Bony a klid pozdního socialismu
The Roots, Roles and Ambivalences of Czechoslovak Blackmarketeering in Late Socialism

Summary/Abstract: The book "Marky, bony, digitálky: Veksláci a fenomén veksláctví v socialistickém Československu" [Deutschmarks, Tuzex Vouchers, Digital Watches: Black Marketeering and Black Marketeers in Socialist Czechoslovakia] by Adam Havlík is the first monograph devoted to this specific topic, inherently linked to the functioning of the grey economy and urban life in socialist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and, especially, the 1980s. According to the reviewer, Havlík explores these in an unusual breadth, using various social science approaches and drawing on rich sources. He analyses the roots of blackmarketeering ("veksláctví" in Czech) in the socio-economic context of the late phase of the state-socialist dictatorship, its role in fulfilling insufficiently saturated material needs, and presents it not as some socially pathological phenomenon but as a characteristic feature which accompanied the erosion of state socialism and the transition to capitalism. By showing how the blackmarketeers (veksláci) managed to capitalize on their economic and social capital in a new form of property relations, Havlík reveals moments of continuity between the two systems. Notably, he probes into the blackmarketeers’ social typology, depicting their hierarchy, lifestyle, behaviour and overall habitus within the system, and capturing the ambivalent relationship of the police and repressive authorities to the "veksláctví" phenomenon, which included both its declarative suppression and tolerance or even protection through a variety of clientelistic ties.

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