EN
The author deals with the issue of emigration from a non-democratic in undemocratic states on the example of emigration from the former Czechoslovakia to West. The emigration during Cold War is analysed as a kind of individual choice of a not only rational actor, but also non-rational, who have to manage many obstacles to escape. This means that the emigration of Slovak and Czech refugees cannot be explained only by classical economic theories. For this reason the author is using push and pull paradigm as a suitable model. In contrast to classical theories by using this paradigm it will be explained the reasons of emigration, but there are also included physical, legislative and bureaucratic obstacles, as well as individual factors of emigrants.