Member of Czechoslovak Legions in Italy and the Last victim of the Teschen War
Tomáš Rusek
The translated article connects a biographical study of the life of the legionnaire Josef Poledňák with the most detailed depiction of the fights of Italian legionnaires south of Skočov on January 30, 1919. The author places the biographical description from the earliest years into the historical context and, with the help of secondary sources, he a vividly depicts Poledňák’s destinies and personal character. It explains the broader background of his captivity on the Italian front and his entry into the Czechoslovak legions, and with the help of previously unused sources, he describes in detail the last battle near Kyselov in the Těšín region, which became fatal to Poledňák. Thus, the article goes beyond the scope of a classical biographical study and complements the historiography of the Czechoslovak-Polish War of January 1919 with further details. The conclusion is then devoted to the terminological clarification of inconsistencies in Poledňák’s legionary work and also to his “second life”, which was enriched last year, thanks to the Valašské Meziříčí Union of the Czechoslovak Legionnaire Community, with a memorial plaque unveiled in the local grammar school.
Civil labour service in the context of the Sudetendeutscher Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst in interwar Czechoslovakia: the contradiction of the ideals of democracy and economic reality in the 1930s
Jitka Balcarová
The article deals with the issue of unemployment in the 1930s in Czechoslovakia in the context of efforts to alleviate it by means of the so-called labour service and the construction of labour camps for young people, especially the youth. The existence of two strong national communities (Czechs and Germans) brought about a double effort of the same, i.e. Czechoslovakia witnessed the implementation of labour service, which can be described as civil service on the one hand and “Sudeten German” service on the other. The so-called labour battalions established at the municipal level and the so-called labour battalions of the Baťa company, the formation of which was primarily motivated by private business interest, are left aside. The author provides a comparison of the development of the then world phenomenon — alleviating youth unemployment in two national environments in one state. The first part of the article provides an overview of state activities in the construction of so-called labour camps, followed by a comparison with the Sudetendeutscher Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst (Sudeten German Voluntary Labour Service, SFAD), where the author refers to an already published analysis. The chosen issue is explored on the basis of sources from that period – archival and printed ones, of Czech and German provenance, and application of a comparative method in particular. The article also aims to point out the professional deviation of the interpretation of the issue by part of historiographic research, which puts the labour service in direct connection with prisons for the correction of criminals from the Habsburg monarchy and forced labour camps from the time of Nazi Germany.
Ethnic issues in the districts of Bruntál, Krnov and Rýmařov between 1948 and 1960
Lubomír Hlavienka
In consequence of the results of World War II, the ethnic composition of the Czechoslovak borderland changed fundamentally, and, in the place of the originally dominant German population, a wide range of members of a number of different nationalities appeared. This study seeks to present the fates of four of these groups in an ethnically diverse border district. The area covered in the study is connected by, on the one hand, almost complete resettlement of the German population and settlement of a new one, and, on the other hand, their peripheral and submontane character. In selected minorities, both the different relationship that the communist state power had with individual groups and their development and gradual establishment into completely new political, social, and ethnic conditions can be observed.
The aim of the paper is to present the possibilities of linguistic approaches to opinion journalism as to a historical source. The analysis is focused on the thematization (conceptualization) of the city of Ostrava and its presentation as coalminers’ and steelworkers’ city in the Rudé právo newspaper, the official medium of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, during the second half of the 20th century. The first part is aimed at the usage of the ocelovésrdce republiky (‘the steel heart of the republic’) expression, its frequency, and the way it was perceived in the studied era. In the second part of the text, there are examined changes of the city presentation through the collocation analysis of the occurrences of the Ostrava and ostravský (the adjective form of Ostrava) lemmas in the specialised corpus of Totalita.
The Sovietization of Czechoslovakian Thinking about War after
February 1948
Stanislav Polnar
The presented paper deals with the development and the state of thought about the war in Czechoslovakia after 1948. It analyzes the influences of Marxist-leninist philosophy applied to the theory of military and military art. In addition to ideological issues, it also deals with institutional issues affecting the Sovietization of the Czechoslovak military. These include, for example, the subordination of Czechoslovak military education to Soviet models or the activities of Soviet advisors in the Ministry of Defense. It also notes changes in the operational thinking of Czechoslovakian soldiers, especially in the context of the development of nuclear weapons. The Czechoslovakian operational plans faithfully followed the Soviet superpower ambitions in the event of a global conflict.
A difficult partnership – the SPD and Poland in the 1980s
Małgorzata Świder
After the German Social-Democrats took over the power in the FRG, a new chapter in the Polish-German relations opened within the framework of neue Ostpolitik. The SPD became an important partner to the government of the People’s Republic of Poland. In the 1980s, it developed a policy run along a double path, which consisted in maintenance of contacts with both the Government and Solidarity. Following the imposition of the martial law in Poland, the government formed by the SPD-FDP supported the humanitarian aid for Poland, endeavoring to improve the Polish-German relations. Until the end of the 1980s, it was a principal actor in the bilateral relations, practicing Nebenaussenpolitik (side foreign policy).
Karol Daniel KADŁUBIEC, Opowiado Anna Chybidziurowa. (Lukáš Turoň)
Karol Daniel KADŁUBIEC, Śpiywo Anna Chybidziurowa a jeji sómsiedzi. (Lukáš Turoň)
Jan DVOŘÁK – Jaroslav FORMÁNEK – Adam HRADILEK, Čechoslováci v Gulagu (Životní osudy krajanů postižených politickými represemi v Sovětském svazu).(Kamil Rodan)
Lothar HÖBELT – Johannes KALWODA – Jiří MALÍŘ (Hg.): Die Tagebücher des Grafen Egbert Belcredi 1850–1894. (Ivan Puš)
David ZÁVĚŠISKÝ, Osvobození Suchých Lazců. Útrapy druhé světové války. (Ondřej Kolář)
