Byla to opozice ’68? Nad knihou Jiřího Hoppeho

• Authors: Jiří Vančura

Title variants

EN

Was It an Opposition in 1968? Concerning Jiří Hoppe’s Latest Book

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

According to the author of this article, Jiří Hoppe’s Opozice ’68: Sociální demokracie, KAN a K 231 v období Pražského jara (Prague: Prostor, 2009) is a substantial contribution to our knowledge of a small but important part of what set Czechoslovak society in motion in 1968. One will also be considerably surprised to read genuine claims by Reform Communists which reveal their intentions to prevent the establishment of other political groupings at the time. The author of the article, however, questions Hoppe’s defi nition of political opposition in 1968, because the nascent Social Democratic Party, the Club of Engagé Non-Party Members ( Klub angažovaných nestraníků ), and Club 231, which constitute the topic of Hoppe’s interpretation, were part of a broad-based social movement demanding change; nor can all Communists be pigeon-holed in a single category. Searching for the opposition in the events of 1968 is, according to the author, misleading and ultimately tends to obscure, rather than to clarify, the ultimate meaning of the Prague Spring of 1968. That meaning, according to the author of the article, consists in its having been a truly national movement with unambiguously positive aims, however foggy their articulation.

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)
• Year: 2010
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 448-452
• Document type: DISCUSSION

Contributors

author

Jiří Vančura

• Soudobé dějiny, redakce, Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i., Vlašská 9, 118 40 Praha 1, Czech Republic