The topic of the diploma thesis is the encoding of an ideological message in normalization series of Czechoslovak Television, specifically in the series Matka (Mother). This nine-part television saga was filmed in 1975 on the occasion of the XV Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, planned for April 1976. Most normalization series had one thing in common - through the story of ordinary people, with whom the viewers could easily identify - they passed to the viewers the attitudes, the system of rules or the interpretation of history seen through the prism of the ruling party. The series Matka also followed this practice, and using the story of a woman - a laundress - showed the development of the labour movement in Bohemia. The theoretical part of the thesis consists of clarifying the concepts - ideology, propaganda and normalization; at the same time, it reflects the history of Czechoslovak Television and its importance as one of the most powerful tools of propaganda in the period of normalization. In this respect, television series, due to the immense popularity with TV viewers, were very effective. Therefore, their essence and thematic focus in the context of the social climate are analyzed in the theoretical part, too. The used methodology, identifying and interpreting the...

The master thesis -The Relations between the Polish United Workers' Party and the French Communist Party in 1956‖ deals with the relations between the Central European Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and the West European French Communist Party (PCF) in the crisis year of 1956. Analysing their mutual relations in 1956 is not only interesting from the point of view of East- West connections, but chiefly of the different approaches to Khrushchev's policy of destalinisation. Whereas the PCF was more or less under the Stalinist Maurice Thorez's control, which prevented Khrushchev's French supporters from influencing their party's politics, in case of the PZPR, the death of Bolesław Bierut in March 1956 made room for larger variety of opinions within the party. This master thesis describes not only the situation of both parties in 1956. It also analyses the images that the parties made about each other and the ways in which these images were spread and how they influenced the relations between them. The striking difference laid in the approach to the destalinisation. The parties perceived differently Khrushchev's -secret speech‖. The PCF leadership firstly denied its existence and later on claimed they did not know about it. The PZPR leadership decided to distribute the copies of the secret speech...

Abstract The Master thesis Czechoslovakia in 1960s from the point of view of theory non- democratic regimes deals with the analysis of political, economic and social development, especially with the so-called Prague Spring of 1968. The 1968 reform was an attempt to transform the Czechoslovak communist regime. The aim was to transform Czechoslovakia into a modern industrial society, break free from the total subordination to the Soviet Union, yet with the leading role of the Communist Party. For this reason, the year 1968 holds an important position in our post-war history. The thesis is divided into two main parts and seven chapters. The first part is devoted to non-democratic theories, particularly to totalitarianism and authoritarianism. The second part describes the events in the communist Czechoslovakia between 1948 and 1960. And subsequently, the remaining part is devoted to the main topic of the thesis, to Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. The aim of my thesis was to describe the situation in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, identify the causes and consequences of the so-called Prague Spring of 1968 and try to match Czechoslovakia to a certain type of non-democratic regime in the 1960s and thus determine where Czechoslovakia was on the imaginary scale from totalitarianism to democracy in this period.

A professional life of secondary school teachers of Czech gymnasiums (rough equivalent of British grammar schools) in so called normalization period is presented in this thesis using autobiographical recounting, contemporary documents and archival materials. The author mentions the choosing of their careers, their studies and ensuing start of their teaching practice that took place in late sixties. Author puts emphasis on mapping of the leading role of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia in the workplace during the so called normalization period and how it was perceived by the teachers themselves. Author shows the role of the communist party using teacher's reviews, entrance examinations and complex assessments. Later on, author elaborates the mechanisms used to keep school "socialistic" up to the year 1989: controls, deliberations and meetings, schoolings, school phraseology, material provision, anniversary celebrations, voluntary works, skiing and defense courses, sister trips and teacher's role in society. In the end, the thesis maps a downfall of communist party's leading role at schools and the transition to a democratic education after the year 1989.

This thesis focused on the question of the acceptability possibly unacceptability of Czech political party KSČM and the German political party Die Linke in terms of their participation in the national government. The paper describes attitudes of important and key stakeholders for this issue. That means attitudes inside of the researched parties, attitudes within social democratic parties in the Czech Republic and in Germany and the attitudes of other relevant parties in both above mentioned states. Subsequently, the results of this analysis are compared. Researched period begins in 2002 in the case of KSČM when the elections to the Chamber of Deputies were held in the Czech Republic and in the case of Die Linke since 2005 when there were elections to the Bundestag in Germany. The development is analyzed until 2014. The last peak of the analyze are the elections to the lower chambers of the Czech and German parliament which were both held in the fall of 2013. During the researched period it seemed several times that the conditions are relatively positive for the participation of KSČM or Die Linke in the national government, either directly or indirectly. But it never happened. There are more reasons for that. However the most important is that there has never been a sufficient number of actors on...

This thesis deals with the problem of the Velvet revolution in a small provincial town called Náchod. My purpose is to describe the political situation before the revolution, during it and after the revolution ended. I used two methods for my research. First of them was regular text analysis of documents in archives and the second source I used was the method of Oral history. Oral history enriches us with knowledge of living witnesses who help us understand reasons, motivations and feelings of people who took part in an important part of our history, which Velvet revolution surely is. To understand them even better I shortly described their life stories and their position during the revolution. I made life story interviews with 4 members of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and with 5 members of the Civic Forum. So we can hear opinions of both considered sides. At the end of the thesis I compared my conclusions with the conclusion doc. PhDr. Lukáš Valeš, Ph.D. made in his dissertation describing Velvet revolution in a small provincial town Klatovy. At the end I came to a conclusion that Velvet revolution changed political status of Czechoslovakia and its economy but the same people remained powerful.

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Internationally, China’s promotion of its cultural heritage has gained much attention as a means to gain soft power and exert influence. In 2021, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), released the 14th Five-Year Plan stating the country’s overarching ambitions in the coming years. In contrast to previous plans, this year’s policy document contains strong wordings concerning enhancing soft power, socialist culture and for the Chinese people to ‘inherit and carry forward’ Excellent Traditional Culture, signifying that China’s approach to soft power and cultural promotion may be of increased importance also in the domestic context. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to explore the discourse used to promote ‘Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture’ within China.   By applying thematic analysis to articles from The People’s Daily seven dominant themes emerged regarding promotional efforts. Between the time interval of 2021-2022, the promotion of ‘Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture’ emphasized the following themes: Leadership of Xi Jinping, Integration of Marxism and Chinese Characteristics, Combining Tradition and Modernity, Cultural Self-Confidence and Nationalism, Creativity and Innovative Transformation, National Rejuvenation and Inheritance, and China’s International Cultural Soft Power. As previous research on soft power in the Chinese context suggests, discourse and narratives seem to build on the notion of building a united and cohesive nation. Instilling a cultural and ideological basis that should permeate all of Chinese society.

Annotation: Michal Zítek: Break aways parties of KSČ(M) The aim was to provide a comprehensive view of the political entities that arose by splitting from the KSČ(M). Labour will introduce the development of individual and maternal conditions that give rise to the emergence of new parties. Work presents the development of individual parties, their basic program points, and leading figures.