The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation: Czech Culture and the Rise of Communism

378 Pages·2005·2.52 MB·English

by  Bradley F. Abrams

04-0156-Abrams-Strugglefor(WPP) 04/28/2005 12:41 PM Page 1
Abrams T S
History • Eastern Europe HE TRUGGLE
The Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series S
Series Editor: Mark Kramer FOR THE OUL
The material effects of World War II, in combination with Eastern Europe’s disap- N
OF THE ATION
pointingly undemocratic interwar history, placed radical social change on the postwar
agenda across the region and shaped the debates that took place in immediate postwar
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Czech society. These debates adopted both a cultural form, in struggles over the mean-
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ing of the recent past and the nation’s position on the East–West continuum, and a
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directly political form, in battles over the meaning of socialism. T
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The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation examines the most important and politically res-
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onant fields of historical and cultural debate in Czech society immediately after World
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War II. The author finds that communist public figures were largely successful in con- S
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trolling debate over the nation’s recent past—the interwar First Republic and the expe-
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riences of Munich and World War II—and over its location on the East–West contin- O R
uum. This success preceded and was mirrored in the struggles over the political issue of
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the times: socialism. The communists engaged their political foes in the democratic
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socialist and Roman Catholic camps and, surprisingly, found significant support from a
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major Protestant church.
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Through the author’s careful reading of major publications, a postwar mood sympa-
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thetic to radical social change is recreated, questioning the standard view of the com- F
munists’ rise to power. This book not only contributes to the specific literature on A O
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Czech history, but also raises questions about the relationship between war and radical R
social change, about the communist takeover of the region, and about the role of intel- I
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lectuals in public life.
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Bradley F. Abrams is assistant professor of history at Columbia University. Czech Culture
and the Rise
For orders and information please contact the publisher
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. of Communism
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4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200
Lanham, Maryland 20706
1-800-462-6420
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Rowman & Bradley F. Abrams
Cover photo: Some of the 100,000 Czechs who gathered to hear and support Communist Party leader Klement
Littlefield
Gottwald in Prague’s Old Town Square on February 21, 1948. Courtesy of AP/Wide World Photos.

The Struggle for the
Soul of the Nation
The Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series
Series Editor
Mark Kramer,Harvard University
Resistance with the People: Repression and Resistance
in Eastern Germany 1945–1955
Gary Bruce
Triggering Communism’s Collapse:
Perceptions and Power in Poland’s Transition
Marjorie Castle
Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in
East-Central Europe, 1944–1948
Edited by Philipp Ther and Ana Siljak
The Struggle for the
Soul of the Nation
Czech Culture and the
Rise of Communism
Bradley F. Abrams
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Oxford

Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Cold War and Contemporary Understandings
of the Communist Takeover of Czechoslovakia 1
Part I: Czech Intellectuals Enter the Postwar World
1 World War II and the East European Revolution 9
2 Intellectuals in the Czech Environment 39
3 Four Groups of Postwar Czech Intellectuals 53
Part II: The Interpretation and Reinterpretation of Czech History
and the Reorientation of the Czech Nation
4 The Communist Aim: The Creation of a New Czechoslovakia 89
5 The Battle over the Recent Past I: The Experiences of Munich
and World War II 104
6 The Battle over the Recent Past II: The First Republic and
Tomásˇ G. Masaryk 118
7 The Shift in Sensibilities and Generations: May 5, 1945, versus
October 28, 1918 139
8 The Reorientation of National Identity: Czechs between
East and West 156
v
vi Contents
Part III: The Meaning of Socialism
9 Socialism and Communist Intellectuals: The “Czechoslovak
Road to Socialism” 178
10 Socialism and Democratic Socialist Intellectuals:
The “New Socialist Ethos” 199
11 Socialism and Roman Catholic Intellectuals: The “Fateful
Struggle between Spirit and Matter” 234
12 Socialism and Protestant Intellectuals: The “Kingdom of God
on Earth”? 253
Conclusion: The End of Czechoslovak Democracy and the Rise
of Communism in Eastern Europe 275
Appendix 289
Notes 296
Bibliography 347
Index 357
About the Author 363
Acknowledgments
In any large project, the number of people to whom the author owes a debt
of gratitude far exceeds the space available to thank them, and that is certainly
the case for this one. There are, however, several people and institutions
without whom I could not have brought this work to its conclusion. First on
this list are the members of the committee who oversaw the Stanford Univer-
sity dissertation from which this book grew: Norman Naimark and Paul
Robinson of Stanford, and Tony Judt of New York University. Without their
encouragement and support this study would not have borne fruit. After sub-
mission of the dissertation, I received insightful criticism from the twentieth
century’s dean of Czechoslovak historians, the late Gordon Skilling, in con-
junction with a seminar on my work sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson In-
ternational Center for Scholars. I also received valuable and generous criti-
cism on the dissertation from Martin Myant and Igor Lukes, whose reports
were commissioned by Columbia University’s Harriman Institute.
In the course of revising the manuscript, I received advice from my col-
leagues in Columbia’s history department, and valuable help in both revis-
ing the manuscript and navigating the world of publishing from the Harri-
man’s Ron Meyer. Similarly, I received valuable criticism from many graduate
students whom I forced to read the manuscript in varying stages of its com-
pletion. Special thanks in this regard go to Marci Shore, now a professor in
her own right. In Prague, the staff of the National Library, and especially that
of its Division of Formerly Prohibited Literature, provided great and occa-
sionally heroic assistance. The Sociological Institute of the Czechoslovak
(later Czech) Academy of Science lent extremely valuable technical re-
sources, and its former head, Jiˇrí Musil, contributed experiences and under-
standings that enriched this study.
vii
viii Acknowledgments
The Fulbright Commission funded two years of research in Prague, and
the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, through fellowships spon-
sored by PepsiCo, provided funds for two summers of additional work. The
Harriman also generously provided funds to offset the costs of formatting
and indexing, the latter of which was carried out by Kathy Stickel. The Joint
Committee on Eastern Europe of the American Council of Learned Societies
awarded my project generous financial support over the course of two years
while I was writing up my findings, and the Institut für die Wissenschaften
vom Menschen in Vienna provided a further six months in a working envi-
ronment that can only be described as superb. The author also acknowl-
edges the permission granted by the American Council of Learned Societies
and the University of California Press to reprint sections of chapter 1 that
were previously published in East European Politics and Societies. Finally,
this project could not have been completed without the support provided by
my parents in the United States, to whom this book is dedicated, the Janu˚
family in Prague, and my wife wherever I am.