Abstract
This article aims to be contribution to our understanding of history of linguistic thinking in Czechoslovakia. It explores historical and scientific framework that was influencing development of onomastic work of Vladimír Šmilauer during the 20th century.
To the three periods of Šmilauer life main attention is paid: (i.) the period of so called First Czechoslovak Republic, (ii.) the period of the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and (iii.) the 60's and the post 1968 period. His famous monographs are analyzed from the wider point of view of cultural policy.
The then scientific disputations and polemics are clarified using newly discovered archival documents.