textbooks of the selected neighbouring countries (Poland, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary as a “historical neighbour”) and to compare them with the Czech approach, as well as mutually each other focusing on the characteristics of educational texts which are typical for historical narration in each of the given countries. We concentrated in particular on the secondary school textbooks and a specific interpretation of the concrete themes which are accentuated in the national explanatory texts, on the one hand, or suppressed, on the other. The content analysis shows that there is an apparent effort for an objective approach, however, we can find there also stereotype views which the authors of textbooks often repeatedly adopt or derive from the same specialized publications. The objectivity of their elaboration could be achieved by the elimination of inaccuracies, the simplifying characteristics leaving aside some essential sides of the problem and by overcoming a one-sided view concentrated only on one situation or event and neglecting other essential historical information.