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The Academic Milieu in Times of Communist Vetting - Higher Education in 1948-1956. Post-war Reform of Czech Higher Education and Is Origins
Jareš, Jakub ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Petráň, Josef (referee) ; Šima, Karel (referee)
This thesis deals with a reform of Czech higher education after the Second World War. While traditional treatments follow the communist experiment from its beginnings until its 'inevitable' downfall in 1989, this work focuses on its roots and end with the adoption of the new Higher Education Act in 1950. This reversal of perspective reveals similarities between the communist reform and modernisation trends which influenced the development of higher education also in the West. We follow the discussion about the future of higher education, which went on in 1930s-1950s, try to see how universities tried to approach the tension between their freedoms and demands for serving the public, and analyse the way in which the communist reform responded to this issue. Czech higher education was formed by Humboldtian principles, which were partly implemented in mid-19th century. During the interwar period, this framework basically remained in place: higher education developed in terms of quantity rather than quality but certain problems with demanded attention also started coming to the fore. Attempts by the Ministry of Education to implement partial reforms met with resistance from the academic institutions and many academics focused on passionately defending the autonomy of universities. During the wartime, the...
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Intellectual History of Czech Reform Communism 1968 - 1990
Andělová, Kristina ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Kolář, Pavel (referee) ; Kolenovská, Daniela (referee)
The main topic of the dissertation is the development and changes in the political thinking of Czech reform communism from 1968. While in the 1960s reform communism represented the dominant intellectual and political current, after the military invasion in August 1968 it gradually disappeared from the public discourse and was later completely suppressed by normalization propaganda and labeled as "counter- revolutionary" and "right-wing opportunist" ideology. The central questions of the thesis explore the changes that the political project of reform communism underwent during the twenty-one-year normalization period and the shifts that took place in the "horizon of expectation" of the Czechoslovak socialist opposition in the context of the intellectual and political changes of the 1970s and 1980s. The aim of the thesis is to explain the political perspectives of reform-communist intellectuals in the Czechoslovak opposition after 1968. They represented an important part of both domestic and especially exile opposition, which formed around the journal Listy. Some of them also played an important role in the creation of Charter 77 and its legalistic criticism. Nevertheless, their story does not fully fit into the traditional narrative of Czechoslovak dissent, as they never completely parted ways with...
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When University Was Replaced with Flats: The Underground Education in Socialist Czechoslovakia and Poland in the Seventies and Eighties in the Twentieth Century in Comparative Perspective
Skořepa, Václav ; Ira, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
This master's thesis looks into the phenomenon of unofficial education in Czechoslovakia and Poland in the 1970s and 1980s. Comparing several initiatives, the thesis analyses the context of their origins, ways of organisation, members, motivations, themes of lectures, and the position between the dissent and the Communist regime. The author focuses on the general characterisation of the phenomenon and its connection to the unofficial sphere. Keywords: education, underground seminars, flying university, opposition, socialist regime, Czechoslovakia, Poland
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The Conflicts over the Czechoslovak Ownership Transformation in the 1990's
Rameš, Václav ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Suk, Jiří (referee) ; Myant, Martin (referee)
The presented dissertation focuses on the large-scale privatization in Czechoslovakia in the early 1990's, on how it was pushed through and why. It analyses the political conflicts over its eventual form and means of realization, and reconstructs the contemporary expectations concerning the future development. It also pays attention to the roots of the 1990's conflicts in the relevant economic disputes of the previous decades. The dissertation identifies an establishment of a new type of liberal political language as a key moment for the implementation of a large-scale privatization. For the new political language, which can be labelled as "market without adjectives" (or "attributes"), the privatization was a flagship policy and it encompassed its key ideas. The language of market without adjectives was defined in a strong opposition to the principles of the so-called "economic democracy", which had been popular among the members of the Czechoslovak dissent, the numerous supporters of workers' self- governing bodies and some economic experts. The attempts to implement the principles of market without adjectives occurred during several political conflicts the dissertation tries to analyse. The delimitation of space for democratic decision making was one of them, with the liberal economists arguing...
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Status and Activities of the Official and the Underground Church in Czechoslovakia in the 1968-1989 Period
Dušková, Denisa ; Rychlík, Jan (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
(in English): The goal of this thesis is to examine post-war development of undercover and official church in Czechoslovakia, specifically between years 198-1989. This thesis is focused mainly on activity and status of Roman Catholic Church and its relation to the state governed by communism. Thesis deals mostly with unofficial ecclesiastical activities and underground groups, in particular with Koinótés community led by key figure of secret church, Felix M. Davídek. The main source is a set of interrogation protocols made by State Security police dealing with the secret ecclesiastical acitivites of the community formed around Bishop Fridolin Zahradnik.
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The University of 17th November (1961-1974) and its position in Czechoslovakian educational system and society
Holečková, Marta Edith ; Cuhra, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee) ; Pažout, Jaroslav (referee)
The orientation of Czechoslovakian foreign policy on Africa, Asia and Latin America took various forms after the World War II. Apart from economic and military cooperation, rising numbers of university scholarships offered to students from developing countries coming to Czechoslovakia are worth our attention. This resulted, together with increasing accent on support of emerging new states, in establishing of The University of 17th November in 1961 - a new university for foreign students. Due to the University, the Czechoslovakian society was for the first time confronted with growing numbers of ethnically and culturally different people. Along with the history of educational institution, this study focuses on the mutual coexistence of foreign students and broader society and on the general reception of the school. Founding of the University was also a Czechoslovak response to a trend developing at the time in some states of the Western European as well as in the Soviet Union where The Patrice Lumumba Friendship University was opened in 1960 in Moscow. The trend was based on a rather optimistic assumption that present-day students later become a part of newly arising elites and occupy important and powerful positions in the decolonized world. The Soviet Union and its satellites (not only...
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Vaclav Dobias (1909-1978), between music and politics
Jiráček, Jiří ; Randák, Jan (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
The presented thesis deals with the topic of Czechoslovak cultural politics in music during the Socialist Realist era. The author based the study on the personal history of Václav Dobiáš, a prominent composer, cultural organiser and a pedago- gue, who serves as a typical representation of an artist, who bestowed all his artistic talents to the cause of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The first chapter briefly describes Socialist Realism as a movement in music in the Soviet Union, the place of its origin. The main emphasis is put on the introduction to Zhdanov's po- litical speech, which consequently became the mandatory norm in the countries of the Eastern bloc. The next chapter is focused on Czechoslovak reflexion of Socialist Realism and its reception. This chronological development aims to expose the spe- cifics of each periods' reception of this artistic movement. Following chapters are dedicated to Václav Dobiáš. The first chapter of this part of the thesis deals with the beginning of the artist's journey which was strongly influenced by the avantgarde movement of 1930's. Next chapters depict his adoption of communist ideology in 1945, explore the motives behind this ideological conversion and characterize his po- litically-engaged work. This part is followed by a portrayal of Dobiáš as a...
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Miloslav Chlupáč and the Marxist Theory of Propaganda in the 1960s and the 1970s Czechoslovakia
Poliačik, Cyril ; Kopeček, Michal (advisor) ; Pullmann, Michal (referee)
This Master thesis contributes to the history of science in the period of the Czechoslovak communist regime. The thesis deals with the attempts to create a scientific theory of propaganda as an independent branch of science. The main goal of this thesis is to present what led to the formation of the Marxist theory of propaganda, describe its development and potential changes in the approach to propaganda during the reference period. Further goals are to describe the sources of the theory of propaganda, the concern of the official institutions and the people who dealt with propaganda. The research is based on the archive materials from the National Archives of the Czech republic and the Slovak National Archives, and on the works about the theory of propaganda. The central figure of this thesis is Miloslav Chlupáč, who dealt with the theory of propaganda in the whole reference period and who was influential to the most phases of the development of the theory of propaganda. The reference period begins with the changes in the society after the year of 1948, with the main concern being science, education and propaganda; and first contributions to the theory of propaganda, which were based on the socio-political situation in the 1950s. Following important phase in the development of the theory of propaganda were...
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20th-Century History. Czech, Czechoslovak or Böhmisch?
Kopeček, Michal
This study explores the possibility of alternative approaches to the history of contemporary states formed on national principles. The author assesses the positive and negative aspects of transnational and entangled history and the possible application of such an approach to Czech history, working with the concepts "Czech", "Czechoslovak" and "Böhmisch".
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Thinking Transformation Over.Transformational Policy of KSČM and ČSL as Two Critiques of Czechoslovak Economical Reform in 1990 - 1992
Rameš, Václav ; Pullmann, Michal (advisor) ; Kopeček, Michal (referee)
This thesis focuses mainly on transformation policy of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and the Czechoslovak People's Party (ČSL) between 1990 and 1992, in the times of ongoing public discussions on Czechoslovakia abandoning the socialist command economy. It sums up the political development of both parties (focusing on changes in their ideology) and then concentrates on the way each of them attempted to form its own project of economic transformation. These alternative projects are analyzed through the underlying ideological concepts that reflect the values with which both parties associated the transformation process. For each of these concepts, the political and ideological struggles between party's fractions that affected its final form are examined. This method is loosely inspired by the so-called conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte), as it was used in Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe (written by Reinhart Koselleck et al.), while paying attention to certain limitations of applicability of this approach in the field of contemporary history. The thesis is based on analyses of the parties' political texts, of both public and internal character, and of various other archive materials. The political texts and programmes are regarded as a space in which the ideas compete wtih each...
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