EN
By providing the genuinely new „networked“ understanding of exile, this study aims to rewrite significantly the story of Czechoslovak political emigration and re-assess its functioning mostly by means of a tool so far ignored in this field: The Social Network Analysis. According to the dominant historiographical narrative, the Czechoslovak exile followed mostly political goals and was structured as an hierarchy with the Council of Free Czechoslovakia being the supreme body initially respected by most (though not by all) fractions within the exile movement across the globe. That is why the historical research, rather one-sidedly, focused upon the institutional history, biographies of political leaders and ideological debate within political parties in exile. The study argues that the traditional approach needs a substantial revision. Though initially designed as a state-like hierarchy with pyramidal decision-making procedures (with coordinating power vested in the Council of Free Czechoslovakia) the exile soon transformed itself into a horizontal and rather informal network of loosely interconnected and mutually collaborating units and individuals across the globe. The „network thesis“ is demonstrated upon the model analysis of František Váňa’s and Přemysl Pitter’s communication webs being part of the long-term research of Czechoslovak exile networks, 1948–1989.