normalisation

Marek Jansa - Expelled members of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia: Their careers and perspectives during the beginning of the Normalisation era in South Bohemia
Abstract

The following study deals with those members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická strana Československa, KSČ) who had to face expulsion from the Party at the beginning of the 1970s. It aims to present the perspectives of the rank‑and‑file members of the KSČ who were excluded or expelled after the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. Using the example of those expelled from two districts in South Bohemia (Český Krumlov and Prachatice), we will try to show the communist regimeʼs principled openness to redress among those affected who demonstrated their loyalty to the normalisation regime. The Party sanction, or rather the hope of improving their disadvantaged position, thus motivated some of those affected to various expressions of loyalty, manifested not only in official requests for re‑admission to the Communist Party, but above all through increased activity and public engagement. Also, many highly qualified workers were not significantly affected by the vetting due to their privileged status.

Tomáš Malínek - Magazines of the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in the period of so-called normalization
Abstract

The study deals with periodicals published in the 1970s and 1980s by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (FMV) of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR). These are mainly the magazines Signál (Signal), Bezpečnost (Security) and Pohraničník – Stráž vlasti (Border Guard – Guardian of the Homeland). Their editorial staff also created the content of the magazines Přílohové čtení Signálu, B‑Bezpečnost and Stop hranice. The text gives a detailed outline of the organisational, personnel, content and economic development of these periodicals. The weekly Signál was one of the most popular youth magazines of the time. In addition to texts that popularised the activities of the state security forces, it also offered readers articles devoted to sports, culture and motoring. On the other hand, throughout its existence, Bezpečnost remained more of a departmental magazine intended primarily for members of the National Security Corps (SNB). The editors of both magazines were transferred to the FMV in the early 1970s after deep personnel purges associated with the beginning of so‑called normalisation. The fortnightly magazine Pohraničník – Stráž vlasti was founded in 1979 and was primarily intended for members of the Border Guard (PS), pioneers and the population of border regions. Efforts to adapt these magazines to the post‑revolutionary social conditions failed. Bezpečnost and Pohraničník – Stráž vlasti ceased publication in 1990. The last issue of Signál was published in 1994. Přílohové čtení Signálu, which consisted mainly of detective stories, on the other hand, remained popular amongst readers after 1989 and is still published in a modified form to this day. On the other hand, the magazines B‑Bezpečnost and Stop hranice, whose main task was to popularize the activities of the SNB and the Border Guard respectively, ceased to exist together with their “parent” magazines Bezpečnost and Pohraničník – Stráž vlasti in 1990.

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.

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.

Juraj Marušiak - 1989 in Slovakia – Between Reform and Radical Change
Abstract

The author elaborates on the political development in Slovakia at the end of the 1980s, namely in 1989, which was crucially influenced by a document entitled Bratislava/nahlas (Bratislava/Aloud) published by a group of Bratislava-based environmentalists in 1987, and the so-called Candlelight Demonstration, which demanded that freedom of religion be respected, organised by the so-called Christian dissent activists in Bratislava on March 25, 1988. Both events were also a certain momentum for those active in independent initiatives in Bohemia. One other key moment in the consolidation of the opposition was the trial with a group of dissidents from Bratislava, the so-called Bratislava Five, arrested in August 1989. This paper tries to uncover the factors which made the situation in both parts of the former joint Czechoslovak state similar and how the story of the “fall of the communist regime” in Slovakia differed from that of the Czech lands. It outlines the “lines of conflict” which had a decisive influence on the development of events in the political course. It also analyses how prepared the agents of the November 1989 events were for the political changes, their “politicisation”, but also uncovers specific conflicts that resulted from Slovak–Hungarian relations and the question of the position of Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Federation. The paper tries to answer the question of the extent to which the development at the time influenced the political processes immediately after the fall of the communist regime. One specific aspect of the changes in Slovakia was the rel- atively permeable boundary between the “official” and “unofficial” discourse, which provided room for a non-realised model of negotiated transition. The political trans- formation in Slovakia was principally influenced not only by nationwide events but also local impulses.