APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2
and the subsequent "normalization" of the country have also been held up by both Czechoslovak and foreign, non-Communist, and Communist writers and theoreticians as unique historical events dramatically documenting communism's inability to coexist with the pluralistic tendencies of a traditionally democratic society. Understandably, perhaps, little comprehensive analysis has yet been published on the rule of Gustav Husak and his policy of "normalization."
Although a rich library exists on the pre-Husak period, the treatment is uneven, because of the variety of viewpoints employed, emphasis made, and political and social vested interests involved. Indeed, many authors are emigres and exiles—each has a different reason for taking either a bitter or apologetic approach. Few writers, domestic or foreign, have succeeded in being fully objective.
1. General works
The Slavs; Roger Portal; Harper & Row, New York/Evanston, 1969; an historical survey and ethnology of the Slavic peoples of Russia, Central Europe, and the Balkans. The book includes concise and interpretive sections on Czechs and Slovaks.
The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture; Miloslav Recheigl, ed.; Mouton & Co., The Hague/London/Paris, 1964: an anthology of essays on Czech and Slovak classicists, scholars, philosophers, artists, and literary figures. It is written by Czechoslovak expatriates who avoid political polemicizing.
The Strangled Democracy, Czechoslovakia 1948-69; David Rodnick; The Caprock Press, Lubbock, Texas, 1970; profiles of various segments of Czechoslovak society—farmers, youth, workers, and their attitudes toward their society and the Communist regime. The book is based on limited personal interviews in Czechoslovakia in 1949 and 1969 and is one of the few available Western accounts of Czechoslovak society under the Communists.
Czechoslovakia in European History; S. Harrison Thomson; Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1953; an account of Czech and Slovak histories through the Communist coup in 1948 and the two peoples' contributions to European history and culture.
2. The pre-1948 period
Czechs and Germans; Elizabeth Wiskemann; Oxford University Press, London/New York/Toronto, 1938; a penetrating account of the historic relations between Czechs and Germans prior to 1938, one of the major elements influencing Czechoslovak history.
The Doomed Democracy: Czechoslovakia in a Disrupted Europe, 1914-38; Vera Olivova; London, 1972; a somewhat self-pitying and determinist historical analysis.
Munich, 1938; Keith Gilbert Robbins; London, 1968; provides the Western view of the road to and from Munich without being an apologia.
The Czechs Under Nazi Rule; The Failure of National Resistance, 1939-42; Vojtech Mastny; London, 1971; an analysis of the divisive and traumatic factors that resulted in the general absence of active resistance to German occupation.
The Masaryk Case; Claire Sterling; Praeger, New York, 1970; a journalistic investigation of the death in 1948 of Jan Masaryk; includes a useful if short review of the 1945-48 "coalition atmosphere" that permitted a steady growth in Communist power.
3. The Stalinist era and after
The Confession; Artur London; William Morrow & Co., Inc.; New York, 1970; a stunning portrayal of the Stalinist purge trials in the early 1950's by one of their victims.
Truth Will Prevail; Marie Slingova; London, 1969; the author's husband was one of those executed during the trials.
The Czechoslovak Political Trials, 1950-54: the Suppressed Report of the Dubcek Government's Commission of Inquiry, 1968; Jiri Pelikan; London, 1971; the author, a prominent Communist journalist of the 1968 reform period now exiled in Rome, puts into context the Dubcek regime's efforts to expose Stalinist excesses.
The Czechoslovak Reform Movement: Communism in Crisis, 1962-68; Galia Golan; Cambridge, England, 1972; the best study of the slow buildup of reformist pressure that led to the downfall of Novotny and Dubcek's assumption of power.
4. The Dubcek era and the 1968 crisis
Prague's 200 Days; Harry Schwartz; Frederick A. Praeger, New York/Washington/London, 1969; one of several journalistic efforts covering the Dubcek era. Detailed, chronological narrative by a leading journalist on the scene.
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2
