Časopis „Sovětská věda – Historie“ jako „vzor“ historikovy práce a nástroj ideologizace vědy
The Periodical Sovětská věda: Historie as a ‘Model’ of the Historian’s Work and an Instrument for the Ideologization of Scholarship

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the author considers the periodical Sovětská věda: Historie (Soviet Science: History), published in Czechoslovakia from 1950 to 1955 (though, from 1954 to the end, under the title Sovětská historie), as an instrument of the sovietization and ideological indoctrination of Czechoslovak historiography in the Stalinist years. The title was part of the periodical series Sovětská věda, which was intended to present the results of Soviet scientific knowledge in various fields and thereby to provide a model to Czechoslovak experts. Covering the social science, natural science, and applied science, the periodical was published as a bimonthly for five years. (The only issue from 1950 was considered part of the first volume, 1951.) The periodical was linked with the Czechoslovak-Soviet Institute, which had been founded in 1950 by the Minister of Education, Zdeněk Nejedlý (1878–1962). (From the time of the establishment of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1953 to 1989, the Czechoslovak- Soviet Institute, despite being reorganized several times, remained part of the Academy of Sciences.) As the mouthpiece of the Institute, Sovětská věda: Historie became an essential tribune for the formation of Marxist-Leninist historiography in Czechoslovakia, by the striking modification of the field, brought about by the then characteristic ‘cult of personality’, ubiquitously emphasizing Stalin’s importance for scientific thought. The importance of the periodical initially increased by the fact that until 1953 no other important history journal was published in Czechoslovakia, and this was projected, for example, into debates about the new conception of Czechoslovak history and about the reorganization of work in the historical sciences. Beginning as a periodical that published Czech (and sometimes Slovak) translations of articles from Soviet periodicals, including Voprosy istorii (Questions of history) and Bolševik, the journal Sovětská věda: Historie never managed to free itself from that mission – despite efforts to increase the proportion of contributions by Czechoslovak authors. After Československý časopis historický (Czechoslovak journal of history) was established as the new main Czechoslovak periodical and with the fading away of Stalinism, there was little reason to continue publishing Sovětská věda: Historie, and it was discontinued after its fifth year. Nevertheless, according to the author, it succeeded in carrying out its task of introducing the Soviet model into the writing of history in Czechoslovakia.

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