Name of the Course: Social and Cultural History of Communist Dictatorship in Czechoslovakia

Teachers: Mgr. Martin Pácha, Mgr. Eliška Švarná

Faculty: Faculty of Arts

Actual: from 2022

Semester: summer

E-Credits: 6

Examination process: summer semester

Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0 Ex [hours/week]

Language: English

The course is intended primarily for Erasmus students. It gives them a clear overview of social and cultural history problems and topics of modern Czech history from the 1945 to the present. The main aim of the course is to trace social and cultural changes in communist Czechoslovakia.

Topics:

Opening lesson

During the first lesson, we will present the basic form of the course including requirements for attestation. In the second half of the lesson, we will discuss the basics of Czech history.

What is communism?

This lesson will be focused on authors and concepts regarding communism and socialism. We will be discussing basic ideas of Marxism and we will get familiar with the Communist Manifesto.

The Third Czechoslovak Republic (1945–1948)

The lesson will be focused on the realities of Czechoslovakia between 1945–1948, especially the communist rise to power. The aim will be to present the experiences of inhabitants in the broader context of postwar Europe.

Nationalism vs. Communism

While nationalism can have many different interpretations, its manifestations should be clear especially to its addressees. The narratives of nationalism helped the postwar Czechoslovakian society to self-identify with Communism. The lesson will address history as an argument in general.

Stalinism

Stalinist policies and ideas that were developed in the Soviet Union included rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism, a totalitarian state, collectivization of agriculture, a cult of personality, etc. After WW2, these strategies spread to the countries of the Eastern Bloc, where they manifested themselves in various – nation-specific – ways.

From women tractor drivers to gender equality

The analytic category of gender may be used as an interesting scientific tool of Czechoslovakian historical research. In this lesson, we will discuss several gender-inspired approaches from contemporary Czech historians. We will also investigate the characteristics of the women’s movement in Czechoslovakia, especially in the 1950s.

1968: Between the emancipation and scientific-technical revolution

The year 1968, in which the regime strived for so-called “socialism with a human face”, is strongly embedded into the memory of Czechoslovaks. What was the kind of emancipation in this process? What were its manifestations? And what about the scientific-technical revolution? Does it testify about then Czechoslovak's desires? Those are some of the questions we will discuss in this class.

Everyday life

The lesson will focus on the concept of everyday life within the so-called Czechoslovak normalization. Among others, we will pursue the question of how the media could have influenced society and we will discuss some contemporary research on this topic.

Reconstruction and fall of communism

The lesson will focus on the last years of the communist regime. The focus will be placed on the reconstruction processes in the relation to the fall of the state-socialist system.

Memory and historical science

The lesson will deal with the transformation process that Czechoslovakia started after the fall of communist regimes in Europe. We will focus on different interpretative frameworks of the events and we will discuss possible scientific concepts regarding contemporary history such as totalitarianism, revisionism, and postrevisionism.

Final lesson

The last meeting will focus on summarizing the whole topic, and we will focus on the prospects of further research in the form of a discussion.

Course objectives:

Students will learn basic concepts and phenomena that determined the form of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. They will be also able to interpret some of these forms based on visual sources.

Course requirements:

Active participation in the discussions.

Essay 3–5 standard pages (1,500–2,500 words), footnotes not necessary, at least three academic sources listed at the end of the paper.

Final discussion about the essay.

Literature list:

Judt Tony, Postwar. A History of Europe Since 1945, 2006.

Pánek Jaroslav; Tůma Oldřich, A History of the Czech lands, 2016.

McDermott Kevin, Communist Czechoslovakia 1945–1989. A political and social history, 2015.

Abrams, Bradley F., The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation, 2004.

Machovec Martin (ed.), Views from the Inside. Czech Underground Literature and Culture (1948–1989), 2018.

Further readings will be added during the course.

CV:

Mgr. Martin Pacha (* 1991) studied at Charles University in the Master’s Program of Social History at the Institute of Economic and Social History. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Czech History, where he is interested in so-called religious sects during the communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia.

Mgr. Eliska Svarna (* 1992) graduated from Charles University at the Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies. She is currently a Ph.D. Student at the Institute of Czech History, where she is working on the architecture and the transformation of nature in the period of Stalinism, mainly on the phenomenon of the so-called “great works of the socialism” in Czechoslovakia.