Slovaks as a distinct people originated around the 8th − 10th century. In the 9th century their ancestors represented a crucial ethnical part of a state, historically known as Great Moravia. From the beginning of the 11th century until 1918 Slovaks lived in the Hungarian Kingdom and later in the Habsburg Monarchy. The creation of a modern national movement influenced by The Great French Revolution (1789) encouraged Slovaks to seek their own national independence. The concept of Slovak Home Rule was elaborated by Slovak political leaders in the Revolution of 1848 − 1849 and since then many generations of Slovaks had tried to implement it, more or less successfully. From the second half of the 19th century Slovaks had become the object of brutal national suppression and therefore Slovaks and Czechs united during WWI as resistance to the Habsburg Family and in 1918, at the end of WW1, they formed the new Czechoslovak State.
The new Czechoslovak Republic failed to provide Slovaks with real national equality. In 1939 the Republic disintegrated due to external pressures and as a consequence of internal contradictions. Even the revived Czechoslovakia after the WWII could not escape from a series of crises resulting from a failure to solve the Slovak problem. After the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989, new possibilities to fulfil Slovak desires for national equality and sovereignty opened up again. Negotiations on the constitution, which was a necessary part of the process of implementing democracy, showed, that most Czechs did not agree with the majority of Slovaks on the principles of national law and in the summer of 1992, the political leaders of both nations therefore agreed on a peaceful and controlled dissolution of the state. On January 1, 1993 the sovereign and independent Slovak Republic was established, who started the processes to become a fully-fledged member of the European Union and other international organizations and treaties.
The postage stamp bears the motif of Bratislava Castle as a symbol of Slovak statehood accompanied by the National Emblem and Flag that represents the Slovak Republic as part of the European Union. The first day cover bears the motif of a symbolic image of the Slovak Parliament and State Seal. The first day cover postmark takes the form of a musical score and shows the first bars of the State Anthem of the Slovak Republic.
                                                                                                                                                                                             Anton Hrnko