Books and Rifles: The Political Activity of Yugoslav Communist Students in Prague from 1927 until 1937 (Part II)

• Authors: Gužvica Stefan
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This second part of the article deals with the communist takeover of “Jugoslavija,” the umbrella organization of Yugoslav students in Prague, in 1935. Following their ultimate victory over the monarchists, they continued their agitation in the student dormitory, drawing in large numbers of new communist organizers and sympathizers. Soon after, however, they departed for Spain to fight in the Civil War, after which their organization effectively ceased to exist. Those who survived World War II went on to become the political elite of the new socialist state. Their subsequent writings reveal the impact of their activity in Prague on their later political and intellectual development. They show that, even though the communist students rarely questioned the tenets of Stalinism before 1948, the experience of working in a pluralist left-wing environment, as well as within an internationalist and pan-Yugoslav framework, had been an influence on their postwar efforts aimed at reforming socialism and creating a system different than the one centered in Moscow.

Keywords

EN

Kingdom of Yugoslavia; Communism in Yugoslavia; Spanish Civil War; Student Movement in Yugoslavia; Student Movement in Prague; The First Czechoslovak Republic

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovanský přehled: historická revue pro dějiny střední, východní a jihovýchodní Evropy (Slavonic Review: Review for Central, Eastern and Southeastern European history)
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 103
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 343-372

Contributors

author

Gužvica Stefan

• Department of History Central European University Nador u. 9, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary