The thesis deals with a selected literary works by contemporary authors of the Central European area, which are associated with the landscape of Transcarpathian Ukraine. The thesis primarily focuses on the issue of imagining space from the narrator's perspective and a conception of its own identity in a relation to a referenced space, topography, collective memory. The initial precondition for interpreting texts is the peripheral character of the region and its features, such as nostalgy, memories of a place that is no longer, a fascination for exotism etc. Using a literary-comparative approach, the following texts are disscussed: Maroš Krajňak's Carpathia, Ziemowit Szczerek's Přijde Mordor a sežere nás aneb Tajná historie Slovanů, and Jinací by Taras Prochasko. Concerning space visualisation and its narrative potential related to the narrator's identity, the theoretical basis of the work is experimentaly set in a postcolonial framework. As such, the thesis intends to capture the resonance of the material in another culture (ie in the Czech, Slovak and Polish environment). Key words Central European literature, cultural context, periphery, postcolonialism, identity, landscape, Transcarpathian Ukraine

This thesis deals with German foreign policy on example of negotiations of Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine in years 2007-2013. The purpose of this paper was to analyse German interests in these negotiations and to answer the question, if Germany acted more as a civilian or geoeconomic power. Moreover, I focused on the mistakes of German politicians during this process and how it could influence the negative outcome. Firstly, the thesis follows up main basis of German foreign policy and European Neighbourhood Policy, mainly Eastern Partnership, and the role of Germany in these. The main chapter studies chronologically the process of the treaty negotiations and focuses particularly on press releases and statements of key German politicians. These are compared with chosen criteria to assign the actions to one of the concepts. This thesis comes to a conclusion that Germany acted as a civilian power because it tried to multilateralize the relations, stressed the principles and values and avoided conflicts. Germany's mistake was that it did not pay enough attention to the negotiations and had no clear strategy for this area. With its passivity and lack of interest in Ukraine itself it contributed to the failure of the negotiations.

The work builds on the scientific production on the theme of the resettled Czechs from areas of the former Soviet Union, which is continued treated on the soil of the Institute of Ethnology of the CAS, v.v.i., and introduces the latest conducted grant project, in which I focused on the area of health and folk medicine. The text deals with a specific group of the Czech populations predominantly from Ukraine and Kazakhstan (partially also Belarus and Russia), whose ancestors set out in the second half of the 19th century to seek a better living in the direction to the east from the borders of then Austro-Hungary. Through the use of commemorative narrations and life trajectories of the participating actors, the work maps the background of the arrival in new destinations, life in the 20th century, the change of the political and social conditions and the subsequent remigration to the Czech Republic. With a few exceptions, all of the actors figuring in this work became part of the resettlement processes - in the case of the Volyn Czechs after World War II in 1947 within the controlled exchange of the populations and in the case of the Chernobyl Czechs (and partially also some of the Czechs from Belarus and Russia) in the 1990s within the state-controlled resettlement after the accident at the Chernobyl...

The master thesis examines the phenomenon of lustration laws in Ukraine as a legal measure of transitional justice. It maps the history of unsuccessful attempts to adopt lustration laws from the independence in 1991 until the Euromaidan revolution in winter 2014. It then analyses the two lustration laws adopted in 2014 and their implementation between years 2014 and 2017. Finally it analyses the legal review that the laws have faced or are likely to face in the future. It comes to a conclusion that Ukrainian laws were not adopted after the independence in 1991 because of structural reasons and after the Orange Revolution in 2004 due to a lack of political will. In the second part, the thesis concludes that Ukrainian lustration laws adopted after Euromaidan were some of the most extensive ones in the region of post-communist Europe. Nevertheless, their implementation fell short of meeting most of their goals. In the third part, the thesis concludes that the laws might be spared constitutional review, but they are likely to face a negative scrutiny before the European Court of Human Rights.

The energy sector of Ukraine is of strategic importance not only within the national economy, but is also significant from a European perspective, because it includes transit energy networks that are essential for a large part of Europe. The fundamental problem still remains low energy efficiency of the economy, obsolete infrastructure, dysfunctional system and the absence of major reforms. At the moment, another round of reforms is taking place under the influence of a rapprochement with the European Union, to modernize the sector and adapt it to European standards. This work describes the development of the sector and the reform efforts since independence until today with a particular focus on the gas sector and the period 2014 to 2017. This is particularly the developments in the energy market, pricing policies, availability, security and decentralization of the system. In addition, the work also focuses on the development of energy efficiency, the environment and renewable energy sources. Following on the theoretical basis (especially the theory of institutional economics) through analysis of described facts assesses developments in the reforms and their impact on the whole sector including evaluation of the role and influence of oligarchs in these reform attempts. In terms of reforms, four...

Neoclassical realism has the ability to advance our understanding of foreign policy responses through the recently designed neoclassical realist model. However as international relations have proven, a theory is not a concrete motionless design. Improvements can be made and the fluidity of theory allows social sciences to adapt and advance. This thesis introduces developments to neoclassical realism by stating that the individual factors and intervening variables hold varying degrees of importance that alter between each foreign policy decision. There is no overarching set of instructions for 'foreign policy', rather an adaptable model that takes into consideration the geopolitical arena, the state and the statesman. The case study chosen for this thesis is the Russian foreign policy response to annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Analysis and comparisons of the variables resulted in three factors standing out as most significant. The most important influence within the systemic stimuli was the nature of the strategic environment and the window of opportunity that arose in Crimea due to Ukrainian political and military instability. The intervening variable leader images proved to be the decisive factor, as the consolidation of power by Vladimir Putin allowed the annexation to be completed...

A liberal understanding of international politics is currently dominant. However, it is important to note that there are still states that have not adopted this understanding, yet, which brings complications here. The current clash of these two understandings, i.e. liberalism and realism, thus constantly forms the security environment. Probably the most obvious case of the present seems to be the case of Ukraine and the related Ukraine crisis. The aim of this diploma thesis is to give a picture of the causes of the Ukraine crisis in a broader context than is generally interpreted across individual media, using an offensive-realistic framework. The motives of the individual actors of the conflict, especially Russia, will be examined in an attempt to present those motives as not primarily offensive but to some extent as defensive. Several research questions will serve me to fulfil the above-mentioned goal - How can the main causes of the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine be explained from the perspective of offensive realism? According to offensive realism, what actor is responsible for the outbreak of conflict? In terms of offensive realism, how can the motives of the key actors (i.e. Russia, the West) be explained?

This thesis deals with the topic of the human rights movement in Ukraine and Czechoslovakia after signing the final act of the conference on security and cooperation in Europe in Helsinki 1975. The thesis is an attempt of a comparative analysis of these two human rights movements in the late 1970s, based on two concrete groups: Ukrainian Helsinki Group and Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. The research focuses on the comparison of the social context for the dissent activity, the historical circumstances and the activities of the human rights groups. The thesis traces the main tendencies and topics in the activities of both groups. Particular attention is paid to the life stories of the actors of human rights movement and efforts to explore some common features in biographies of these personalities. Key words: Human rights; Helsinki movement; dissent; opposition; Soviet Union; Normalization; Czechoslovakia

The aim of the work is to analyze the hybrid strategy of Russia against Ukraine. The thesis works with the notion of the socio-cultural concept of the Russian world in the context of a hybrid war. Information campaigns and narratives based on identity change can be used for military purposes. Propaganda and historical paradigms are used in planning hybrid operations. During the military operation in Crimea and the war in Donbass, certain parts of society are radicalized and used in the active part of the conflict.

This work attempts to characterize internal modernization and international expansion of Russian speaking organized crime. Special emphasis is placed on the main stages of development of organized crime in the Soviet Union and its current state primarily in Russia and Ukraine. The paper proffer the new definition of modern forms of organized crime and different characteristics of regimes as for the relations between the state and organized crime (criminal syndicalism, mafia, state kleptocracy). The paper characterizes different types of international expansion of Russian speaking groups (regional expansion, global retirement and emigration). In this regard, research was focused primarily on the activities of the Russian speaking organized crime groups in the EU and the Czech Republic. In the last phase of the work I focused my research on some important measured how to reduce risk in the current conditions. Though the work is primarily devoted to organized crime from the CIS countries, it should be noted, modernization of organized crime everywhere in the world takes place by a similar manner. It was therefore necessary to briefly address the wider contextual issues. Working so many places highlights some aspects of the development of organized crime in Italy, USA , Czech Republic, Japan and China.