PVP Beyond the Empire: A social and cultural history of Czechoslovak Officer Corps (1918-1939) in transnational perspective

Syllabus

1. Introductory lesson (3.10.2023)

Basic information about the course, attestation requirements and the literature 2. Social, Cultural, or Military History? (10.10.2023)

Historiographic and methodological introduction into the research of officer corps, introduction to the key theoretical texts. 3. Academic Molotov Day  (17.10.2023)

Lecture will not take place  4. From noble into professional, into citizen-soldier and back again (24.10.2023)

Historical overview of the officer profession from late 18th century to present day, with emphasis on the interwar era and the contemporary reflection of officer´s role evolution. 5. Officer and the Nation - problematic of personal identities and multinational societies (31.10.2323)

National context of late Austro-Hungarian Empire and interwar Czechoslovak Republic and its relationship with military matters. Cases of “anational” Habsburg officers, political Czechoslovakism and national questions concerning the officer corps. 6. Excursion! (7.11.2023)

A trip to Army Museum Žižkov 7. Officer and the State - being apolitical?  (14.11.2023)

Civil-military relations, political ideologies, subordination to political power and “bonapartism” in the relationship of officer corps and state authorities. Case studies of early Czechoslovak republic, Gajda´s affair and Munich crisis. 8. To become an Officer  (21.11.2023)

Social origins of professional and reserve officers, their motivations in choosing the profession. Role of both general and professional education in forming of both professional and reserve officers. . Tension between political change and social continuity on the case of interwar Czechoslovak army. 9. From later day knights into the guardians of the democratic republic (28.11.2023)

Honour as constitutive part of officer´s identity and its transformation into the representation of new professional identity? Case of military courts of honour and disciplinary committees as modernization of officer corps and break with Habsburg past. 10.  Teachers of the Nation (5.12.2023)

Officers role in education of soldiers during compulsory military service, both ideal and problematic. Questions of military preparedness and defence propaganda, and officer´s place in public discourses about war. 11. “Match of the beautiful dragoon” (12.12.2023.

Gender optics of officer´s profession, from the contested ideal of hegemonic masculinity to the problematics and disciplination of sexuality in Czechoslovak military. 12. Military writing, journalism, science and associations Officer-intellectuals(?), professional writing, self-presentation and associative culture. (19.12.2023)

Cases of Association of Czechoslovak Officers, Military Institute of Science and Emanuel Moravec 13. Gilded Poverty (2.1.2024)

Frustration and officer career in tension between social prestige, high institutional expectations, and low wages. 14. Institutional Culture of (not only) Czechoslovak officer corps …or would we have defended ourselves? (9.1.2024)

Final lesson and course summary.

Annotation

This course introduces students to the history of interwar Czechoslovak officer corps, from the perspective of the transnational social and cultural history. Paraphrasing the title of István Deák´a seminal Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918, aim of the course is to show the various faces of study of the officer corps and its interconnectedness with research in different national contexts. It will also expand the student's knowledge of the social history of the Late Habsburg Empire and First and Second Czechoslovak Republics. It is primarily aimed at Erasmus (especially History) students, and students of History willing to expand their academic English skills, but all interested are welcomed.

Course is designed as a sequence of lectures and seminars, based on weekly reading of texts in English.