Diploma thesis "Film Department of the Ministry of Information 1945 - 1953" deals with the cultural policy in Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. The introductory chapter focuses on evolution of the negotiations on the post-war organization in the restored Czechoslovakia. In this chapter was mentioned historical context with a focus on foreign and domestic resistance movement. A significant part of the diploma thesis is devoted to the constitution and development of the Ministry of Information and its influence on the culture policy of the state, especially to the activities of the Film Department which became one of the most important department of the Ministry of Information after the nationalization of the film industry in the summer of 1945. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia used the department and cinematography for spreading communist ideology in society. In connection with historical context, the role of the Culture and Promotion Department of the Central Comitee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the issue of the import and distribution of foreign films were analyzed. The development of the role of the Ministry of Information and the Film Department within the framework of the state's cultural policy is also in the diploma thesis outlined in connection with the events...

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(in English) In my thesis, I have decided to continue the theme I have already pursued in my previous bachelor's degree research. It consists of biographies of selected outstanding volunteers who took part in the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939, with a special attention given to their lives after 1948. Following the life story of Osvald Závodský, I have chosen to focus on the life of Bohuslav Laštovička (1905-1981), a former officer of the Army of the First Czechoslovak Republic, and later a Communist journalist and publicist. In Spain, he served as the first commander of the "Gottwald" anti-aircraft division, then he was a member of the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in London. Following the liberation, he worked as the first director of Czechoslovak Radio. In 1948, he was an ambassador in Moscow, and later a deputy at the Ministry of Defence. After political restrictions during the political trials era, he became a chairman of the National Assembly in the mid-1960s, and remained in this post until 1968. As a member of the Federal Assembly he served until his dead in 1981. I intend to fill this biographical lacuna drawing on archival research, secondary literature, public press of the period, and last but not least memories of Laštovička's comrades-in-arms and his own, in order to...

This thesis investigates the aesthetic presence of social performance in six French and Czechoslovak New Wave films of the 1960s. The New Wave was particularly interested in portraying everyday life, and the film corpus studied in this thesis focuses specifically on the representation of the characters' social lives. In addition, the films share the commonality of being made with an aesthetic of authenticity inspired more or less by the 1960s observational documentary genre of cinéma vérité. In the film corpus, ordinary social situations occupy a more prominent place on screen than usual, and instigate a social kind of engagement with the films. Where narrative context conventionally provides the framework for a character's actions, in these unconventional films, it is the characters' social environments that more precisely contextualize their way of being. The aim of the thesis is to engage with these social contexts to understand the characters' social behaviours, and to examine how the 'vérité aesthetic' evokes a social kind of reading of the films. To this end, I develop in the first chapter a Goffmanian approach to the films, inspired by sociologist Erving Goffman's writings on social reality as a performative realm. I use his notions of social performance, social framework, and social perception to engage with each film through what I call a 'social gaze' that inspects the social dynamics of the characters' behaviours. Over the course of three case study chapters, I apply this approach to the films to unearth and discuss their social range of meaning. This thesis thus aims to contribute both to film historical scholarship on the 1960s European New Wave, and to a study of the aestheticization of social reality in film in general.

The topic of this diploma thesis is the foundation and development of JZD Lhotka and Hošťálkovice between the years 1945 and 1992. Both cooperatives were situated near the industrial city of Ostrava, which significantly influenced their existence. Within the opening chapter, the author describes the history of Lhotka and Hošťálkovice until 1945. Every chapter contains a theoretical part describing selected events which had an impact on the development of JZD. Unlike the other theses dealing with cooperatives of given era, this one is not devoted to the fight against kulaks. In this case, the research focuses mainly on the economic aspect of the issue. The author has managed to capture the development of both cooperatives while not only using the archival materials and literature but also testimonies of contemporary witnesses.

abstract: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, musicologists have been delving into formerly inaccessible archives and publishing new research on Eastern Bloc composers. Much of the English-language scholarship, however, has focused on already well-known composers from Russia or Poland. In contrast, composers from smaller countries such as the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) have been neglected. In this thesis, I shed light on the new music scene in Czechoslovakia from 1948–1989, specifically during the period of “Normalization” (1969–1989). The period of Normalization followed a cultural thaw, and beginning in 1969 the Czechoslovak government attempted to restore control. Many Czech and Slovak citizens kept their opinions private to avoid punishment, but some voiced their opinions and faced repression, while others chose to leave the country. In this thesis, I explore how two Czech composers, Marek Kopelent (b. 1932) and Petr Kotík (b. 1942) came to terms with writing music before and during the period of Normalization. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Music 2015

This thesis presents the German magazine Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ), one of the greatest illustrated papers at the time of Weimar Republic. The weekly was founded in the beginning of 1920s as a propaganda organ of the Workers' International Relief (Internationale Arbeiterhilfe, IAH), a mass organization formed to support workers in case of strikes or natural catastrophes. The founding of the magazine was entrusted to a communist activist and publisher Willi Münzenberg. Under his leadership the AIZ became the most popular left-wing illustrated magazine. It enforced socialism and fought to build a united anti-fascist front. AIZ collaborated with many prominent artists and writers, and its readers were attracted especially by the satirical photomontages of John Heartfield. After Nazi's took over Germany in 1933, AIZ exiled in Prague, where it continued its untiring fight against fascism and advocated the rights of the working class. In 1936, the magazine changed its name to Volks-Illustrierte in order to reinforce the united front movement. This thesis focuses on the history of the AIZ magazine, it describes the character and exile period of the weekly, which includes a brief introduction to selected members of Prague's editorial team. It also explores the lives and cultural work of German...

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze the gradual disappearance of private enterprise in Czechoslovakia in the years 1948 - 1964 based on the analysis of relevant laws and regulations. The theoretical part deals with the analysis of legislation giving effect to nationalization, these laws puts into political and economic framework of the former Czechoslovakia. Thesis will concentrate not only on the second wave of nationalization and the state interventions in the economy that occurred after February 1948, but it emphasizes that the first significant changes in the national economy appear in the Czechoslovakia in the period before February 1948 through presidential decrees from October 1945. The analytical part of thesis evaluates the progress of the nationalization on the example of the eight selected enterprises. Thesis brings finding that the conduct of the nationalization of chosen companies largely meet legal requirements on nationalization. On the other hand, it is necessary to take into account that the legislation governing the nationalization was strongly influenced by the political means that their aim was to destroy private enterprise.

The thesis "Be fit, build your homeland, defend peace" or Physical Education and Ice Hockey in Post-February Czechoslovakia looks at thema of this popular winter sport by sociocritical discipline optics through sport's sociology. This unconventional approach focus on social practise rather than tables of results ice-hockey teams. The czechoslovak stalinism did not display itself only over repressions and polical demagogy. It strived for a creation of new social order that should have been better than previous were. It is appropriate to remember this, in order to understand behavior and motives of then people. The thesis perceives nature of czechoslovak physical education and ice hockey after 1948 as an integral part of European physical education systems through which modern state applies biopower claims.

The presented dissertation analyses the role of Communist Czechoslovakia in a period of so called "Congo Crisis" in the years 1960-1963, which began after the independence of the Belgian Congo had been declared. Czechoslovakia was the only Eastern Bloc country which had a representative office in the capital city of Leopoldville over a long period of time and had maintained business and diplomatic relations with the former Belgian Congo since the First Republic; therefore it was an irreplaceable mediator between the newly declared Republic of the Congo and Eastern Bloc countries. The individual chapters rely especially on archival documents and analyse the roles of Patrice Lumumba, UN, separatist government of Antoine Gizenga in the Eastern province, namely in the context of Czechoslovakian foreign policy toward African continent in the observed period. The dissertation is grounded especially on documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and archives of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In order to set the dissertation to the international context, it was mainly French, Belgian and Soviet literature, which was used as it offers a very different perspective on the topic in question.