Czechoslovakia

Jan Koura - Mehdi Ben Barka and the interpretation of his cooperation with Czechoslovak intelligence
Abstract

Mehdi Ben Barka (1920–1965), a prominent representative of the Moroccan opposition and anti‑colonial movement, who was kidnapped in Paris in October 1965 under unknown circumstances and whose body has not been found to this day, was a frequent visitor to socialist Czechoslovakia in the first half of the 1960s. He was repeatedly travelling to the other side of the Iron Curtain to maintain his collaboration with Czechoslovak intelligence (State Security, StB), with whose he made first contact through the Residentura in Paris in 1960. Although the details and development of this cooperation are now known thanks to the declassification of the relevant documents, it is still inadequately answered what circumstances and motives led the Moroccan politician to maintain his connection with the StB. The article, based on a study of the extensive files that the First Directorate (Intelligence) of StB kept on Mehdi Ben Barka and other relevant sources, attempts to seek an answer to this question, which will be pursued along three different interpretive levels. The emphasis will be placed not only on the changing political situation in Morocco and the Maghreb, but also on the overall context of the Cold War and developments within the anti‑colonial movement in the 1960s.

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.

Stanislav Polnar - Unauthorised Desertion of the Republic in the Context of Security Law
Abstract

The communist coup in 1948 brought a pivotal change in Czechoslovakia’s legal policy related to the possibility of leaving the country freely. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) did not understand this option as a matter of a free citizen’s choice – in contrast, it considered the maximum possible restriction of this principal human right to be a principal interest of the society. The reasons stemmed from ideological, security and economic considerations. Without a doubt, the political stance of the Soviet Union – which took a resolutely negative stance to the option of leaving one’s home country – played a role as well. All of the factors eventually showed in the legal policy, legislation and the application of law by Czechoslovak authorities. First, it was the matter of passport and emigration agenda, with the unusual involvement of security authorities including the State Security (StB). This institutional measure opened up the opportunity for transferring cases from administrative to penal law. After 1948, penal regulations treated unauthorised desertion of the republic as a crime against the country, rather than as an administrative offence. Logically, investigation was on the agenda of StB. The socialist security law also de‑ fined the modus operandi of the Czechoslovak national border. It gave broad authorisations to the Border Guard including the use of firearms on citizens leaving the country without authorisation. By the same token, the border was “secured” using equipment that actually killed hundreds of people. Not all of the successful émigrés stayed abroad permanently. Some of them came back to Czechoslovakia for various reasons, exposing themselves to penal repression and permanent police surveillance. The state tried to attract émigrés back using periodical campaigns promising them no punishment under amnesty. The great majority of the people who left in 1948 and 1968 did not avail themselves of this apparent act of good will, staying abroad permanently. Then, the regime at least seized the property they left behind. In effect, attempts at leaving the socialist Czechoslovakia were acts of civic courage that involved many severe consequences, and as such they deserve admiration.

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.

Jan Pelikán, Ondřej Vojtěchovský - In Anticipation of Fading: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in the Initial Months of the Normalisation Era
Abstract

The study maps the period from the spring of 1969 to the early 1970 as Husák’s suite established itself at the helm of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) and the state. Its stance towards Yugoslavia was ambiguous. The conservative and dogmatist members of the new regime considered the Yugoslav “revisionists” to be the inspiration for and the supporters of the Prague Spring. A part of the normalisation suite including Gustáv Husák himself wished to renew good relations with Belgrade and obtain a gesture of recognition from it to boost its own legitimacy. The Yugoslav leaders insisted on condemning the Soviet invasion in August 1968 while accepting the new status quo. They tried to avoid accusations of actively interfering with Czechoslovakia’s internal matters since Yugoslavia’s own foreign policy strategy was based on the principle of non‑interference. Czechoslovak‑Yugoslav relations were influenced by the Soviet Union, which normalised its relations with Yugoslavia for pragmatic reasons again after a brief period of deterioration. However, both Soviets and Yugoslavs used the Czechoslovak platform to present more critical and offensive stances than they would show to each other. In effect, Czechoslovak‑Yugoslav relations remained markedly more reserved than Soviet‑Yugoslav relations of the period. The arrival of new power structures in Prague did not affect the practical level of the relations, in particular in economic terms, since both sides were extremely interested in cooperation. The study also analyses the Slovak aspect of relations to Yugoslavia and the impact of political matters on social phenomena such as tourism and travel.

Alaksandr Hužalouski - Prague Spring 1968 Reflected by the Belarusian Soviet Society
Abstract

The study is devoted to one of the most difficult episodes of Czech/Czechoslovak and more widely – modern European history, commonly known as the “Prague Spring”, as it reflected on the Soviet Belarusian society. It shows how the official media reacted to Alexander Dubček election to the post of first secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee, to the reforms aimed at expanding the rights and freedoms of citizens and decentralizing power in the country, as well as to the deployment of Warsaw Pact troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia. After the entry of Soviet troops and the suppression of protests in Czechoslovakia, the Belarusian leadership sought to preserve the political and economic values ​​that had prevailed in the USSR until the beginning of the “Prague Spring”. In the face of a strong official ideological campaign that unfolded in the Soviet Union to condemn Czechoslovak reformers as “agents of imperialism”, a small number of Soviet Belarusians openly supported democratic changes in the “fraternal socialist country”. Reservists refused to be sent to Czechoslovakia, representatives of the working class and intelligentsia expressed their open protest against the deployment of the Soviet troops in a verbal form, unknown persons secretly pasted leaflets that supported the Czechoslovak reforms. A much larger number of the Soviet Belarus residents expressed a hidden protest against the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia, understanding on intuitive level the futility of coercion to love.

Zlatuše Kukánová - I Am Leaving But My Heart Stays in My Mother Diocese. Persecution of German Catholic Clergy in the Litoměřice Diocese after World War II
Abstract

The study focuses on the eviction and persecution of Roman Catholic clergymen of German ethnicity in the Litoměřice diocese during the first wave of uncontrolled massive transfer following World War II. It is based on a list of missing, interned, evicted and otherwise persecuted Roman Catholic clergymen, compiled by the newly appointed Czech Vicar General Josef Kuška in the summer of 1945 based on the correspondence and various reports sent to Litoměřice. The list contains over 60 names of parsons, administrators, chaplains, religion teachers, catechists and other clergymen. The author cites examples of clergymen deployed on labour (mitigating war damage or harvesting crops in farms) who were held in detention for months. Most of them were later released without a court procedure because their detention was often groundless and there was no evidence for proper complaints to be lodged. The study focuses on the various forms of persecution of the clergymen and on the church’s attempts at preventing experienced German clergymen from leaving for Saxony, Bavaria, Rhineland and other regions of Germany and Austria. Some clergymen were evicted and transported across the border without being given the time to pack for the trip or hand their parishes and offices over to their successors or authorities. The exodus of Roman Catholic clergymen from the borderland part of the diocese caused many problems, personnel turnover and expansion of benefices, which made conducting masses and securing the vital statistics agenda more difficult. Parsons’ arrests were often followed by destruction and theft of both church and private property. Parish houses were often used as lodging for the army or confiscated for other purposes; some were even used for storing crops and farming production.

Michal Plavec - Ulrich Ferdinand Kinsky: A Nobleman, Aviator, Racing Driver and Sportsman in the 20th Century
Abstract

Ulrich Ferdinand Kinsky (15 August 1893 – 19 December 1938) came from a noble Czech family but, unlike many of his relatives, sided with the Nazis and played a key role during Lord Runciman’s mission to Czechoslovakia in 1938. He embraced the Munich Agreement and was happy to see his farm near Česká Kamenice becoming part of Nazi Germany. He died in Vienna before World War II started. It is a lesser known fact that he served in the Austro‑Hungarian Air Force during the Great War, first as an observer and later as a pilot. Flying was his great passion; he owned three airplanes and often flew them all over Europe between the two wars. He had private airports built near the manors on his property – in Klešice near Heřmanův Městec and in Dolní Kamenice near Česká Kamenice. He also served as the President of Austria Aero Club. He was even a successful race car driver in the 1920s and remained a passionate polo player until death. Although he was the progeny of the youngest son of the 7th Prince Kinsky, he became the 10th Prince Kinsky after the death of his two uncles and father. In addition to a palace in Vienna and the two aforementioned farming estates, he also owned large farms in Choceň, Rosice and Zlonice. Kinsky divorced his first wife Katalina née Szechényi likely because he believed she was guilty of the premature death of their son Ulrich at age eleven. The Roman Catholic Church did not recognise the divorce. Despite opposition among the nobility, Kinsky married Mathilda von dem Busch‑Haddenshausen. Two daughters and the coveted male heir came of this marriage. Widow Princess Kinsky with the son and daughters left for her native Argentina during the war. Their son František Ulrich tried to reclaim the family property from the Czech Republic in court until his death in 2009. The Constitutional Court rejected his claims in 2005 but individual court cases were pending until his death. He claimed his parents had never been Nazi sympathizers, although the opposite is true. While his father’s membership in the NSDAP has not been proven, his mother joined the party immediately after the annexation of German‑speaking parts of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany. According to Austrian Police reports of 1949, she was an avid national socialist in Argentina even after the end of World War II.