The authors analyzed the presence and content of Ukrainian theme in the documents of Czech civic initiatives during the second half of the 1980s. The development of citizens initiatives has become a catalyst of socio-political life in Czechoslovakia. The number of participants in civic initiatives increased, and their programs were politicized. In program statements the principle of the so-called leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was rejected as inconsistent with the principle of equality of citizens and the code of civil and political rights. The source base of this research comprised documents and materials of human rights activists, first presented in the self-published (samizdat) bulletins of independent Czech civic initiatives: “Information on Charter 77” (“Informace o Chartĕ 77”), “The Case of the East European News Agency” (“Zprava vychodoevropske informačni agentury”) and “Bulletin of Independent Peace Commonwealth – Initiative for demilitarization of society” (“Bulletin nezavisleho miroveho sdruženi – Iniciativy za demilitarizaci společnosti”). It has been shown that the Ukrainian theme is presented in two documents of the human rights association of Charter 77: the document “Before the Chernobyl Accident” (May 6, 1986) and the telegram of Czechoslovak human rights activists to Lviv, addressed to the group “Dovira” (“Trust”) (April 22, 1989). Czech “Independent Peace Commonwealth – Initiative for demilitarization of society” and Ukrainian, Lviv, “Dovira” Group, exchanged a letter and a telegram of solidarity. The informational reasons for creating the documents were the Chernobyl disaster – man-made accident on a global scale and the brutal dispersal of a peaceful demonstration in Lviv. Documents of Czech human rights activists and pacifist activists focus public attention on late Soviet realities: concealment of information from society about radioactive contamination and another human rights violation in Soviet Ukraine
The main intention of the presented article was to find and indicate thoughts connected to the dissident tradition of Czech 20th century history. The generational experience regarding the „drunken festival” of Prague Spring and brutal intervention of „fraternal help” have influenced a non-official side of Czech modern culture. Literary works, as well as publicist activities in the period 1968–1989 prove that the political opposition has become a very important subject for many writers. In the article, I am referring to above indicated novel written by Pavel Kohout. In his text, the writer, known as one of the most important founding members and architects of the informal civic initiative called Charter 77, has managed to describe an atmosphere of Czech „normalization” and nonofficial ways of rebelling, fighting against the communistic ideology in Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution in November 1989.
The paper deals with the situation of Hungarian minority in Slovakia in the period of the regime of so called “Normalization” after the suppression of “Prague Spring” in 1970s and 1980s. The issue of minority policy of Czechoslovak / Slovak government is discussed as a specific aspect of the nationalizing policy. The paper is based on the archival research of the documents provided by Charter 77 and the Committee for Protection of the Hungarian minority rights in Czechoslovakia. The research question is, whether the Slovak Socialist Republic, established after the federalization of Czechoslovakia in 1968, was still a nationalizing state. Paper brings an analysis of the oscillation of the political initiatives within the Hungarian minority environment in Slovakia and the Slovak-Hungarian debate between the national and civic-democratic agenda. According to the conclusions, the Slovak Socialist Republic applied some nationalizing practices and policies, however due to the deformations of the Czechoslovak federation after 1969 it couldn’t become a uniquely nationalizing state. The debate on the minority rights and on the Slovak-Hungarian relations in the dissident environment and later, since 1988-1989 in the wider public space has a significant impact on the shaping of the political cleavages in Slovakia after the political changes in November 1989.
The paper discusses the clash between State Security (Státní bezpečnost) and political dissent during Czechoslovak normalisation, or rather one of its aspects: the expert knowledge that both sides used in the conflict. While State Security was making an effort to improve in the field of psychology and also in its use of technology, especially during surveillance, the dissidents gradually acquired a perfect knowledge of the Czechoslovak legal system, which helped them to defend themselves, at least to some extent, against the harassment by the security apparatus. The paper discusses the approaches taken by both sides as well as how they actually worked in practice.
After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, which ended up Prague spring in August 1968, thousands of Czech (and Slovak) citizens went into exile. Out of estimated 162,000 people, who came to Austria within the next few weeks, some 12,000 refugees decided to stay there. The majority of them chose Vienna to be their new home. My paper deals with this group of Czech refugees and analyses a process of their integration into Austrian majority and how the process, which they had to undergo, changed their national identity. In the paper, which is based on various archive materials and my two field researches among Czechs in Vienna, I also deal with different concepts of national identity and integration. I applied Cooper and Brubaker’s concepts of ‘identification’ and self-understanding’ to analyse deeper the various contexts of Czech refugees’ behaviour and to answer a research question, why it was more difficult for Czech refugees to integrate into existing Czech minority associations in Austria than into Austrian majority itself.
The North Bohemia Region, especially Teplice, was along with Prague one of the key centres of the opposition community, which later acquired the term ‘underground’. The underground movement soon came into conflict with the normalisation regime. Using the example of one specific city and its community, we have aimed to demonstrate its multifaceted nature. We have begun in 1965, when the underground was spawned, with 1985 being a year of its resurgence following harsh persecution at the beginning of the 1980s. For clarity, we have had to give a brief description of events already well-known and studied in our paper. It also proved impossible to describe the regional issue without anchoring it within its society-wide context, as well as the status of the authorities on the one hand, and the underground on the other. As yet unpublished archive sources, mainly of State Security provenance, were used in the writing of the study.
Bohaterem szkicu biograficznego jest Jiří Lederer, czeski dziennikarz, działacz polityczny, dysydent, kilkakrotnie więziony. Autor opisuje jego ideowe korzenie i ewolucję od socjalizmu, przez komunizm, do demokratycznego socjalizmu spod znaku Praskiej Wiosny (socjalizmu z ludzką twarzą), aż po przymusową emigrację.
EN
The protagonist of the biographical sketch is Jiří Lederer, a Czech journalist, political activist, and dissident who was imprisoned several times. The author describes Lederer’s ideological roots and ideological evolution from socialism through communism, democratic socialism under the banner of Prague Spring (socialism with a human face) to forced emigration.
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