Ján Kollár


Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer, archaeologist, scientist, Lutheran pastor, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.

Life

He studied at the Lutheran Lyceum in Pressburg. In 1817 he enrolled in the University of Jena. His attendance at the Wartburgfest has since been credited as being a formative experience with regards to his views on Pan-Slavism.
He spent most of his adult life as a chaplain to the populous but poor Slovak Lutheran community in Pest. From 1849, he was a professor of Slavic archeology at the University of Vienna, and several times he also acted as a counselor to the Austrian government for issues around the Slovaks. He entered the Slovak national movement in its first phase.
His museum in Mošovce was installed in the former granary, which was the only masoned part of Kollár's otherwise wooden birth-house. The rest of the house burned down in a fire on 16 August 1863. In 2009 a replica was rebuilt of the original birth-house, which is now a museum.

Views

He worked out a conception of Slav reciprocity. He admitted 4 standard languages: Russian, Polish, Czechoslovak and Serbo-Croatian.

Works

Besides writing poetry he also wrote technical literature.
  • Slávy Dcera, collection of two cycles
In this work he worked out the conception of Slavic reciprocity. He expressed his feelings to a woman but this love had transformed to a love to his homeland. The main thematics of this work are:
•love
•patriotism
It is divided into 5 chapters and it has a foreword.
Předzpěv

The author expressed his fears that the Slovaks will disappear from the face of Europe like other Slavic tribes before. He asked the Slovaks to ask for help from the Russian nation.
1. Sála

This part contains love sonnets. Kollár glorifies his love Mína, depicting her as an ideal of a Slavic maid, the daughter of goddess Sláva.
2. Labe, Rén, Vltava

In these parts, the author takes us to places where Slavic tribes lived before. He is disappointed because these areas belong to foreign countries now.
3. Dunaj

The author arrives to Slovakia, disillusioned by the poverty of this area. He is highly disappointed and longs for death.
4. Léthé
5. Acheron

Mína becomes a fairy and takes the author to Slavic heaven and hell.
  • ''O literární vzájemnosti mezi kmeny a nářečími slavskĭmi''

Legacy