History Of Czechoslovakia Research Articles

The Contribution of Czechoslovakia to Creation of the Independent State of Israel

This article examines the diplomatic relations between Czechoslovakia and the Zionist movement during the late 1940s in regard to Czechoslovakia's contribution to the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948. The support provided by Czechoslovakia, both diplomatically and militarily, played a pivotal role in the formation of an independent Jewish state. Notably, this assistance continued even after Czechoslovakia underwent a political regime change following the communist coup d'état in February 1948. The article aims to unravel the reasons behind this exceptional cooperation between two seemingly distant actors, both geographically and ideologically. Drawing upon recently disclosed archival collections from the relevant Czech archives and providing the insight to the foreign policy of a Soviet satellite, this research aligns with the historiographic paradigm known as the New Cold War History. By focusing on the contributions of satellite states to Cold War history, it sheds light on Czechoslovakia's significant role in shaping the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East in late 1940s. Even though it might have been a somewhat marginalized story in the later decades of the Cold War due to the affiliation of the two countries with opposite ideological blocs, the history of Czechoslovakia's contribution to the creation of the State of Israel is now recognized as one of the significant narratives in the mutual relations between the two states, demonstrating the importance of past-present linkages.

The Prague Spring of 1968

Abstract The Prague Spring of 1968 and the events immediately following it represent a significant historical moment in Czechoslovak history. The unprecedented activation of society through protest and media, the search for its own path of development and its violent interruption, still resonate in society today. The following essay narrates major occurrences of the ‘Prague Spring,’ starting with its prologue, moving to the unfolding of 1968 events, and closing with an epilogue. It focuses on the activation of society in its criticism of the old order, support for change, rejection of the violent interruption and the onset of normalization in a changed political scene.

Atentáty v československých dejinách

In the study, the author focuses on the various assassinations that are connected with the Czechoslovak history. The term „assassination“ has no legal definition, so in the beginning of the study we will first think about its content. Based on the definition, we will identify the assassinations in every period of Czechoslovak history. The body of the study is divided into four parts, derived from effect of the Criminal codes and from the constitutional development in the state. The primary aim of the study is the analysis of assassinations, especially from a legal point of view, i.e., from the point of view of legal responsibility or the impact of assassinations as material source on the origin of law. The secondary aim of the work is to approach several interpretations that relate to assassinations and the impact of the analyzed events on historical memory.

Jan Masaryk in American Diplomatic Correspondence, 1945–1948

Jan Masaryk (1886–1948) was the head of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the most difficult period in the history of Czechoslovakia, from 1940 to 1948. The peak of his professional career came in the post-war years, when CSR was at the centre of the unfolding Soviet-American confrontation. As a son of the first Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the closest associate of his successor Edvard Beneš, Jan Masaryk was trying to advocate democratic traditions in his country and preserve close relations with the West. But in practice, Prague was increasingly drawn into Moscow's sphere of influence. His life was tragically cut short in March 1948, soon after the Communists takeover. Until now his death remains the subject of various theories and discussions. The question of how the fate of this politician and his country would have unfolded had he stayed alive remains open. The purpose of the article is to consider Masaryk in a new context, namely through his perception by American diplomats. The author attempts to ascertain whether they associated their hopes for strengthening the western orientation of the Czech Socialist Republic and countering Soviet influence with Masaryk, and what they believed to be the reasons for his sudden death. The article draws on a study of American diplomatic correspondence. The author concludes that despite Masaryk's reputation as a pro-Western politician, in the United States he was not considered an important and influential figure in Czechoslovakia. His refusal to join anti-communist forces at home and his support for Moscow in the international arena caused resentment in Washington. Masaryk's death resonated in American political circles. Yet the State Department made no attempt to investigate its causes in detail or to question the official version of his suicide. Nevertheless, Masaryk became a tragic symbol of resistance to communism and the collapse of the last hopes for maintaining close relations between Czechoslovakia and the West.

Slovensko v koncepci československých dějin v době existence Československa

The paper gives a brief overview of how Slovak history was included into the common Czechoslovak history and how it was taught at Czech universities and grammar schools in the past. Before 1918, Slovak history was not taught at all. The subject of comparative Austrian history included Hungarian political history, which entailed some references to Slovak development in the 19th century. During the First Czechoslovak Republic, a subject entitled Czechoslovak history was taught, but in fact it still included only Czech history, with bits of inorganically added Hungarian political history. The teaching was based on the concept of the Czechoslovak nation, whose existence required a single national story. The Czechoslovak nation was said to originally have had one common state (Great Moravia), have subsequently developed into two states (Bohemia and Hungary), and in 1918 reunited into a single state: Czechoslovakia. After 1945, with the demise of Czechoslovakism, Czech and Slovak history was discussed in parallel as the histories of two nations, but at Czech universities the focus was clearly on Czech history. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Federation in 1968, the discussion of Slovak history at Czech universities and grammar schools was strengthened. The textbooks and synthetic literature recommended for study would be adapted to the changes in the approach to teaching in each period. Since the establishment of the independent Czech Republic in 1993, Czech universities have again taught only Czech history; Slovak history is solely present in the history of the Czechoslovak state (1918–1992). A specialised course on Slovak history is also taught every year at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.

Sbírkotvorná činnost Muzea Klementa Gottwalda – aktuální poznatky kurátorky

Examining the three-dimensional collections of the Klement Gottwald Museum in Prague (KGM), with an overlap into the context of its archival, library and audiovisual collections, allows for a demonstration of the basic aspects involved in the process of building a specialised museum collection. In this case, the focus is on the interpretation of Czechoslovak history in the 20th century. Throughout its operational period (1952–1990), the museum focused on presenting the history of the workers’ movement and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In order to provide an insight into the genesis of the KGM’s collections, three main sources of information have been identified: the institution’s registry, collection records, and the presentation of the collection items in promotional materials. The text presents one possible perspective on the exploration of sources and their potential to provide an understanding of the origins of this unique collection. The initial compilation of sources for the work of the collection’s curator is summarised here for the needs of the professional public in order to stimulate the interest in the real impact of theoretical planning of museum activities.

Výuka česko-slovenských dějin na základní škole s využitím regionálního muzea

This paper discusses the possibilities of cooperation between a primary school and a regional museum with regard of teaching Czecho-Slovak history. I use the example of the cooperation between the Karel Klíč Primary School and the Municipal Museum in Hostinné. My paper outlines the positive aspects and problematic challenges of this cooperation and describes themes for lessons, proposing a specific, inquirybased lesson for the anniversary of the dissolution of the Czechoslovak Federation.

Adapting contested national history for global audiences in Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation

The video game Attentat 1942 (2017) and its follow-up Svoboda 1945: Liberation (2021) received worldwide recognition and numerous awards for their representation of Czechoslovak history. Drawing upon the personal experiences of several members of the development team at Charles Games, including translators and historians, the article addresses the challenges involved in adapting Central and Eastern European historical narratives for players unfamiliar with the regional context, but also for countries (i.e. Germany) with stringent rules on video game depictions of Nazi symbolism. By doing so, we critically examine how the development team strove to maintain historical accuracy and authenticity not only in the games’ development but, more specifically, in their localization. The article builds on existing research on video game localization, which sees localization as a complex set of processes involving not only translation of in-game texts, but also more fundamental adjustments related to globalization and internationalization. The article complements a self-reflexive design case analysis with a reception study, based on a thematic analysis of foreign language reviews in the specialized press, to explore how regional historical themes are perceived by reviewers, and whether, or to what extent, localization affects these perceptions.

In the Space of Socialist Science: a Discussion of the Czechoslovak History Textbook (1953)

This article focuses on the problem of expertise as a form of scientific communication between Soviet and Czechoslovak historians. At the end of 1953, a discussion of the first volume of the textbook “History of Czechoslovakia” (“Dějiny ČSR”) took place at the Institute of Slavic Studies. The textbook was prepared by a group of authors headed by the director of the Institute of History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences J. Macek and sent to the Soviet Union for peer review. Expertise is considered in several contexts: 1) the situation in Czechoslovak historical science through the prism of the biographies of the textbook authors; 2) the specifics of the development of Soviet historiography and Bohemian studies in the early 1950s; 3) the formation of a communicative field among historians of the socialist countries.

"Z vrcholu na dno" : československý lední hokej v 50. letech 20. století

Article will deal with Czechoslovak hockey in the 1950s. The period is chosen because of the greatest decline in ice hockey in the history of Czechoslovakia. Disintegration is mainly due to the new state establishment, which after the trial of hockey players in 1950 let the entire national team fall. Politics intertwined with sport. The communist regime changed the formats of the competition, maintaining the status of amateur athletes, creating personnel ratings of players and practical control the entire life of hockey players. The highlight were the agents who traveled with the national team to all foreign matches.

Učebnice pod kontrolou. Politické ideje jako východisko obsahového vymezení učebnic

Every political establishment seeks to control the ideological and educational content of textbooks. With its decrees, the Ministry of Education defined the ideological and educational content of textbooks and determined control over them. The article focuses on changes in the content definition of the ideological basis of state educational policy, i.e. the ideological direction of the concept and interpretation of the curriculum in textbooks in Czechoslovak history between 1918 and 1960. The analysis of educational documents showed that in the regulations for the content and approval of textbooks, political-social influence is due to (a) ideological conflicts, (b) broader dispute about the social and socio-political direction of society (socialism vs. capitalism), (c) cult of personality, (d) the importance of school education for the individual and the state, and (e) the role of the individual (citizen) for society and the state.

Volný mandát člena parlamentu v ústavním vývoji Československa a České republiky

This article deals with the issue of the matter of the mandate of members of parliament in the constitutional history of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. Namely the article is dedicated to the problem, whether and when in the years 1918–2020 the mandate of the members of parliament was free or imperative. The detailed description shows, that in Czechoslovakia strongly prevailed the imperative mandate, irrespective of character of the political regime. The pre-war Czechoslovak constitution adopted in 1920 expressly declared the mandate as a free one and members of parliament should use them regardless of any instructions or commands. Nonetheless very quickly, in 1923, through the decision of the Election Court, the first deputies were deprived of their functions as a sanction for leaving their party policy. Thus, even in the democratic regime the mandate was transformed into the imperative form. After the WWII, the political circumstances in Czechoslovakia changed and the regime turned into a totalitarian form under the hegemony of the communist party. In these circumstances the deputies should serve as servants of the voters, to follow their instructions and they could be recalled, if not fulfilling the will of the (working) people. Nonetheless the recall system based on the public meetings of the voters was not very practical and it could fulfil the estimations only when the communist party has the situation fully under its control. In some critical moments other tools for recall had to be adopted, as it happened in the year 1969, when the political situation after the Prague Spring suppression needed to be consolidated and the will of the voters was different of the will of the conservative communist leaders. The last recalls appeared after the Velvet Revolution when democracy was re-established in Czechoslovakia. Thus, the free parliamentary mandate existed hardly in 8 years from 75 years of existence of Czechoslovakia. The last 30 years of its existence in the constitution of the Czech Republic and political practice is still quite an uncommon period in the Czechoslovak constitutional tradition.

The Voices of Greek Child Refugees in Czechoslovakia

The Greek Civil War officially ended in 1949 with the defeat of the communists; however, the battle over the interpretation of the conflict, its consequences, and the manner of remembering it is ongoing. In this context, we focus on the relation between two polarized master narratives of the Greek Civil War—the communist and the anticommunist—and personal accounts of former child refugees of the Greek Civil War living in the Czech Republic. Based on oral testimonies, we explore how narrators remember and convey the most contested issues related to their displacement, institutional care, education, political positioning, and social belonging as child refugees in Czechoslovakia. We claim that this shared community of memory outlived the times of narrative uniformity comforting its members by providing shared meaning to both their past and present, reinforcing their group belonging and preventing yet another uprooting within the Czech(oslovak) society. In this way, our study contributes to a better understanding of the ideologically-imposed interpretations of the consequences of the Greek Civil War and of the Czechoslovak history and minority politics.

Odeon Publishing: The Island of Freedom

Normalization period is a unique time in Czechoslovak history that is almost everywhere presented as a time when the socialist regime used its position of power to take back all production and culture including publishing houses. Odeon was a well-known entity at that time and looking back at the editorial and publishing plan from the said period it sometimes seems as if Odeon was partially untouched by the repressions. It is important to concentrate on everyday life in the publishing house while trying to find out how Odeon and its editorial team managed to publish so many books that almost nobody expected to see in a Czechoslovak bookshop. The topic of state censorship, as well as a very specific topic of “covering” the banned authors, will be the central focal point of this article.

Events of 1939 in the Czechoslovak history in the materials of the People’s Commissariat for International Affairs (NKID)

Events of 1939 in the Czechoslovak history in the materials of the People’s Commissariat for International Affairs (NKID)

The research-analytic part of preparation of a cartographic work: a case study of an analysis of historical atlases as the basis for creating the Czech Historical Atlas

A new large historical atlas on the Czech and Czechoslovak history of the 20th century is currently being prepared under the project of the Czech Historical Atlas. In this article, the authors introduce the basic research-analytic part of preparation of this cartographic work. It is based on the extensive research and subsequent analysis of the already published and similarly focused Czech (Czechoslovak) and foreign historical atlases, which gave the team sources of inspiration for processing the concept of the new atlas. The choice, the subsequent description and the analysis were achieved by the application of predetermined criteria. The result is a large database of selected historical atlases produced in the whole world after 1950, which contains more than 400 items. In addition to the standard bibliographic description, it contains a series of further characteristics (methods of thematic cartography, applied scale series, etc.) and references to the excerpts. The authors have decided to make the database freely available on a web portal, because they assume that it can be broadly used for research leading to development in the area of atlas cartography.

Patrick Crowhurst, A History of Czechoslovakia Between the Wars: From Versailles to Hitler’s Invasion

Patrick Crowhurst, <i>A History of Czechoslovakia Between the Wars: From Versailles to Hitler’s Invasion</i>

The Story of Journalist Organizations in Czechoslovakia

This article reviews the political history of Czechoslovakia as a vital part of the Soviet-dominated “Communist bloc” and its repercussions for the journalist associations based in the country. Following an eventful history since 1918, Czechoslovakia changed in 1948 from a liberal democracy into a Communist regime. This had significant consequences for journalists and their national union and also for the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ), which had just established its headquarters in Prague. The second historical event to shake the political system was the “Prague Spring” of 1968 and its aftermath among journalists and their unions. The third landmark was the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989, which played a significant part in the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and led to the closing of the old Union of Journalists in 1990, followed by the founding of a new Syndicate which refused to serve as the host of the IOJ. This led to a gradual disintegration and the closing down of what in the 1980s was the world’s largest non-governmental organization in the media field.

Idee polityczne Edwarda Benesza i ich wpływ na prawne regulacje tzw. „transferu” Niemców sudeckich

Edvard Benes was a key figure in the history of Czechoslovakia. Since 1918, when a new European order was created, Benes is always present on the political scene. He is a figure whose reputation has been subject to wide fluctuation. Now, we can say with certainty that he was a lonely figure, misunderstood and tragic. His actions were not always understood, both by supporters and opponents. The author believes that for a better understanding of Benes’ motives we should know his ideas, his political thought. This article is an attempt to reconstruct the views of the Czech politician determining his practical actions. The author claims that the colloquial views describing Benes as a bureaucrat, a skilled political player who thanks to the lack of strong political views achieves his goals, is wrong. On the contrary, often the vision of democracy, understood very originally, determined the action taken.

Jean-Claude Carriere en Stanford

Jean-Claude Carriere en Stanford Samuel Gibson and Tom Winterbottom March 18, 2013, Stanford University You have talked previously about your adaptation of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ and have said that although it appeared a very literary novel you could see that there was a cinematic story there. Could you talk more about extracting the cinematic elements from a story? Sometimes I have been offered, and this was the case with Buñuel, to adapt some novels that we liked very much but we couldn’t see a film. For instance, Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, which is a very good novel that takes place in Mexico and would have been very convenient for Buñuel to shoot. Twice we have been offered to adapt it and twice we read it and we couldn’t see a film. We liked the novel but it was action-less, it was something totally introspective. You have to have an action, even when the action is inside the character. It can be almost invisible but something has to develop. When Kundera published The Unbearable Lightness of Being I read it in Paris like any other reader and about a year later I was offered to adapt it by Saul Zaentz, the producer, and I read it again. There are two ways to read a book. One is to read a novel to enjoy it and one is looking for a film. It is a totally different reading. Everybody was telling me, You cannot adapt this philosophical novel that is built upon a Beethoven symphony, there is nothing here to make a film. I had a totally different feeling. I could see, first of all, an action that included within it the history of Czechoslovakia, as well as something inside the characters that was really interesting for me. For instance, and this is the key to the film, it is called The Unbearable Lightness of Being, a strange title for a film, even for a book. It is more like the title of a philosophical essay. What does it mean? But, through working on the adaptation I found the meaning of the title – and of course I was talking with Kundera all the time. Tomas and Tereza are in Czechoslovakia and they leave for Switzerland when the Russians come. In Switzerland he is still a surgeon and makes a very good living and is still a womanizer, he flirts around. Tereza has nothing to do. She was a photographer and now she is [End Page 129] bored. They love each other but he is unfaithful to her and she knows it. At one point she comes back to Czechoslovakia, during the worst possible time for that society, and he remains alone and there is a beautiful moment in the book, very short, where he sits down on the terrace of a café on a sunny day and he is relieved. He loved her but she was a pain in the neck, she was always threatening him. And now he feels free, he can do anything he wants. But he cannot stand it for more than half an hour. That is the meaning of the title there. So, he also comes back to Czechoslovakia and that is an action that has a lot of meanings. It means – without even saying it – that he loves his wife more than he thought. That he loves Czechoslovakia, his country, more than he thought. And that he loves obscurity, danger, decline and even death, more than he thought and that gives the whole meaning of the film. When I found this – that the most important action is when he comes back to Czechoslovakia – I had the idea for the whole film. Anyway, it was one of the most difficult works I have ever had to do because from the moment he comes back until the end of the film, there are a lot of things that happen to them but no more action. Everything goes from bad to worse, until the death of the dog. There are a series of events but no action. We know very well what is going to happen. There is no suspense...