Adam Havlík

The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague, Czech Republic
e‑mail: adam.havlik[at]ustrcr.cz

Adam Havlík - “I request issuing of an absolute ban.” Foreign Press Department of the Czechoslovak Federal Ministry of the Interior
Abstract

The paper deals with the topic of one particular department of the Czechoslovak Federal Ministry of Interior (FMV), which was in charge of the control over the foreign press in the 1970s and 1980s. This included foreign magazines, officially ordered by the Czechoslovak state but also individually imported press or books. The foreign press and the dissemination of the information contained in it posed a potential risk to the ruling Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ), and therefore its import was subject to a relatively strict control. As part of the State Security (StB), the so‑called Foreign Press Department (OZT) supervised printed matter imported into the country. Among other things, his employees worked undercover at post offices, where they inspected packages with foreign magazines and books and removed „suspicious“ titles from circulation. They thus participated in censoring and directing the flow of information so that it was in line with the Communist Party’s ideas. The study focuses on the mechanisms on which the everyday work of the department was based. At the same time, it follows the personnel and the social profile of those who participated in its operation.

Adam Havlík - Adored by Some, Condemned by Others. Foreign Trade Enterprise Tuzex and its Role in Socialist Czechoslovakia
Abstract

This paper describes a special case of so‑called Tuzex trades in socialist Czechoslovakia. Tuzex stores were opened to sell luxury foreign and selected domestic “export” products. Only hard currency or special vouchers (Tuzex Crowns – TK, “bon/bony”) were accepted as means of payment. Tuzex stores were originally intended for customers such as foreigners or Czechoslovak citizens, who had official access to foreign currency (specialists working abroad, etc.). Eventually, however, a huge black market with foreign currency and Tuzex vouchers was emerged, allowing “ordinary people” to buy the desired foreign electronics, clothes, food, cars, etc. at Tuzex stores. The aim of the study is to analyse the causes of the establishment Tuzex in the late 1950s and its development and significance for the Czechoslovak centrally planned economy. From humble beginnings, the number of Tuzex stores, as well as foreign money revenues, grew until the late 1980s. In addition to the economic principles of Tuzex, the range of goods sold or its structure and staff, the text also focuses on undesirable but partially tolerated forms of crime that are related to the existence of Tuzex.