The aim of this thesis is to create an analysis of cultural and social life in the city Roudnice nad Labem at times of the so called normalization period to which the company Roudnické strojírny a slévárny n. p. was really instrumental. The thesis is focused not only on the cultural and social options of the factory workers, but on all the city residents at that time. Content of the thesis is divided into four parts. The first describes the company's cooperation with the Spojený závodní klub. The second part analyzes the developement of sport activity throughout the city. The third part deals with the events organized exclusively by the company itself, while the fourth part is focused on the recreational opportunities provided by the company to its employees and their families. This part also deals with the issue of social life and free time of those, who participated in recreation. Key words: Roudnické strojírny a slévárny n. p. - normalization period - oral history - culture in Roudnici nad Labem - sport in Roudnice nad Labem.

Foreign policy of Czechoslovakia in 70's and 80's depended completely on the policy of the Soviet union and its promoted ideology. The Czechoslovak socialist republic preserved the narrowest relationship with the Soviet union and its sattelite states in Eastern Europe, while the relationship with the western countries oriented to co-operation with the United states, was very cold and was beeing restored very slowly and gradually. The developing countries, especially those heading to a socialist establishment, had a special position in Czechoslovak foreign policy. Especially these countries benefited from Czechoslovak aid such as financial, military or material support. Another way Czechoslovakia implemented its development aid was offering scholarships for university students. The purpose of this form of aid was to contribute to the progress of developing countries, most of whom gained independence recently. Simultaneously the policy pursued another aim - to spread the socialist ideology and the influlence of the Soviet union around the world. Hundreds of foreign students studied in Czechoslovak universities every year during 70's and 80's. Most of them came from so called developing countries. Foreign students came from various countries of the world, various cultures and therefore they perceived...

The Rise and Fall of CSLA?! Military profession (1960-1970) in the collective memory of the officer corps Jiří Hlaváček Abstract: The aim of this dissertation thesis is the reflection of everyday life and the (transformation) of the professional identity of the officers' corps in the 1960s in the collective memory. The research is based on narrative analysis of oral-historical interviews with witnesses who served in the Czechoslovak People's Army during the period under review. Memories of witnesses are compared with other types of historical sources. The first part of the thesis is devoted to the problems of everyday life in the socialist type army. The content analysis focuses on the motivation of witnesses for the choice of the military profession, the specifics of military life, ideology in the army, the relationship between the soldiers and the public, as well as on the combat readiness and role of the Czechoslovak army in the eventual potential cold-war conflict. The second part of the thesis deals with the actions of actors on the background of event history. It is followed by the reflection of the Prague Spring, the August occupation of 1968 and the subsequent normalization of the army in the early seventies. The main focus is on the narrative analysis of the actors' strategies and the different...

The aim of the dissertation is to find an answer to the question of whether the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB) in the years 1968-1989 could be considered "free" in any way. This work describes the life of the ECCB in that period and the ways of the freedom und unfreedom the ECCB enjoyed and formed. Thereby, the research is based on the careful analysis of documents of church and state archives and the results of ten author-led biographical interviews with then active pastors. Combining these methods and sources, the dissertation offers an innovative view on the ECCB in the period and provides new, deeper, and more personal insights into the processes of the time. The first four chronological chapters describe the situation and development of the ECCB during the socio-political liberalisation during the Prague Spring and during the years after the Warsaw Pact troops' invasion of Czechoslovakia, when the so-called "normalisation" began. The fifth chapter presents the main strategies that the church developed in reaction to the restriction of its freedom. The sixth chapter presents the perspective of two ministers of the ECCB on their contacts with the representatives of the state authorities in the form of a case study. An insight in the internal life of the church and the forms of the church...

This master thesis deals with the development of the academic relations between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany during the so-called normalization, so from the beginning of the 1970s to the fall of the so-called Iron Curtain. The main focus lies on the inter-university partnership between Charles University in Prague and the University of Hamburg, which was concluded in Prague in 1980 and is successfully carried out till today. It was the first cooperation agreement Charles University made with a West German university during the period of the cold war. The thesis analyses, in which way both universities approached the partnership and how the cooperation could be put into practice. The main objective of the text is to find out which dynamics the partnership in the observed period gained and if the cooperation even managed to overcome the original expectations of the main actors considering the given conditions within the domestic and international politics. The examined cooperation is put into a broader context, not only of the development of the Czechoslovak-West German relations but also of the situation within international politics. The partnership was possible to negotiate thanks to bilateral agreements, which arranged the further development of the...

The diploma thesis, based primarily on the method of oral history, deals with selected chapters from the life of Petr Rýgr, a dissident and a person belonging to the circle of parallel culture. It is conceived as an episodic biography, while in the course of the research it follows the topic of the desire for a free life in a represive regime. The time limit corresponds to the period, called as "normalization" in socialist Czechoslovakia. The work captures the life of a dissident on a regional scale, on the border of the districts of Trutnov and Náchod. Rýgr's life is viewed in the text from several perspectives, primarily the self-concept of the protagonist, the view of his friends, and then the view of the author of the work based on the interpretation of interviews and the study of written sources. The individual chapters deal with Rýgr's adolescence, the possible degree of formation by opinion authorities, Václav Havel or Jaroslav Foglar, as well as life in a parallel, unofficial world, the issue of work duty or the October 1989 event when Petr Rýgr sent an advertisement to Rudé právo congratulating Václav Havel alias Ferdinand Vaňek on his birthday. The work subscribes to a personalistic approach, while in accordance with it, the researched personality of Petr Rýgr is perceived as a phenomenon...

The degree work deals with the last century period of the 80s and 90s in the Pilsen region. Generally, it was time of lack of freedom and intolerance when all the state power was concentrated in one political party - the Czechoslovak Communist Party. With support of police this party manipulated with citizens' dignity, rights and thinking. Through description of some civic activities the work records groups of independent thinking in the Pilsen region. These activities were source of independent atmosphere; that's why they were supervised by the state power; their protagonists were monitored and their activities were supressed. In the work the independent areas are divided into chapters: church, music, scouting, camping, ecology. Another chapter focuses on the local dissent activities. Its members were predominantly from the above mentioned groups. Last chapter deals with unofficial publishing (samizdat) in this period. The aim of the degree work is to find (or at least to outline) the starting points and reasons that finally brought members of various groups (often diametrically opposite) together on the way of independent activities, dissent and unofficial publishing (samizdat).

Summary: The thesis "Folk As a Social Phenomenon in the Time of So Called Normalization" does not take folk primarily for a music style but it intends to demonstrate its limits the Communist power in Czechoslovakia had set for independent cultural activities in 1970s and 1980s. That is why the thesis is not a musicological one but a political and historic one. The text is based on a wide basis of sources: studies in archives, the analysis of valid legislation of that time, studies of contemporary press, interviewing the contemporary witnesses and using the witnesses' private archives and last but not least the lyrics of the songs themselves have been selected as important sources The text focuses on important milestones having the information value about the folk in 1970s and 1980s. There is provided an analysis of qualification tests which should have "cleansed" the official stages from "defective" musicians (and from a lot of folk singers as well). The demonstration of possibilities is given here showing the fact the folk could survive and balance on the edge of the public life in spite of all legislation barriers and this either in the form of circumventing the law and using the gaps in the law (folk singers' union Šafrán (Saffron)) or in the form of "hacking" the system, i.e. gaining influence in an...

The subject of this thesis is to record the every-day life, local and collective memory, and relationships of individuals - local inhabitants of the 'panel-housing' estate, Jižní Město, in Prague - towards the specific urban and social space in which they live. The thesis is based on interviews, with the long-term inhabitants of Jižní Město, which were structured to record their lived experience in the housing estate during two consecutive periods in recent Czechoslovak history - the so-called normalisation and post-socialism periods. The interviews were used as an empirical counterbalance to architectural/city planning discourse and Czech media, which has interpreted the legacy of 'panel-housing' estates in a negative way, as the socialist form of housing par excellence. The aim of this thesis is to analyse this discourse, which also reflects how Czech society deals with its communist past, and to compare it with the experiences, evaluations and current challenges in the lives of these long- term inhabitants, living in the biggest Czech 'panel-housing' estate with a bad reputation. Key words: panel-housing estates, Jižní Město, housing, local/collective memory, local/urban identity, everyday life, city, so-called normalisation.

Tramping represents a uniquely Czech phenomenon as a form of leisure in contact with nature as well as a sort of informal pooling. It starts off at the beginning of the interwar period in Czechoslovakia, develops during the so called normalization Era (1969-1989) and continues to exist up to the present days. The main objective of this thesis is to highlight some of the basic conditions of the development of this phenomenon in certain examined periods of time by means of an analysis of life stories. The focus shall be located on specific forms of motivation for tramping, values associated with this activity by the trampers and the role of the collective in the activity. The Normalization Era is particularly interesting for an exploration of the relationship between tramping and power in authoritarian environments such as those from our recent History. The main, albeit not the exclusive research materials for this diploma thesis, has been taken from narrative sources. The study concentrates on the city of Brno as a particularly active location in which tramping activities have been taking place all along a extensive period of time in History. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)