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The Myth of the “other” War in the Diaries (1939-1945) of Piero
Calamandrei
VALERIA MOGAVERO
This essay analyses the “democratic interventionism” professed by
the great jurist Piero Calamandrei during the Great War and focuses
on the persistence of the “myth of the Great War” in the ethical and
political roots of his opposition to fascism over the following twen-
ty-five years. The work shows how the outbreak of the Second World
War revived Calamandrei’s sense of the democratic aspirations and
the ideals of the Risorgimento tradition, leading to their identifica-
tion with the “other” war as a means to emphasize the aggressive
character of the new 1939-1945 war and the distortion of the old ide-
als in the unnatural nazi-fascist alliance against the Western democ-
racies. The essay also rereads the diaries written by Calamandrei
during the Second World War and attempts to capture the modes
and reasons for the claims made on every page regarding the demo-
cratic tradition of the Great War.

“War, about which there is nothing holy.” Literary Representations
of the Great War in the Work of Slovak Priest-writers
DANA HUČKOVÁ
Although Slovak literature largely stagnated during the Great War,
numerous works were produced as a reaction to militarism and to the
inhumanity of war. Several writers from this period were Evangelical
ministers or Catholic priests. Some (e.g., Vladimír Roy, Ignác Grebáč-
Orlov, and Vladimír Hurban Vladimírov) made direct experience of
the front as field curates on the Eastern and Southern fronts. Others
(e.g. Martin Rázus and Štefan Krčméry) were wrote about the conse-
quences of the war for common people away from the front. Ivan
Lilge-Lysecký, finally, was sent to the ba lefields as an ordinary sol-
dier. While most of these writers were Modernists, their works from
the war period revived the genres of documentary Realism. The Great
War also profoundly changed their understanding of the Church as
an institution and of its social and moral mission. Aware of the dis-
crepancy between Christ´s teachings and the involvement of churches
in the war propaganda, the issue of faith as salvation from the horrors
of war became crucial for them.

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