State And Society In Communist Czechoslovakia

Author : Roman Krakovsky
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2018-05-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781838609115

Get Book

State and Society in Communist Czechoslovakia by Roman Krakovsky Pdf

Across central and eastern Europe after World War II, the newly established communist regimes promised a drastic social revolution that would transform the world at great pace and pave the way to a socialist future. Although many aspects of this utopian project are well known - such as fast-paced industrialisation, collectivisation and urbanisation - the regimes even sought to transform the ways in which their citizens interacted with each other and the world around them. Using a unique analytical model based on an amalgam of anthropology, sociology, history and extensive archival research, award-winning scholar Roman Krakovsky here considers the Czechoslovakian attempt to 'reinvent the world' - 'time' and 'space' included - in this all-encompassing way. Ranging from WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall, his innovative analysis variously considers the impact of Stakhanovism, the impossible-to-achieve production targets intended to assert socialism's future potential; the attempt to replace Sunday's Christian attributes with socialist ones; and the profound changes brought about to the public and private spheres, including the culture of informing and the ways this was circumvented. Across a wide range of case studies Krakovsky demonstrates both the far-reaching extent of the communist vision and the inherent flaws and contradictions that gradually destabilised it. This in-depth perspective is vital reading for all scholars of twentieth century history and politics.

Author : Roman Krakovský
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Communism
ISBN : 1350988200

Get Book

State and Society in Communist Czechoslovakia by Roman Krakovský Pdf

Across Central and Eastern Europe after World War II, the newly established communist regimes promised a drastic social revolution that would transform the world at great pace and pave the way to a socialist future. Although many aspects of this utopian project are well known--fast-paced industrialization, collectivisation and urbanisation--the regimes even sought to transform the ways in which their citizens interacted with each other and the world around them. Using a unique analytical model based on anthropology, sociology, history and extensive archival research, award-winning scholar Roman Krakovský considers the Czechoslovakian attempt to 'reinvent the world'--in this all-encompassing way. Ranging from World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, his innovative analysis considers the impact of Stakhanovism, the impossible-to-achieve production targets intended to assert socialism's future potential; the attempt to replace Sunday's Christian attributes with socialist ones; and the profound changes brought about to the public and private spheres, including the culture of informing and the ways this was circumvented. Across a wide range of case studies Krakovský demonstrates both the far-reaching extent of the communist vision and the inherent flaws and contradications that gradually destabilised it. This in-depth perspective is vital reading for all scholars of twentieth-century history and politics.--Page [4] of cover.

Author : M. R. Myant,Myant
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 1981-09-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521236683

Get Book

Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia by M. R. Myant,Myant Pdf

This book is about the political, social and economic changes in Czechoslovakia in the years 1945- 1948. In 1945 the 'national revolution' established the Communist Party as the dominant force within a coalition government. The leading Communists then evolved the idea of a specific Czechoslovak road to socialism that could bypass the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. By analysing in detail the revolutionary events and the society that emerged from them, the book demonstrates that there was a real possibility of developing a distinct model of socialism containing a plurality of parties and a sizeable private sector. Such thinking, however, was effectively ended in February 1948, when the Communist Party established a monopoly of power. The fundamental causes of this change in the party's strategy are to be found, it is argued, in the international situation. The February events were of international significance as they confirmed the division of Europe into two blocs. The concluding chapter shows how important they were for the subsequent development of Czechoslovak society.

Author : Ondřej Daniel,Tomáš Kavka,Jakub Machek
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2017-01-06
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781443869256

Get Book

Popular Culture and Subcultures of Czech Post-Socialism by Ondřej Daniel,Tomáš Kavka,Jakub Machek Pdf

This book draws on wide range of inspirations to provide a well-balanced picture of the popular culture and subcultures of Czech post-socialism. What were the continuities and discontinuities of the post-socialist popular culture, mentalities and society during the period of late state socialism? What were the different mechanisms of ‘creating the Other’ in popular culture and subcultures? This volume shows the diverse trajectories of the late socialist (and older national) cultural practices and the related set of values and beliefs in new transitory circumstances. Whereas many scholars emphasize the tendency to sustain in a more or less adapted form under the new circumstances, the chapters and case studies of this book demonstrate a slightly different, more nuanced development.

Author : Sharon L. Wolchik
Publisher : Burns & Oates
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Political Science
ISBN : UOM:39015021817393

Get Book

Czechoslovakia in Transition by Sharon L. Wolchik Pdf

A multi-disciplinary examination of the modern political history, economic system and social institutions of Czechoslovakia, this study evaluates the successes and failures of the Marxist regime, and concludes with analysis of the reasons for, and events since, its collapse in 1989.

Author : Bradley F. Abrams
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0742530248

Get Book

The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation by Bradley F. Abrams Pdf

The material effects of World War II, in combination with Eastern Europe's disappointingly undemocratic interwar history, placed radical social change on the postwar agenda across the region and shaped the debates that took place in immediate postwar Czech society. These debates adopted both a cultural form, in struggles over the meaning of the recent past and the nation's position on the East-West continuum, and a directly political form, in battles over the meaning of socialism. The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation examines the most important and politically resonant fields of historical and cultural debate in Czech society immediately after World War II. Bradley Abrams finds that communist public figures were largely successful in controlling debate over the nation's recent past--the interwar First Republic and the experiences of Munich and World War II--and over its location on the East-West continuum. This success preceded and was mirrored in the struggles over the political issue of the times: socialism. The communists engaged their political foes in the democratic socialist and Roman Catholic camps, and, surprisingly, found significant support from a major Protestant church. Abrams's careful reading of major publications re-creates a postwar mood sympathetic to radical social change, questioning the standard view of the communists' rise to power. This book not only contributes to the specific literature on Czech history, but also raises questions about the relationship between war and radical social change, about the communist takeover of the region, and about the role of intellectuals in public life.

Author : Petr Roubal
Publisher : Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
Page : 425 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2020-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9788024638515

Get Book

Spartakiads by Petr Roubal Pdf

Every five years from 1955 to 1985, mass Czechoslovak gymnastic demonstrations and sporting parades called Spartakiads were held to mark the 1945 liberation of Czechoslovakia. Involving hundreds of thousands of male and female performers of all ages and held in the world’s largest stadium—a space built expressly for this purpose—the synchronized and unified movements of the Czech citizenry embodied, quite literally, the idealized Socialist people: a powerful yet pliant force directed by the regime. This book explores the political, social, and aesthetic dimensions of these mass physical demonstrations, with a particular focus on their roots in the völkisch nationalism of the German Turner movement and the Czech Sokol gymnastic tradition. Featuring an abundance of photographs, Spartakiads takes a new approach to Communist history by opening a window onto the mentality and mundanity behind the Iron Curtain.

Author : Marek Skovajsa,Jan Balon
Publisher : Springer
Page : 155 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2017-08-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781137450272

Get Book

Sociology in the Czech Republic by Marek Skovajsa,Jan Balon Pdf

This book offers the first comprehensive overview in English of the history of sociology in what is today the Czech Republic. Divided into six chapters, it traces the institutional development of the discipline from the late 19th century until the present, with an emphasis on the periods most favorable for sociology’s institutionalization: the interwar years, the 1960s and the post-1989 era. The narrative places the institutions, persons and ideas that have been central to the discipline into the broader social and political context. Marek Skovajsa and Jan Balon show that sociology in the Czech Republic has been wedded to the dominant political projects of each successive historical period: nation- and state-building until after WWII, the communist experiment in 1948-1989, liberal democratic reconstruction after 1989, and internationalization after 2000. This work will appeal to social scientists and to a general readership interested in Czech culture and society.

Author : Jonathan Bolton
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2012-04-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674064836

Get Book

Worlds of Dissent by Jonathan Bolton Pdf

Worlds of Dissent analyzes the myths of Central European resistance popularized by Western journalists and historians, and replaces them with a picture of the struggle against state repression as the dissidents themselves understood, debated, and lived it. In the late 1970s, when Czech intellectuals, writers, and artists drafted Charter 77 and called on their government to respect human rights, they hesitated to name themselves "dissidents." Their personal and political experiences--diverse, uncertain, nameless--have been obscured by victory narratives that portray them as larger-than-life heroes who defeated Communism in Czechoslovakia. Jonathan Bolton draws on diaries, letters, personal essays, and other first-person texts to analyze Czech dissent less as a political philosophy than as an everyday experience. Bolton considers not only Václav Havel but also a range of men and women writers who have received less attention in the West--including Ludvík Vaculík, whose 1980 diary The Czech Dream Book is a compelling portrait of dissident life. Bolton recovers the stories that dissidents told about themselves, and brings their dilemmas and decisions to life for contemporary readers. Dissidents often debated, and even doubted, their own influence as they confronted incommensurable choices and the messiness of real life. Portraying dissent as a human, imperfect phenomenon, Bolton frees the dissidents from the suffocating confines of moral absolutes. Worlds of Dissent offers a rare opportunity tounderstand the texture of dissent in a closed society.

Author : Edward Taborsky
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 640 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2011-05-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1258016486

Get Book

Communism in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1960 by Edward Taborsky Pdf

Author : Sabrina P. Ramet,Vladimir Ðorđević,Christine M. Hassenstab
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2022-02-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783030912253

Get Book

Civic and Uncivic Values in the Czech Republic by Sabrina P. Ramet,Vladimir Ðorđević,Christine M. Hassenstab Pdf

This book considers the state of Czech democracy, following the rise of authoritarian regimes in Poland and Hungary and the ascent of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babiš to the office of prime minister of the Czech Republic, leading to concerns about conflict of interest. The authors argue that civic values, such as tolerance, respect for the equality of people, and readiness to play by the rules of the political game, are key factors in determining whether the Czech Republic will maintain its democracy in the coming years. The book employs a broad perspective, bringing together insights from political science, sociology, cultural studies, and other disciplines to analyse changes in the democracy of the Czech Republic since 1989, taking into consideration various dimensions of civic values, including politics, gender inequality, film, and the media.

Author : J. Pickles
Publisher : Springer
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2008-01-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780230590922

Get Book

State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies by J. Pickles Pdf

State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies focuses on the reform economies of post-socialist Europe. It looks at how various projects of communism that emerged in have been and are still being dismantled and recomposed by alternative visions, institutions and practices of capitalist market economies and democratic polities.

Author : Jaroslav Svelch
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2023-09-19
Category : Games & Activities
ISBN : 9780262549288

Get Book

Gaming the Iron Curtain by Jaroslav Svelch Pdf

How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.

Author : Grzegorz Ekiert
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 1996-01-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1400815703

Get Book

The State Against Society by Grzegorz Ekiert Pdf

Classical images of state-socialism developed in contemporary social sciences were founded on simple presuppositions. State-socialist regimes were considered to be politically stable due to their pervasive institutional and ideological control over the everyday lives of their citizens, impervious to reform and change, and representative of extreme political and economic dependency. Despite their contrasting historical experiences, they have been treated as basically identical in their institutional design, social and economic structures, and policies. Grzegorz Ekiert challenges this notion in a comparative analysis of the major political crises in post-1945 East Central Europe: Hungary (195663), Czechoslovakia (196876), and Poland (198089). The author maintains that the nature and consequences of these crises can better explain the distinctive experiences of East Central European countries under communist rule than can the formal characteristics of their political and economic systems or their politically dependent status. He explores how political crises reshaped party-state institutions, redefined relations between party and state institutions, altered the relationship between the state and various groups and organizations within society, and modified the political practices of these regimes. He shows how these events transformed cultural categories, produced collective memories, and imposed long-lasting constraints on mass political behavior and the policy choices of ruling elites. These crises shaped the political evolution of the region, produced important cross-national differences among state-socialist regimes, and contributed to the distinctive patterns of theircollapse.

Author : Jan Raska
Publisher : Univ. of Manitoba Press
Page : 307 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2018-08-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780887555701

Get Book

Czech Refugees in Cold War Canada by Jan Raska Pdf

During the Cold War, more than 36,000 individuals entering Canada claimed Czechoslovakia as their country of citizenship. A defining characteristic of this migration of predominantly political refugees was the prevalence of anti-communist and democratic values. Diplomats, industrialists, politicians, professionals, workers, and students fled to the West in search of freedom, security, and economic opportunity. Jan Raska’s Czech Refugees in Cold War Canada explores how these newcomers joined or formed ethnocultural organizations to help in their attempts to affect developments in Czechoslovakia and Canadian foreign policy towards their homeland. Canadian authorities further legitimized the Czech refugees’ anti-communist agenda and increased their influence in Czechoslovak institutions. In turn, these organizations supported Canada’s Cold War agenda of securing the state from communist infiltration. Ultimately, an adherence to anti-communism, the promotion of Canadian citizenship, and the cultivation of a Czechoslovak ethnocultural heritage accelerated Czech refugees’ socioeconomic and political integration in Cold War Canada. By analyzing oral histories, government files, ethnic newspapers, and community archival records, Raska reveals how Czech refugees secured admission as desirable immigrants and navigated existing social, cultural, and political norms in Cold War Canada.