CDUCE Exilová křesťansko-demokratická internacionála ve studené válce
CDUCE. Exiled Christian Democrat of the International during the Cold War

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the Christian Democratic Union of Central Europe (CDUCE), one of the supranational organizations of the anti-communist exiles during the Cold War period. The CDUCE, founded in July 1950 in New York, brought together former Christian Democratic politicians from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Yugoslavia. This article begins with a history of the institutionalized cooperation of European Peoples’ and Christian Democratic parties from the 1920’s and recalls in a short overview organizations like International Christian Democratic Union or Nouvelles Équipes Internationales. In the following sections, the article focuses on the CDUCE, its beginnings, activities, personal composition, organizational structures, as well as on relations with other international Christian Democratic bodies and on internal problems, mostly caused by national interests of member delegations. Further attention is paid to the CDUCE’s congress held in March 1953, and on the ideologically-close Central European Federation of Christian Trade Unions and, additionally, on the efforts of the CDUCE to establish contacts in Latin America. The author states that CDUCE was one of the most important among the plethora of international organizations of East-European émigrés. In spite of the seeming decrease of influence from the end of the 1950’s, the Union maintained strong ties to Christian Democratic policy on the international level, and its leaders participated in a number of projects. After the fall of the Iron curtain, the CDUCE decided to terminate its activities and to join the European Union of Christian Democrats. The history of the exile „internationals“, including the CDUCE remains understudied. It is a tempting task for researchers to explore this half-forgotten chapter of the Cold War.

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