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1

Únor 1948 a vídeňští Češi. Příklad "péče o krajany v zahraničí" v prvním roce komunistického režimu

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Hallama P.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 4

682-706

EN

This article by an Austrian political scientist and historian discusses how the Czechoslovak Communist regime influenced the political life of the Czech minority in Vienna. The author argues that the Czechoslovak Communist Party (CPCz) tried to influence the Czechs of Vienna right from the end of the Second World War through the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Czechoslovak Ambassador to Austria, and the Foreign Czechoslovak Institute. After the Communists took power in February 1948 most of this work shifted to the central institutions of the Party, particularly the international department of the Central Committee, and direct contact was ensured by various emissaries sent from Prague to Vienna. The activity of the Vienna Czechs (and some Slovaks) after the war was conducted under the umbrella of the Central Committee of Czechoslovaks, in which four political parties on the Czechoslovak model and non-political associations were associated. The Communists among them formed a special section in the Communist Party of Austria, but were subordinate to the authority of their comrades in Prague. In February 1948 they endeavoured to copy the Czechoslovak Communist approach, and created a Central Action Committee of Czechs and Slovaks in Vienna, in which members of other parties were also represented. This step brought dissension into the ranks of the Czech minority, which was manifested clearly in the conflict between Communists and Social Democrats over who would control the Czech minority press. The rising tensions were commented on by the Austrian and Czechoslovak news media. The CPCz, fearing its influence on the minority waning, intervened in favour of maintaining unity amongst them. In autumn 1948 Communist Party emissaries managed to stage the restoration of the paralyzed 'Tschechoslowakischer Zentralausschuss' in Vienna, led by a Communist and an accommodating Social Democrat whom they were confident they could manipulate. The quarrels amongst the members of the Czech minority quickly worsened, however. The situation from the 1950s to the 1990s is concisely described by the author as 'four decades of Cold War within one minority.'

2

Problematika mnichovské dohody a jejích politických reflexí v zrcadle komunistického tisku na příkladu Rudého práva 1948-1989

80%

Šebek J.

Český časopis historický (The Czech Historical Review)

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2012

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vol. 110

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issue 3-4

654-670

EN

The Munich Agreement represents one of the most fundamental events in modern Czech history. Because of the topic´s resonance amongst the public, it also became an important part of propaganda during the ensuing Communist regime. The political instrumentalization of the Munich events was utilised to provide ideological support and justification of both the internal and external political initiatives of Communist power. This study aims to analyse the ways and means of reflection of these historical events in Rudé právo as the principal press propaganda organ of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The manner in which the consequences of the Munich Agreement were reported in this daily paper represented one of the ideological constants on which the regime based its legitimacy. Its editorials stereotypically assessed the consequences and causes of the Munich Agreement as evidence of the inability of the non-Communist parties to defend the independence and sovereignty of the state and to justify the alliance with the Soviet Union. Yet, understandably, external circumstances changed throughout the forty year existence of Communist supremacy during which constant reminders of 1938 Munich were invoked. The culmination of these propaganda efforts is particularly evident in the 1950s and in the first half of the 1960s. However, the year 1968 is another important milestone, when, after the August invasion, Rudé právo attempted to restore the positive image of the Soviet Union through the pro-regime interpretations of the Munich trauma. Following the conclusion of the December 1973 Agreement between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany, which also addressed the disputed issues concerning the interpretation of the Munich Agreement, propaganda aspects did somewhat retreat into the background and Rudé právo and other Communist mass media devoted themselves primarily to the historical contexts of this event, although intentional reflections on the Munich of 1938 continued to be used for propaganda purposes, also.

3

Český ateismus ve dvacátém století. K vývoji a institucionalizaci v letech 1948-1989

80%

Vaclavik D.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 2-3

471-487

EN

This article considers the effects of atheism, an intellectual and political movement denying the existence of God (the Supernatural) and casting doubt on the point of institutions connected with God in twentieth-century Bohemia and Moravia. The author distinguishes between atheist, agnostic, and 'non-believer,' and, referring to contemporary sociological research into religiousness in Czech society, argues that it would be wrong to consider the mass turning away from traditional confessions to be evidence of its prevailing atheism or a consequence of forty years of Communist dictatorship. The article considers the topic in the broader historical context, and points to the anticlerical (essentially anti-Roman Catholic) tradition in modern Czech history, which is rooted in the National Revival and was intensified in connection with the anti-Habsburg struggle leading to the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic. The Communist regime, seeking, after it took power in February 1948, to suppress the Church and religion, thus found fertile ground. The beginning of atheism in the Czech milieu, as elsewhere in Europe, is linked to the development of the Freethinkers movement. Within this movement (the Czech section, 'Volna myslenka', was founded in 1904), a positivist current predominated at first. From the early 1920s, however, its views increasingly clashed with the Marxist-influenced stream. That stream originated in Marx's interpretation of religion as a false, alienated consciousness, serving the interests of reactionary social forces and an outdated 'scientific view of the world.' Atheism in the Marxist conception was thus understood not only as a noetic perspective, but also as a set of principles forming part of Communist, or Socialist, ethics. The author argues that, after taking power, the Communist regime commenced its struggle against the Churches (particularly the Roman Catholic) with the help of propaganda that was political rather than atheist, owing both to tactical considerations (the considerable religiousness of the rural population) and to the implicit conviction of Communist functionaries that religion would die out together with the people and institutions that represented it. In the 1950s, 'scientific atheism' had not yet emerged from Marxist-Leninist doctrine as an independent discipline, and was therefore not a special subject of the school curriculum or scholarly debate. It emerged slowly, in about the 1960s, but by then, with the overall liberalization of society, relations between the Churches and State had improved, and space for religious ideas had begun to appear. In the last part of the article, the author describes the institutionalization of 'scientific atheism' as part of the strategy of 'Normalization,' reflected for example in the founding the Institute of Scientific Atheism at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Brno, 1972. The mission of this institute was not merely the theoretical refutation of religion and the promotion of a 'scientific view of the world' in research into the orientation of the population in this respect, but also the elaboration of assessments for publications with regard to their 'ideological incorruptibility' and assessments of the activity of the clergy in deciding to revoke the requirement of State consent for those who wished to work as members of the clergy.

4

Studium na bohoslovecké fakultě v Litoměřicích. Osobní zkušenost z let pozdní "normalizace"

80%

Jandourek J.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 2-3

439-448

EN

An important form of State control of the churches and their repression under Communist rule was the education of young clergymen at the faculties of theology. After 1953, the only officially permitted Roman Catholic faculty of theology was in the Bohemian town of Litomerice. The author, an important journalist and novelist in the period following the Changes of late 1989, studied there from 1984 to 1989. In the form of personal memoirs he describes the faculty in those days. It was not academically strong, and seminary life served more to control future clergymen (since graduating from the faculty was a necessary condition for subsequent work with the Church) than it was to provide space for spiritual development. Though the students had to be screened by the secret police, which had tried to lure them into collaboration even at the entrance exams, they were definitely not pro-regime. That is particularly true of members of the secret religious Orders. In the second half of the 1980s no one even bothered anymore to persuade students of the necessity of changing one's anti-Communist attitude. As long as one did not make this attitude clear, the system worked. Theologians themselves could thus not be certain whether they were part of the 'visible', collaborating Church, or were part of the opposition, because simply by having entered the faculty they had made it clear what they thought about the establishment's Marxist ideology. The situation at the Roman Catholic faculty of theology (which by its subservience to the State authorities brought to mind the general seminaries of the eighteenth century in the reign of Joseph II) thus basically resembled the situation throughout the 'official' Church in the Bohemian Lands and throughout Czech society as well. Consequently, its transformation after the Changes of late 1989 is taking a long time.

5

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCKS TOGETHER... WHAT FOR? (Swoj do swego... po co?)

80%

Kula M.

Studia Migracyjne - Przegląd Polonijny

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2009

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vol. 35

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issue 2(132)

65-73

EN

Economic nationalism has been, and still is, a relatively widespread phenomenon in the world. This tendency was not, however, particularly common in Poland's earlier history. The course of events was such that the quest for independence dominated over the consciousness of a need for civil and economic development. Only at the end of the interwar period, on the wave of the Great Depression, were plans for developing the economic potential of the country intensified. Unfortunately, however, the fight against Jewish merchants was also intensified, this being treated as a tool to strengthen not the country's economic potential but the economic potential of Poles among its citizens. During the communist period nominal internationalism sometimes actually intertwined with economic nationalism. In general, communist countries were unwilling to open their economies to other countries. Probably each country feared that another theoretically fraternal country would suck it dry. However, the dominant motive of propaganda was, of course, cooperation with other countries in the CMEA camp. In Poland, signs of economic nationalism have currently been moderate. Despite observed public attitudes against foreign retail chains, there has been no evidence of boycotting supermarkets run by their Polish managers. Nor has there been a boycott of foreign banks. Even products advertised as Polish do not dominate the advertising market, although they do appear.

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RUSÍNI A UKRAJINCI NA SPIŠI V ROKOCH 1945 – 1967

80%

Furmanik M.

Historický časopis (Historical Journal)

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2020

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vol. 68

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issue 4

635 – 665

EN

The study deals with the situation and activities of Ruthenians and Ukrainians in the Spiš region in 1945–1989. The introductory parts of the study deal with two events that particularly affected the life of Ruthenians and Ukrainians. It was an option to the Soviet Union in 1947 and the abolition of the Greek Catholic Church in 1950. The study also deals with the relationship of Ruthenians and Ukrainians with the majority and their employment. A considerable part of the study is also devoted to the education and culture of Ruthenians and Ukrainians, which were significantly influenced by Communist power interventions. The thesis tries to point out the specifics of the Spiš Ruthenians and Ukrainians and a certain difference in their historical development compared to Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Šariš and Zemplín.

7

V krajině za zrcadlem. Političtí emigranti v poúnorovém Československu a případ Aymonin

80%

Olsakova D.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 4

719-743

EN

This article considers the unusual phenomenon of exile in Czechoslovakia after the Communist takeover in 1948. It first briefly considers asylum in interwar Czechoslovakia, when, despite many Russian, Ukrainian, and German emigres in the country, the right to political asylum was not legislatively defined, being determined largely by international convention; this was so even after the war. Emigres in Czechoslovakia were granted asylum on the basis of a proposal by the Central Committee of the CPCz, modelled on an article of the Soviet Constitution and codified in the new Czechoslovak Socialist Constitution in 1960. Most Western emigres in Czechoslovakia were Greeks and Macedonians seeking asylum in the Soviet bloc after the Communist defeat in the Greek Civil War. About 12,000 came to Czechoslovakia in 1948–51. The next largest group was Italian, mostly ex-partisans, 214 of whom were in Czechoslovakia in late 1950. Then came the Yugoslavs, 152 in late 1950, opponents to the Tito regime after the split with Stalin. Among the 58 Spaniards, mostly workers and intellectuals opposed to Franco, two, Uribe and Modesto, were leading functionaries of the Spanish Communist Party. Also, 14 Americans emigrated to Czechoslovakia in the mid-1950s, as did people from other countries, including four Frenchmen, in particular the cultural attache Marcel Aymonin, another focus of the article. The author considers Aymonin in the context of Czechoslovak-French relations. Aymonin worked in Czechoslovakia as a teacher in Prague from 1933, then as cultural attache at the French Embassy, and, after the war, as head of the 'Institut Francais', Prague. In late 1949 he was transferred to Sofia. Returning to Prague in 1951 he sought asylum. The authoress seeks to explain what was behind this unexpected act, which was seized upon by Communist propaganda. She too thinks it was the result of Aymonin's opportunism, political intrigues, and, perhaps, love for Czechoslovakia. Aymonin was then employed in Czechoslovakia editing works of the French Stalinist Andre Stil and translating, before returning to France probably after 1968. By then he was already translating works by Kundera and Havel.

8

Vybrané rysy spirituality české katolické církve (1948-1989)

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Hanus J.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 2-3

341-353

EN

In this article the author seeks to explain some fundamental features of Roman Catholic spirituality in the Bohemian Lands after the Second World War. He demonstrates that this phenomenon was in essence both determined by the 'Roman Catholic Renaissance' of the 1930s and by new tendencies, particularly after the Communist takeover of February 1948. Among these tendencies was its enforced closed nature, fear of persecution, traditionalism, and conservatism, which were mainly the result of the limitations on being in touch with people abroad. On the whole, however, the author believes that Czech Roman Catholicism from the Communist takeover to the collapse of the regime in late 1989, despite all its problems, contributed to Czech culture, and he demonstrates this also in the reception of the Second Vatican Council in Bohemia and Moravia. The spirituality of women, both of nuns and of secular intellectuals, receives special praise in the article.

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Empirické výzumy (současného) náboženství v letech 1946-1989. Prolegomena k vývoji české sociologie náboženství v období marxistické dominace

80%

Nespor Z. R.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 2-3

399-438

EN

The article first summarizes projects of quantitative sociological research into Czech religiousness, which were carried out from 1946 to 1989 (when, with the exception of 1950, religious affiliation was not a question on the census), and it subjects this research to a methodical critique. The author then discusses the institutional background of these research projects. Research into religious attitudes was carried out in 1946 by the recently established Institute of Public Opinion Research. After the Communist takeover, however, sociology was no longer an acceptable discipline, and State organs that were also working against religion took over this research task. Their research into 'objective religious factors,' conducted from the 1950s to the 1980s, considered only the decline in church-based religious feeling. More profound sociological research was made possible with the establishment of the Institute of Sociology at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in the 1960s. Though this research was in the sway of the models of the period, that is to say, the 'sociology of the parish', it was relatively successful, methodologically suitable research (for instance into religiousness in North Moravia, 1963, with an attempt to expand it to the whole country), and met with a positive international response. It was doomed, however, by the policy of 'Normalization,' when the Institute of Sociology was merged with the Institute of Philosophy. Sociological research into religion was then entrusted to the Institute of Scientific Atheism, which was established in Brno. (The most important research that it conducted was into the religiousness of pupils and students of elementary and secondary schools in South Moravia, 1979.) Similar research was also carried out by the reorganized Public Opinion Research Institute in 1979, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1989. Not one of these projects, however, can be considered rigorous, because the methods used were ideologically in the sway of the regime, it was not of sufficiently professional quality, and was palpably behind modern Western developments in the sociology of religion. More credible research, though limited for practical reasons, was provided by 'samizdat' and emigre sociology, which cast doubt on the idea of the automatic secularization of Czech society in connection with modernization and the dominance of Marxist thought. The development of truly unbiased research could take place only after the changes that began in late 1989. When interpreting earlier research and comparing results with contemporary findings on religiousness one must therefore bear in mind that it cannot be done without taking into account the conditions of the society and of the discipline in which the research was originally conducted, as well as the aims it was intended for.

10

Nezávislé náboženské vzdělávání za "normalizace". Několik (osobních) příkladů

80%

Dvorak D.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 2-3

449-470

EN

This article draws largely on the author's personal recollections of independent Roman Catholic education in Czechoslovakia in the 'Normalization' period, 1970-89, which he places into a more general interpretation of this kind of educational activity. His aim, however, is to provide a picture of the still virtually unknown educational and church activities, rather than to present a complex treatment of the topic. Drawing also on the recollections of other people who were involved, the author discusses the independent religious education of little children within the family, and then, in greater detail, describes working with youth and the training of their leaders, particularly amongst the Salesians, whom he was involved with in the 1980s. Although the Salesians were the most active community in terms of the catechism, they did not limit themselves to working with young people. On the other hand, the social scope of these activities was not large, even within the Church. Lastly, the author discusses parallel post-secondary education, in particularly the seminars held in private flats, and he discusses in greater detail the wide range of the educational work of Josef Zverina (particularly in north Moravia and Prague), which was the theological equivalent of these seminars. In this and other cases, however, he asks whether informal educational programmes met, or even could meet, sufficient standards, and he recalls some contemporaneous 'samizdat' discussions concerning the quality, character, and purpose of the 'extracurricular' and 'counter-curricular' education.

11

"Jsou to berani, ale můžeme je využít". Čeští evangelíci a komunistický režim 1948-1956

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Matejka O.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

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2007

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vol. 14

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issue 2-3

305-340

EN

In this article the author examines the coexistence of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and the Communist regime in the first several years after the Communist takeover, 1948-56. The first part of his analysis, inspired by French and German research on the social history of power by Sandrine Kott and Thomas Lindenberger, outlines the points of contact as well as ideological and political affinities between Protestants and Communists before the February 1948 takeover. These were particularly clear in the Protestant weekly 'Kostnicke jiskry' (Sparks from Constance) after the Second World War. Owing to this rapprochement and also to their reflexes developed for survival in the unfavourable circumstances the Protestant minority adapted with relative success to conditions in the Communist dictatorship. To consolidate themselves, they skilfully used instruments offered by the regime, such as 'voluntary' work groups (brigady), while the regime relied on Protestants (particularly ministers) in some of its important political strategies such as collectivization and elections. The author pays particular attention to the theologian and philosopher Josef Lukl Hromadka (1889-1969), who was, in his day, a central figure amongst Czechoslovak Protestants. His 'instrumentalization' also operated in two directions: in the West, as a representative of Christian peace activities, he helped to create the illusion of religious freedom in Communist Czechoslovakia, but he also served Protestants as a 'shield' and mediator enabling them to establish and maintain contacts with Western theologians. In the article the author also seeks to demonstrate that assiduous analysis of archive records of State, Party, and Church provenance reveals the inner contradictions in the Communist 'apparat' regarding relations with the churches and its own powers as well as links of alliance amongst some of its organs and the churches.

12

K IDENTIFIKÁCII PROTIKOMUNISTICKÉHO ODBOJA NA SLOVENSKU (O INTERPRETAČNOM LABYRINTE JEHO HISTORICKEJ, PRÁVNEJ A SPOLOČENSKEJ ROVINY)

80%

Hruboň A.

Historický časopis (Historical Journal)

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2015

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vol. 63

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issue 3

503 – 516

EN

The paper continues indirectly the discussion on the pages of the Historical Journal on the relationship between history and politics against the background of identification of the anti-communist struggle in Slovakia after 1989. In the introduction, the author points to the frivolous manipulation of the terms anti-communist struggle or fighter in social and historical discourse, which was also reflected in the so-called memory legislation in Slovakia. Vague use of terminology in the memory legislation created a dangerous precedent, which enables the granting of the now positive status of anti-communist fighter also to members of pro-Nazi repressive military units operating in Slovakia after the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising, and to open supporters of the other Ľudák totalitarian regime. The paper documents the complexity of the problem in the framework of a comparative approach, with regard to the disputes on the theme of the anti-communist struggle in the Czech Republic, where discussion strikes against similar problems to those in Slovakia, but the interpretation and methodology is undoubtedly a step more advanced. The author does not end his considerations with unambiguous conclusions. Instead of this, he outlines the more widely conceived fields of discussion, through which a polemical dialogue needs to be carried on in his view.

80%

Cohen-Solal A.

Przegląd Filozoficzny. Nowa Seria

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2005

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vol. 14

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issue 4(56)

79-86

EN

When Sartre died in 1980 the secretary of the French Communist Party eulogized him as 'one of the greatest minds of our time', closing thereby a long period of mutual strain, recriminations, competition and misunderstanding. Sartre was never a member of a communist party, but he often supported its efforts in public speeches and in press. But the party did not trust him. His closest communist friend, Paul Nizan, presented him in a novel a character that resembled Sartre, a radical pessimist and a petit bourgeois, who is not a sincere advocate of socialist ideas and eventually betrays the working class. This figure cannot be interpreted as a literal image of Sartre, but it is true that Sartre's relation to communism was always complicated. For some time he tried to reconcile his views with the current policies of the French and Soviet communists parties. But he never accepted their dogmas and gradually he became more and more suspicious of the policies of the French communists, whom he trusted even less then the Soviets. For this attitude he was sometimes called a hypo-Stalinist, i.e. a defender of the Soviets who nevertheless admitted to having a broad knowledge of the atrocities committed by them. Sartre held this precarious position until 1956, when he openly broke off his allegiance to the FCP and finally withdrew his support for the Soviet version of communism after the invasion of Hungary. But even then he changed his allies, not his views. In the subsequent period he found new friends among the Maoists and remained a distant observer or sympathizer of the EuroMarxists. In general his political views should be viewed not as expressing a well defined political position, but as a manifestation of philosophical and ethical ideas, and as a realization (perhaps the last one) of what was traditionally conceived in France as the intellectual's mission

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Únor 1948 a vídeňští Češi. Příklad "péče o krajany v zahraničí" v prvním roce komunistického režimu

Problematika mnichovské dohody a jejích politických reflexí v zrcadle komunistického tisku na příkladu Rudého práva 1948-1989

Český ateismus ve dvacátém století. K vývoji a institucionalizaci v letech 1948-1989

Studium na bohoslovecké fakultě v Litoměřicích. Osobní zkušenost z let pozdní "normalizace"

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCKS TOGETHER... WHAT FOR? (Swoj do swego... po co?)

RUSÍNI A UKRAJINCI NA SPIŠI V ROKOCH 1945 – 1967

V krajině za zrcadlem. Političtí emigranti v poúnorovém Československu a případ Aymonin

Vybrané rysy spirituality české katolické církve (1948-1989)

Empirické výzumy (současného) náboženství v letech 1946-1989. Prolegomena k vývoji české sociologie náboženství v období marxistické dominace

Nezávislé náboženské vzdělávání za "normalizace". Několik (osobních) příkladů

"Jsou to berani, ale můžeme je využít". Čeští evangelíci a komunistický režim 1948-1956

K IDENTIFIKÁCII PROTIKOMUNISTICKÉHO ODBOJA NA SLOVENSKU (O INTERPRETAČNOM LABYRINTE JEHO HISTORICKEJ, PRÁVNEJ A SPOLOČENSKEJ ROVINY)

Hegemoni i ich prawo w czasach polskiego komunizmu. Próba analizy prawnoustrojowej I filozoficzno-prawnej

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Lev v kleci. Návrat Lva Sychravy z emigrace v roce 1955

JOSEF LUKL HROMÁDKA: V KOMUNISMU SE PROJEVUJE NEZADRŽITELNĚ DYNAMICKÁ SÍLA ŽIVÉ KŘESŤANSKÉ TRADICE

VEŘEJNÁ SFÉRA A GENDEROVÁ ANALÝZA PO ÚNORU 1948: PŘÍSPĚVEK DO DISKUZE

Smrt, umírání a pohřební rituály v české společnosti ve 20. století

DIDAKTICKÉ POVERY A NAJNOVŠIE DEJINY

Sartre and Communism