Menšiny za komunismu Dvě úvahy nad knihou Matěje Spurného
Minorities under the Communist Régime: Two Refl ections on a Work by Matěj Spurný

Summary/Abstract: According to the author of this article, Matěj Spurny’s Nejsou jako my: Česká společnost a menšiny v pohraničí (1945–1960) (They Are Not Like Us: Czech Society and Minorities in the Borderlands, 1945–60; Prague: Antikomplex, 2011) enriches Czech historiography with its analysis of state policy on minorities in the Czech borderlands after the Second World War. But the work says less about these minorities and the periphery than it does about majority society and the centre. Spurny provides a superb analysis of the language of propaganda and nationalist ideology, introduces key new topics into Czech writing about history, and contributes importantly to the discussion about the nature of the Czechoslovak Communist regime. By contrast, she concentrates on the theoretical framework of Spurny’s book, and takes issue with his defi nition of ‘minority’, in which, according to her, he unthinkingly combines a social-constructivist approach with an objectivist conception based on his belief in the existence of real criteria of ethnicity.

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