Czech Politics of History

The following paper reviews the schemes of memory behind the shaping of the contemporary vision of the Czech’s own history and the forms they take while materialising in the contemporary Czech Republic. Among the “great narratives” to have built up the picture of Czech history, a leading role was assumed by a traditional model, that sees the Czechs as a nation on the border of Slavic and Germanic superethnoses. Simultaneously, attention was drawn to its reformation and modernisation potential and Slavic character, the latter of which intensified after having confronted the Germanic world. The Czech post-1989 settlement with its communist past has only slightly impaired this idiom of memory; Soviet domination, especially the Warsaw Pact intervention in 1968, has to a great extent depreciated the value of “Slavicness” as an element of identification of the Czechs. Also, a Czech sense of nationality has faded to the benefit of a sense of “citizenship”—with the latter understood in a broad sense. Czech state institutions have only to a limited extent been committed to researching some details of the politics of history. Among these organisations have been, for example, the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, ÚSTR), the Military History Institute (Vojenský historický ústav, VHÚ) and some other bodies, including the Czech National Museum (Národní muzeum). When analysing the responsibilities shouldered by the above institutions, one may observe an influential yet financially inadequate role of some NGOs, such as Pamět národa (The Memory of Nation) whereas a typical narrative pattern of Czechness has found its place in the educational system. As for the legal perspective, the Czech Republic managed to settle accounts with its communist past by passing both the Lustration Act and the Act on the Period of Lack of Freedom.