Archive: History | Communism Communism
Communist scholar Zdeněk Nejedlý subject of award-winning biography
Zdeněk Nejedlý was an influential Czech musicologist and Communist
politician. Most often remembered as a passionate admirer of the composer
Bedřich Smetana, he was also instrumental in linking Communist ideology to
Czech traditions. A new biography of Nejedlý by Jiří Křesťan offers a
more complex view of the man whose life illustrates the perils Czech
intellectuals faced in the 20th century. More
Czech-born author and publisher Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz
My guest today is Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz, a professor emerita at the
University of British Columbia. Born in 1927 in the Czech town of Liberec,
Marketa left Czechoslovakia following the communist putsch in 1948. She
established herself in Canada as a professor of comparative literature,
author and essayist, focusing in particular on publishing samizdat
literature, and also writing about the work of Czech playwrights such as
Pavel Kohout, Josef Topol, Ivan Klíma, and her friend the former president
Václav Havel. More
Church starts process of beatifying “miracle” priest killed by Communists
The Roman Catholic Church has begun the process of beatifying a priest who
was at the centre of one of the most bizarre and gruesome episodes of the
initial phase of communism in Czechoslovakia. After a cross was said to
have moved in his village church, Josef Toufar was brutally tortured into
confessing to fabricating the “miracle”. However, if he is beatified,
it will be a lengthy process. More
More turmoil for body overseeing secret police archives as director sacked
Since it was established six years ago the Institute for the Study of
Totalitarian Regimes has provided unprecedented public access to secret
files once held by the security apparatus of communist Czechoslovakia. But
it’s been a troubled institution, under constant political pressure and
plagued by in-fighting. And now it’s in turmoil again, after the latest
director was sacked. More
Czechs protest on anniversary of 1948 communist coup as party gains ground
Monday marks the 65th anniversary of the communist putsch of 1948 which for
the next four decades turned Czechoslovakia into a totalitarian state and a
satellite of the Soviet Union. The anniversary is being commemorated by a
series of events, warning against the Communists’ growing support in the
society. More
Another 18 people awarded recognition for anti-communist resistance
More than a dozen people who risked their lives to stand up to the
Communist regime in Czechoslovakia received recognition from the government
on Monday for participating in the so-called third resistance. The Prime
Minister awarded 12 former dissidents, people smugglers and political
prisoners for their resistance to the totalitarian regime. Six awards were
granted posthumously. More
Havel was destined to lead but acted as one of team during revolution, recalls friend and cohort Žantovský
Among those closest to Václav Havel was Michael Žantovský. The two were
among the founders of the opposition Civic Forum in the whirlwind period of
the Velvet Revolution, which toppled Czechoslovakia’s Communist regime
after four long decades. Soon after Mr. Havel was elected president on
December 29 1989, he made Mr. Žantovský his press spokesperson – and
part of a team at Prague Castle that had to learn double-quick how to run a
country. More
Josef Svoboda - From uranium mine prison labourer to Arctic ecologist
Josef Svoboda is a professor, Arctic ecologist and author. Born in 1929 in
Prague, Mr. Svoboda studied science and philosophy at Masaryk and Charles
universities. He was imprisoned for nine years by the communist regime in
1949 for alleged treason and espionage and then emigrated to Canada in
1968, where he has lived ever since. I began by asking Svoboda about his
earliest memories of growing up in pre-war Czechoslovakia. More
Notorious Communist prosecutor Vaš dies innocent in eyes of law
Communist state prosecutor Karel Vaš, a key player in some of
Czechoslovakia’s notorious show trials of the 1950s, died at a Prague
nursing home at the weekend. He was 96. Vaš, who remained unrepentant to
the last, escaped punishment for his crimes in the post-1989 period – a
source of regret to some historians and former political prisoners. More
1950s forced labour conscripts set to receive compensation
While the name Auxiliary Technical Battalions sounds innocuous, in reality
such battalions were a division of the Czechoslovak Army that used
conscripts as virtual slave labour, and thousands of men who the Communists
deemed “politically unreliable” were in effect interned in them in the
1950s. Now, those still alive look set to be placed in the same official
category as former political prisoners – and to receive a little
compensation. More
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