Czechoslovakia (ČSSR)

Jan Kuklík, Jan Němeček - The Route to Munich: Czechoslovakia in the Eyes of American Diplomats in 1938
Abstract

The presented edition brings a selection of ten published documents from March to September 1938 written by American diplomats on the then Czechoslovak crisis. It aims to supplement previously published documents, especially within the official US diplomatic edition Foreign Relations of United States. The documents are mainly related to Czechoslovak internal development but, naturally, foreign policy aspects of the crisis and issues of the possibility of Soviet military assistance to Czechoslovakia are also addressed. The edition is introduced by a brief historical summary of developments in Czechoslovakia in the spring and summer of 1938 in relation to national issues, especially the so-called Sudeten German question and American diplomats’ views of it.

Vít Smetana - Czechoslovakia and the Western Powers on the Path to Munich: A Problem of Mutual (Mis)Understanding
Abstract

The two major victorious powers of the Great War, France and Great Britain, still under the impression of their extraordinarily dearly paid victory and even more frightening scenarios of the future war, were forced in 1938 to respond to Hitler’s growing expansionist ambitions, which were also trickily concealed behind noble slogans on peoples’ right to self-determination. They pragmatically opted for pressure on Czechoslovakia, which in the second half of September meant support for large-scale territorial concessions in favour of Germany. However, when it seemed that they would not be sufficient for Hitler, on 26 September Great Britain proclaimed readiness to intervene militarily in the event of a German attack. On the contrary, Czechoslovakia had turned into a ductile object of the great powers’ game on 21 September, when its leadership decided not to defend the territorial integrity of the state. It happened un- der pressure, but following the previous announcements by top state representatives that the Czechoslovak Republic was ready for territorial concessions. Finally, Czechoslovakia saw such a solution, because after the fundamental principle of inviolability of state borders had been abandoned, everything else was only a question of quantity and a search for “compromise” for the British and French “appeasers”.

Petr Klinovský - The Verneřice Putsch
Abstract

On 14 September 1938, a rebellion of the local German population againstthe Czechoslovak state power, now known as the Verneřice Putsch, broke out in the north Bohemian town of Verneřice. Around 9 p.m., Konrad Henlein’s followers sounded the church bells and a fire alarm that served as a signal to launch the attack. Within a few minutes, almost all male residents of the town gathered in the Verneřice square and, using their help, the gendarmerie station, the post office, the railway station and the German Social Democrats’ co-operative were occupied, and the Czech civil servants were imprisoned at the town hall, from where all were to be taken to Germany. This plan failed only thanks to the courage of two German Social Democrats, Josef Gaube and Oscar Schröfel, who managed to ride a bicycle for help in Těchlovice, 10 kilo- metres away. Despite the rapid reaction of the Czechoslovak army, the gendarmerie and the police, the main participants of the putsch managed to escape through Děčín to Germany, joining the Sudetendeutsches Freikorps. The Czechoslovak justice was not given the opportunity to punish them until after the end of the Second World War, when some of the culprits were arrested and brought before the Extraordinary People’s Court in Litoměřice.

Jiří Plachý - The Rutha Affair and the Trial Against the Werner Weiss Group in Autumn 1937
Abstract

The study deals with the case of Heinrich Rutha (1897–1937), one of the highest-ranking politicians of the Sudeten German Party (SdP), sometimes referred to as its Foreign Minister, Konrad Henlein’s personal friend and one of the main promoters of philosopher Othmar Spann’s ideas in the Czech lands. Rutha worked in the Sudeten German youth movement, where he tried to create his own educational concept. In 1926, he established, more precisely made independent, the Sudetendeutsche Jugendschaft youth organization and was at the birth of an organization that be- came known under the abbreviated designation Kameradschaftsbund. Its aim, in the spirit of Spann’s theories, was to create an elite layer of leaders who would take over the leadership of Sudeten German society. He was also involved in the sports organization Deutscher Turnverein (DTV). However, he resigned from the prestigious position of the head of the Ještěd-Jizera Division of the DTV in October 1935 as his homosexual orientation was revealed. Two years later, as a result of the denunciation of “old Nazis” (i.e. former members and supporters of the dissolved DNSAP), his homosexuality was also reported to the Czechoslovak police. At the beginning of October 1937, Rutha was arrested for homosexual intercourse, which was criminal at that time. Having been convicted by several of his former partners, he committed suicide on 5 November 1937. Twelve young men were eventually brought to court, seven of whom were found guilty and sentenced to one to eight months’ suspended sentences.

Karel Straka - The Covert Connections of an Asymmetrical Alliance: Czechoslovak-French Cooperation in Military Intelligence in the Years 1932–1938
Abstract

The foundation of Czechoslovakia’s security architecture was formed by an alliance with France from the beginning of its existence. This alliance predetermined the direction, nature and objectives of the construction of the Czechoslovak armed forces. The purpose of the alliance was to preserve the Versailles system. The presented study explores the intelligence cooperation between the armies of both countries. It reconstructs its course, dealing with the main features, trends and significant influences that shaped or constrained it. From 1919, the French military intelligence had a major influence on the formation of the intelligence apparatus of the Czechoslovak armed forces in organizational and methodical terms. Before the beginning of the 1930s, however, a distinct and conceptually independent Czechoslovak intelligence developed. In the critical years of 1932–1938, it was a valuable and beneficial partner of the French military intelligence. However, the remarkably productive cooperation was dependent on the overall nature of the Czechoslovak-French relations. Their crisis first severely limited it in the course of 1938 and, subsequently, completely destroyed it as a result of the Munich Agreement.

Tomáš Vilímek - But They’re Threatening and Cursing Us! A Study of the Complaints and Notices sent in by Czechoslovak Citizens during Czechoslovakia’s Perestroika
Abstract

This paper looks at the complaints and notices filed by Czechoslovak citizens during the period when the legitimacy of the communist regime was in crisis in 1986–1989. They represent not only the “soft stabiliser of the rule of dictatorship” but also a remarkable and in its own way the most intense interaction between the state power bodies and the citizens demanding, often quite resolutely, that the regime fulfil its promises. Drawing on archival sources, scholarly literature and period press, the author describes the topics, form and overall numbers of complaints and notices; how- ever, the responses from the party, state and trade union bodies are also explored. In consequence of the transformation of the international situation and the deepening economic, environmental and social issues in Czechoslovakia, there were a growing number of complaints and notices in the late 1980s, written by people especially in the hope of improving their own living standards, while at the same time they were growing increasingly critical and forthright. The complaints are also a remarkable and authentic reflection upon the individual and society-wide problems of the time, and can be seen as one of the symptoms of the society-wide crisis and a manifestation of the majority society’s sole focus on consumption, while the recipients were probably better aware of the dimension and the potential destabilisation effects of the crisis than the senders. Despite complaints being presented in the state media as a means for citizens to protect their guaranteed rights and interests, in practice they were understood rather as a tool for controlling the work of the state and economic authorities and institutions, intended to help eliminate the adverse factors in society, thus increasing workers’ involvement in management and administration. However, the complaints and notices from the end of the 1980s imply that the ruling regime was not particularly successful in its effort to make them another link in the chain of control, or more accurately, was unable to take advantage of the stimuli it received in this area. For the complainants, they were often the last and relatively safe option for defending their own interests, or a means to voice, often anonymously, their dis- satisfaction with the reality of late-socialist everyday life. Although for many years complaints served as a kind of release valve, or a means of directing the conflicts between the powerful and seemingly powerless, it turns out that in this very period of so-called perestroika the potential for conflict rose remarkably, a problem the power bodies were unable to deal with.

Klára Pinerová, Michal Louč - 1989: The Czech Prison System at a Crossroads
Abstract

The Czechoslovak prison system was at a crossroads after 1989. It was clear to every- one that it would have to be humanised and modernised, and also that a system would have to be set up to ensure respect for convicts’ basic human rights. This was an elaborate task, complicated especially by the fact that a successful reform depended on many factors, from human resources to the economy of the newly established state. The paper explores three topics. The first part outlines the key trends in the   prison system in the last years of the Communist Party dictatorship. After that, the authors analyse the situation in the prison system during the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989 and shortly afterwards. That time saw repeated riots in the prisons, the establishment of prisoner organisations as well as prison staff who were critical of the previous development of prison system, and the start of the process of ridding the prison staff of its most compromised officers. The third part describes the post-revolution transformation of the basic operational principles of the Czechoslovak prison system, which can be summarised as depoliticisation, demilitarisation and humanisation.