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: The Interpretation of Funeral Rituals in Czechoslovakia in 1950s
Tesař, Jan ; Randák, Jan (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
(in English) The main topic of this thesis is both analysis and interpretation of the relationship between funeral rites, political power and society. Funeral rites are understood as a complex of performative, symbolic social acts, which are themselves comprised of various distinctive phases and signs. The meaning of these acts and signs is important because it can change the features and practice of the collective it is assigned to. The main purpose of this thesis is not only to perform a thick description of different kinds of communist funeral rite in the given time period but to interprate it in the wider social and cultural context as well. The concept of political religion as a heuristic tool was used in the thesis in order to distinguish an ambivalent nature of communist ideology which manifested itself in funeral rites. Funeral rites are analyzed as models for human behavior, which represent key values and norms of communist ideology. At the same time, funeral rites are analyzed as forms of cultural management. That is the reason, why are put under scrutiny not only the rites which are significant for society as a whole but also the funeral rites of individual actors.
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Czech noncommunist left after 1989 and rethinking of alternatives
Andělová, Kristina ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Pullmann, Michal (referee)
The collapse of the communist regimes came at the time of the overall decline of the Left, both in the West and the East. In the Eastern Bloc, much of the Left's language was disqualified as a result of its association with the former communist regime, the rejection of which formed the basis of post-communist democratic identities. Although the post-communist situation was generally seen as unfavourable for leftist thought, it nevertheless represented a liberation from a regime which, in many respects, supressed leftist criticism. Social changes in 1989, guided by mass peoples' movements, enabled the Left to understand these changes through their own conceptual apparatus and integrate them with their own expectations. The defensive position of the Left and the "liberal consensus" of the nineties led the alternative leftist thought to profile itself as a leftist criticism of liberal democracy. However marginal their political position was, left-wing oriented authors tried to advocate alternative economic and social structures to those of capitalism, rejecting current pro-capitalist values and practices (consumerism, neoliberalism) and rethinking the changes in private ownership, redistribution of wealth and common values. Key words: Left, liberal consensus, 1989, democratic socialism, post-communism
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Prospect of Violent Solution in the Crisis of the Communist Regimes in 1989: The Case of Czechoslovakia from the Central European Perspective
Netolická, Zuzana ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Tůma, Oldřich (referee)
The bachalor thesis deals with the prospects of violent solutions of the events in Czechoslovakia in 1988 and 1989. To compare, there are outlined the events in Central Europe, to that this work also counts, except Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and GDR. The bachalor thesis is dividet into two parts. The first one has two chapters. In these is a description of the events in the second half of the eighties in Central Europe. In the second part of the thesis is described what kind power and party bodies were involved in deciding on possible interventions and who conducted actions. The final chapter explains three main factors that influences the course in 1989. The main sources of work are archival materials from the meeting of the Central Committee, collection Securitas imperii and interviews with senior communists. The result of work is that prospects of violent solution was very small, because the situations has influenced by several consequential factors.
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Lustration as a tool of political differentiaton in Czechoslovakia. Discourse analysis
Jírů, Veronika ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Šafařík, Petr (referee)
The topic of this piece of work is lustrations in Czechoslovakia, or more precisely a discourse on this issue, which was carried on the ground of the Federal Assembly (FS) of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic (CSFR) in 1991. The piece of work combines methods of a discourse analysis and an analysis of the political and historical background, where the discussion unfolded. The bases for the analysis are the stenographic entries of the FS of Czechoslovakia from January to August 1991, the period from the start of negotiations of the lustrations of the deputies of FS themselves, up until the adoption of the lustration law. For the purpose of conducting a detailed study, a narrower corpus was compiled, containing utterances of the main participants of the period. Selection of the participants was conducted according to a key that strives for taking into account the partisan, ideological and personal plurality of opinions of the former Federal Assembly. The aim of this piece of work is to document in compliance with the particular utterances both the development, or more precisely the emergence of the discourse of this issue, and the nascent of the political identities, which at that time (not only) due to the lustrations, were constituted.
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National Identity in the Propaganda of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (May 1945 - May 1946)
Poliaková, Martina ; Činátl, Kamil (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
National legitimacy played in the politics of post-war Communist Party of Czechoslovakia an important role. The addressees of communist policy should primarily be "members of the nation." The subject of my research work in this way was the formulation of national identity and its role in the Communist politics in the first postwar year, especially the cultural field. For the conceptualization of the concept of propaganda in the Communist Party, I was inspired discourse analytical approaches that have helped me in exploring answers to the question of the role of Czech national identity in the propaganda of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
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The concept of hooligan and the reflection of hooliganism phenomenon in Czechoslovakia (1948-1969): law, police and journalism
Kotalík, Matěj ; Rákosník, Jakub (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
This MA thesis deals with the phenomenon of the so-called hooliganism and its reflection in Czechoslovakia 1948-1969 in law, police and journalism. It is divided into eight chapters. The Introduction recapitulates the actual topic-related historical texts and formulates the questions the thesis should answer. Chapter two defines theoretical concepts of socialist dictatorships, anomie and subculture the thesis intends to work with. Chapter three focuses on the development of the hooliganism concept in the Soviet Union from where the concept was brought to Czechoslovakia. Chapter four analyses the changes of hooliganism concept in law (legislation, legal discourse and legal practice) and reflects hooliganism as an example of cultural transfer. Chapter five focuses on hooliganism problem faced by the police, on success or limits of the police work. Chapter six focuses on the reflection of hooliganism in Czech press as field of divergent or similar opinions and as an example of subcultural redefinition. Chapter seven compares the hooliganism in Czechoslovakia with the same phenomenon in other countries of Central Europe. The Conclusion summarises the knowledge obtained about hooliganism and thinks about a possible future enlargement of the topic.
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Regional movement in Moravia and the intellectual discussion of the "Moravia Question" in 1990-1992
Mikušová, Petra ; Pullmann, Michal (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
Efforts to revive the autonomy of Moravia and Silesia, abolished by the newly established communist dictatorship in 1949, became an integral part of the comprehensive transformation of Czech society following the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The efforts were closely related to a rise in regional consciousness, which marked the creation of new, or rather the redefinition of old, collective identities at a time of deep social changes. Popular view links these efforts to a couple of Moravian initiatives, which entered the public sphere in the early 1990s and later turned into political parties. The Moravian regional parties were able to win over parts of the Moravian and Silesian public to support their goals. The support even brought some of them seats in the Czech National Council and in top-level federal assemblies in the 1990 election, the first free election since the communist takeover. Moravian regional parties were represented in the Czech Parliament until 1996, yet they had failed to push through their goals and had been, especially after 1992, quickly losing their influence. Although the Moravian Regional Movement, as the parties and their activities came to be collectively referred to, gained no permanent ground, it still represented a significant aspect of the social development at the time. The aim...
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The making of "democratic socialism". Party historiography of 50's and 60's between Stalinism and reform communism
Sommer, Vítězslav ; Beneš, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee) ; Jiroušek, Bohumil (referee)
Dissertation: The Making of "Democratic Socialism". Party Historiography of 50's and 60's Between Stalinism and Reform Communism The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the development of the Party historiography in the 50's and 60's. The story of Party historiography starts in the early 50's when it was created as a brand new revolutionary historiography deep rooted in the structure of the Communist party. This new historiographical project had to deal with the history of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and labour movement. The Party historiography had reflected the changes in the actual policy of Czechoslovak communism. It is possible to distinguish the stalinist, the post-stalinist and the reform communist period of the Party historiography development. In the first half of the 50's Party historiography was a part of Party propaganda. After 1956 Party historians developed the scientific paradigm of Party historiography which contained also obligatory post-stalinist interpretation framework for writing about the Communist party past. In the 60's this historiographical paradigm broke down under the strong criticism, which was led from the reform communist positions. So called Reform historiography of the 60's developed a new historiographical narrative. It was based upon belief in the...
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