Dimenze postalinského myšlení
Dimensions of Post-Stalinist Thinking

Summary/Abstract: The review deals with two monographs that examine the post-Stalinist period from different perspectives: "Soudruzi a jejich svět: Sociálně myšlenková tvářnost komunismu" [Comrades and Their World: The Social Mindset of Communism] by Pavel Kolář, originally published in German under the title "Der Poststalinismus: Ideologie und Utopie einer Epoche" (Köln/R. – Weimar – Wien 2016) and "„Rehabilitovat Marxe!“ Československá stranická inteligence a myšlení post-stalinské modernity" [“Rehabilitate Marx!” The Czechoslovak Party Intelligentsia and Thought in Post-Stalinist Modernity] by Jan Mervart and Jiří Růžička. The review describes both studies and focuses on their common and different features. Kolář, over five different thematic areas – the concept of history, the Communist Party, the nation, enemies and of time – attempts to grasp the “world of meaning” of the Communist Party members in Czechoslovakia, Poland and the German Democratic Republic in the period from Stalin’s death to the end of the 1960s. Mervart and Růžička examine the thinking of Marxist philosophers in Czechoslovakia in the same period, focusing on their conceptions of structure, people, nation, revolution and new subjectivity. Despite the stark differences between the actors under study and the obvious diversities in the concept of post-Stalinism, both studies seek to establish the period as a distinct historical era during which the questioning of Stalinist dogmas and the search for new possibilities of socialism were decisive. The end result is two very stimulating monographs. However, their – also common – major weakness lies in their lack of regard for the social context of the actors examined.

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