Eminent historian, a major figure in Slovak intellectual life in the 20th century. From 1952 until 1971 he worked in the History Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. After 1970 he was the victim of political persecution. During the normalisation period he worked at the Slovak National Museum. After 1989 he was readmitted to the History Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and appointed as editor-in-chief of the journal Historický časopis. He was one of the first history scholars to take account of the broad political, sociological and economic context. He was interested in the questions of modernising Slovakia and formation of a civic society. In 1968 his work Slovensko v 20. Storočí (2nd edition 1998) was published, which was partly also an attempt at explicating the philosophy of Slovakia’s contemporary history. He also often used his historical texts to comment on contemporary Slovakian realia. He is the author of a concise history of Slovakia and the Slovaks intended for a foreign readership – A history of Slovakia and Slovaks (published in English, French and German).