In the year of celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the arrival of Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia (i.e. to the territory of today Slovakia), Matica slovenská was founded as the national culture organisation at the General Assembly in Turčiansky Svätý Martin on August 4, 1863. It joined ranks of similar organisations of Slavic nations that began to originate in the 19th century, beginning with Matica srbská in 1826. Their objective was to cultivate national culture, art and science under the circumstances of non-independence and thus replace the role of state in this area in certain way...