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„Buržoazní pisálek“ Metoděj Cyril Metelka. Podzemní noviny Svobodný národ vydávané pod hlavičkou třetího odboje

Author(s): Martin Jindra / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2016

In late April 1948, the District Branch Office of the State Security in Prague intercepted first illegal flyers which bore the title Svobodný národ (Free Nation). The header of each issue stated that it was published by the “Third Resistance“. However, its true author was a reporter dismissed for political reasons from the Zemědělské družstevní noviny newspaper in February 1948 and, last but not least, a Christian, Metoděj Cyril Metelka.

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Dnes máte důležitější úkol, než je mechanika. Studenti budapešťské technické univerzity během maďarské revoluce 1956

Author(s): Mária Palasik / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2016

The study explores the role of the Budapest University of Technology during the events of 1956 in view of the fact that a student gathering there on 22 October 1956 played a key role in the launch of the revolution, becoming legendary among pre- revolutionary student meetings. In addition the study outlines the events that preceded that revolutionary gathering and relations between students from the University of Technology and their peers at other universities. It then examines the degree of earnestness among the students in the last days of October and the first days of November, the stances taken by their teachers during the revolution, and what positions they held in the subsequent months. It also looks at what was regarded as unacceptable at individual meetings of the relevant bodies labelled revolution and counterrevolution. In conclusion it explores and characterises in summary the individual phases of the quelling of the revolution.

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Kus života za to stojí

Author(s): Josef Halla,Jaroslav Rokoský,Martin Vadas / Language(s): Czech Issue: 04/2018

An interview with Martin Vadas about the family traditions violated by the communist regime.

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Pitesti - paradigma a dezumanizarii

Author(s): Iulia Istrate / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 7/2018

The present paper presents a dark period in our communist époque: Piteşti phenomena. Here, the prisoners were re‑educated through torture in order to become new human beings. Re‑education was accomplished by the application of continuous physical tortures accompanied by brainwashing. The aim pursued by the Security was not only to break down the living forces of a political movement (whatever it was), but also to annihilate methodically and without the possibility of recovery, the opposition force of the total of the young detainee. The Piteşti experiment meant, in fact, an intellectual maltreatment.

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ASCENSIUNEA POLITICĂ ȘI ORGANIZAREA PARTIDULUI COMUNIST DIN ROMÂNIA PÂNĂ LA PRELUAREA GUVERNĂRII (6 MARTIE 1945)

Author(s): Dan Salaga / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 18/2019

The author aims to reconstruct the way in which the Communist Party of Romania prepared to take over the government on 6 March 1945. He highlights strategies for attracting new members, creating support organisations, infiltrating trade union, forcefully seizing power at the local level. The author discusses a series of archival documents that supplement the information on the number of members and the organization of the Communist Party in the first months after the events of August 1944.

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Iuliu Maniu – „Sfinxul de la Bădăcin”

Author(s): Ioan-Gheorghe Rațiu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 9/2020

This paper is dedicated to Iuliu Maniu, one of the greatest Romanian politicians from Transylvania, who contributed decisively to the Great Union of December 1, 1918, from Alba Iulia, and who built Great Romania jointly with other important politicians during the interwar period as prime minister and president of the PNT (National Peasants’ Party). Using various bibliographic sources, I traced the turbulent but sometimes beautiful life of our hero, tragically ended during old age, in the “prison of ministers”, as it was also called the “pandemonium” from Sighet. Until the very last moment of his life, he loved his country and people. For all the suffering endured, he is considered a martyr of the Romanian Nation.

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But They’re Threatening and Cursing Us! A Study of the Complaints and Notices Sent in by Czechoslovak Citizens during Czechoslovakia’s Perestroika

Author(s): Tomáš Vilímek / Language(s): English Issue: 36/2020

This paper looks at the complaints and notices filed by Czechoslovak citizens during the period when the legitimacy of the communist regime was in crisis in 1986–1989. They represent not only the “soft stabiliser of the rule of dictatorship” but also a remarkable and in its own way the most intense interaction between the state power bodies and the citizens demanding; often quite resolutely; that the regime fulfil its promises. Drawing on archival sources; scholarly literature and period press; the author describes the topics; form and overall numbers of complaints and notices; however; the responses from the party; state and trade union bodies are also explored. In consequence of the transformation of the international situation and the deepening economic; environmental and social issues in Czechoslovakia; there were a growing number of complaints and notices in the late 1980s; written by people especially in the hope of improving their own living standards; while at the same time they were growing increasingly critical and forthright. The complaints are also a remarkable and authentic reflection upon the individual and society-wide problems of the time; and can be seen as one of the symptoms of the society-wide crisis and a manifestation of the majority society’s sole focus on consumption; while the recipients were probably better aware of the dimension and the potential destabilisation effects of the crisis than the senders. Despite complaints being presented in the state media as a means for citizens to protect their guaranteed rights and interests; in practice they were understood rather as a tool for controlling the work of the state and economic authorities and institutions; intended to help eliminate the adverse factors in society; thus increasing workers’ involvement in management and administration. However; the complaints and notices from the end of the 1980s imply that the ruling regime was not particularly successful in its effort to make them another link in the chain of control; or more accurately; was unable to take advantage of the stimuli it received in this area. For the complainants; they were often the last and relatively safe option for defending their own interests; or a means to voice; often anonymously; their dissatisfaction with the reality of late-socialist everyday life. Although for many years complaints served as a kind of release valve; or a means of directing the conflicts between the powerful and seemingly powerless; it turns out that in this very period of so-called perestroika the potential for conflict rose remarkably; a problem the power bodies were unable to deal with.

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The Emergency Security Measures and “Operation Student” An Overview of the Activities of SNB Units and Troops of the Ministry of the Interior on November 17; 1989

Author(s): Pavel Žáček / Language(s): English Issue: 36/2020

The intervention by the communist security forces on November 17; 1989; as part of an emergency security operation and the security measures codenamed “Student”; carried out in the centre of Prague and especially on Národní Street was to become a milestone in modern Czechoslovak history. The operation; whose objective was to prevent the student demonstration from moving to the centre of the capital; was led by the Head Commander of the Municipal Directorate of the National Security Corps; Colonel JUDr. Michal Danišovič; and the main public order unit was the Trainee Emergency Brigade under the command of Major Bedřich Houbal; complemented by forces from the Special Purposes Section; State Security officers; four reserves from the local District National Corps Offices and other support and auxiliary units. As a reserve unit; which eventually played a key role in controlling the movement of the demonstrators and the operation as a whole; there was a professional operation unit – the Public Security Emergency Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Břetislav Zdráhala. Both units surrounded the core of the demonstrators on Národní Street; pushing them from both sides after a brutal intervention and the deployment of two armoured vehicles and eventually forcing them into a side street and scattering them. A dramatic role in this was played by members of the anti-terrorist squad headed by Major Petr Šesták who; in cooperation with secret police officers; selected individuals from among the demonstrators and; like the intervention squad members; brutally beat them with batons in the archway of Kaňkův Palace. The disproportionately harsh response by the security forces gradually led to the downfall of the communist totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia.

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Velehradská pouť 1985 v církevně-politických kontextech

Author(s): Jaroslav Šebek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2020

The pilgrimage at Velehrad, Moravia in July 1985, which grew to become a huge anti-regime manifestation, is seen as the symbol of the turning point in the further direction of the church structures and, amongst other things, also led to closer communication between the ecclesiastical and secular dissent that started after the establishment of Charter 77. The actual course of this holiday and many of the preceding events are also inseparably linked to the transformation of church discourses after the appointment of Pope John Paul II in 1978 when the Vatican still followed a much stronger policy toward socialist countries. The Vatican’s increasing influence on the church also came to the attention of the Analytical Section of Department X of the State Police (Department for Combating the Inner Enemy), which acknowledged an upsurge in church activities, and that the “reactionary clerics”, as they called them, were much more aggressively stressing the need to resolve ecclesiastical issues, relying on the new Pope John Paul II, who was supposed to exercise his authority to give them greater space for their activities. It may be said therefore that the appointment of a Pope from a communist state was of fundamental importance for the further development of strategies against the Eastern Bloc.

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Laskavě prosíme o zatčení…

Author(s): Jiří Friedl,Adam Zítek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2020

On 24 October 1947 the Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior received a letter from the Polish Ministry of Public Security requesting that a trio of Polish citizens, who were alleged to have illegally crossed the Czechoslovak–Polish border on the same day and headed for Pezinok, Slovakia, be arrested. Even though according to the description in the letter they had committed crimes against property, they were in fact Mieczysław Dąbrowski, Maria Hulewiczowa and Wincenty Bryja, leading officials of the Polish People’s Party, who were trying to flee to the West from the increasing repression in their homeland. Their fates not only reflect the post-war situation in Poland but also draw attention to the fact that Czechoslovakia was at that time a relatively frequent transit area for Poles leaving their homeland for Western Europe.

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Časopis Im Herzen Europas ve službách propagandy?

Author(s): Lucie Römer / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2020

Socialist Czechoslovakia as a bastion of affluence, natural beauty and technological innovation. This was the idea that magazines published by the state for foreign readers from the end of the 1940s were supposed to get across. Those who spoke German were able to read stories of the “promised land” in the Im Herzen Europas [In the Heart of Europe] monthly, headed for a long time by the renowned author Lenka Reinerová. Her name gave the magazine the hallmark of respectability. On the other hand, the magazine was in publication at the time when all printed matter in the country was subject to party censorship. Reinerová repeatedly denied speculations that the magazine was used for propaganda purposes. Discovering whether or not it was a tool of socialist propaganda was the task of the author of this article as part of the very first study addressing Im Herzen Europas in detail.

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Nové poznatky ve výzkumu tzv. Anticharty

Author(s): Pavel Křemen / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2020

This paper is a collection of documents and analysis maping new resarch of the Anticharta.

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Emilie Faitová-Kolářová. Spolupracovnice komunistických bezpečnostních složek i jejich oběť

Author(s): Markéta Bártová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2020

A member of the resistance movement against Nazism, a prisoner in a concentration camp, a staunch collaborator of the communist security services and eventually their victim – this briefly sums up the fate of Emilie Faitová-Kolářová. The unusual story of her life, which reflects many a drama of 20th century Czechoslovak history, was hidden in archival materials until recently.

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SOCIAL BIOGRAPHY ABOUT THE COMMUNIST PERIOD – FAMILY, PROPERTY AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY

Author(s): Gabriela Boangiu / Language(s): English Issue: XXI/2020

Life histories or social biographies, sometimes called “smallhistories”, fascinate not only from an aesthetic or slightly nostalgic perspective, assometimes happens with memorialistic writings, but by the richness of the approaches itmakes possible in the social sciences. As it is the “lived history”, the descent to thetalking individual who becomes the main actant in a broader socio-cultural andhistorical context, the characteristics of the account of the living phenomenon should behighlighted when recording and registering some of its marks. Archiving inevitablyinvolves the “freezing” of the lived fact, which is why the researcher is asked to payparticular attention in the “living” preservation of life's stories, taking into account thedynamics of the “open” document. The study presents several social biographies ofrespondents who lived the early period of the communist regime, political changes,nationalization, collectivization, deportations, serious issues of quotas, a dynamic ofstate politics, but also of mentalities.

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Novotného „oblíbený Slovák“:

Author(s): Lukáš Cvrček,Richard Pavlovič / Language(s): Czech Issue: 03/2020

The decision-making processes and the sorting out of personnel issues within the power elites of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the state bodies which it controlled was influenced by many factors, most of which remained hidden from uninvolved observers. This was especially due to the fact that the Communist Party sought to appear unified to the outside world. It therefore concealed conflicts between various interest and opinion groups within its leadership, even though they had a major impact on the party’s policy that determined the fate of the whole country. The issue of nationality was a factor of great importance.

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Ohlas na proces s „protistátním spikleneckým centrem“

Author(s): Sára Černíková / Language(s): Czech Issue: 03/2020

Ve vykonstruovaném procesu s „protistátním spikleneckým centrem v čele s Rudolfem Slánským“ bylo jedenáct ze čtrnácti obžalovaných židovského původu. Na nevyslovenou, avšak zjevně protižidovskou kampaň reagovala společnost nárůstem antisemitismu v celé zemi. Doklady o tom lze najít v dosud málo zkoumaném prameni: dobových Informačních bulletinech Komunistické strany Československa (KSČ).

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Životní osudy účastníka druhého a třetího odboje mjr. gšt. Josefa Kejdy

Author(s): Markéta Bártová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 03/2020

After the seizure of power by the communists in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, a time of mass injustice and persecution came, and brutal repressions also affected the army corps. For many officers, fleeing abroad was the only solution in the ever worsening circumstances, and therefore they looked for someone who would help them do so. Some found recourse in their colleague Josef Kejda, for whom helping several friends – Czechoslovak “Western” soldiers, almost cost him his life.

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Diskuze

Author(s): Ondřej Holub / Language(s): Czech Issue: 03/2020

Pullmannův komentář k dějinám normalizace jako milník české historické reflexe.

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Tito-Stalin conflict and the Yugoslav Secret Police (UDBA) in 1948–1956

Author(s): Martin Previšić / Language(s): English Issue: 37/2020

The paper deals with the Yugoslav secret police (Uprava državne bezbednosti, UDBA) during the Tito-Stalin split. From its beginnings, the Yugoslav secret police organization was one of the pillars of the newly established communist rule in Yugoslavia. Among other things, it played a crucial role in the fight against World War II’s remaining enemies. In addition, the UDBA had an essential role in the “class struggle” and sovietization of Yugoslavia. With the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, the UDBA served as the principal force for quelling Stalin supporters (ibeovci) and running and establishing a prison and labour camp system used for the incarceration of ibeovci. Labour camps, run by the UDBA, become notorious since systematic beatings and torture were used as the primary method in so-called “political re-education” of Stalin supporters. As many as 15,700 were imprisoned in one of the many labour camps (Goli Otok was the biggest). After the end of the Tito-Stalin split, the UDBA’s power grew even more until it was reorganized in 1966.

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From the Budapest Dance Palace to the autopsy table: The Lapusnyik Case, or the defection and death of a secret agent at the beginning of the Kádár era Mária Palasik

Author(s): Mária Palasik / Language(s): English Issue: 37/2020

In the summer of 1962, the political police had an extraordinary case in Hungary. Béla Lapusnyik, a police sergeant with the Interior Ministry, committed the crime of illegally crossing the border to Austria during the night of 8 May. His act was regarded as treason and generated a series of actions at the ministry. Leaders feared that Lapusnyik could give information to Austrian intelligence, counterintelligence, and even military counterintelligence. This could lead to dangerous consequences for the Hungarian secret agencies. Everybody was certain that Lapusnyik would indeed give sensitive information to Austrian state security, although, ultimately, he could not, as he died under suspicious circumstances in a Vienna hospital. Today, it is certain that Lapusnyik was killed at the behest of the KGB. We do not know who the killer was, but it is already known that Lapusnyik was murdered using a particular liquid poison, called DMS (dimethyl sulphate), which was designed to evaporate from the body’s system by the time of his death. This would explain why Austrian autopsy experts were unable to establish poisoning as the cause of death. The poison was created in a special Soviet laboratory. Under the bureaucracy of the Hungarian Interior Ministry, the everyday life of the political police was well-documented. The investigation of this case shows how the framework of State Security could provide great opportunities for a young man and yet radically corrupt his personality. This study concentrates on the investigation of Hungarian State Security services. As background, the author also introduces Béla Lapusnyik, his life, family origin, career, and other details about his illegal border crossing. In conclusion, it summarizes the known facts about how a healthy young man could die as a prisoner of the Austrian state police (Staatspolizei, STAPO).

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