Simone de Beauvoir’s Th e Second Sex was translated into Czech in 1966, the fi rst translation of the book to be published in a socialist state. It was, like many other translations during this period, a compilation of selections and was edited by the phenomenologist Jan Patočka who, in his postscript, presented the work primarily within its philosophical context. Th e book, which was published in three editions within two years and reached a combined print run of almost one hundred thousand copies, reaped substantial acclaim both among the lay and the academic public. Th e main debate about the book unfolded in the magazines Literární noviny and Vlasta, in which the contributors aired their views on the book from various positions – as advocates of phenomenology, Marxism, and the women’s press. In order to make the main arguments of the Czech debate on Th e Second Sex accessible to our readers, we are publishing here Ashley Davies’s English translation of the contributions by Jan Patočka, Ivan Sviták, and Irena Dubská.
Constantin Dapontes., Rukopis je zmíněn v díle: Manuscrits grecs récemment découverts en République tchèque: supplément au Catalogue des manuscrits grecs de Tchécoslovaquie / Jean-Marie OLIVIER - Marie-Aude MONÉGIER DU SORBIER. Paris: CNRS, 2006. ISBN 2-271-06397-3, s. 21-43., and Latinský název, řecký text
Zpráva Petry Kolátorové je věnována mezinárodní muzikologické konferenci k výročí narození hudebního vědce a duchovního Dobroslava Orla, která se uskutečnila ve dnech 23. až 25. dubna v Ronově nad Doubravou., Petra Kolátorová., Rubrika: Konference, and Cizojazyčné resumé není.
The discovery of the ruby laser by Theodore Maiman in Malibu, CA on 16 May 1960, triggered extensive work around the world to make lasers. In the former Czechoslovakia, the first laser was successfully designed, built and operated at the Institute of Physics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague. Karel Pátek (5. 5. 1927 - 25. 11. 1967), a distinguished research scientist working at the Department of Luminescence of the Institute, registered 1.06-μm laser action in an optically-pumped Nd:glass rod on 9 April 1963. Pátek's group studied a variety of different Nd3+ doped glasses using a number of experimental and theoretical techniques and, together with Jaroslav Pantoflíček at Charles University in Prague, obtained some valuable results in this area., První plně funkční protyp laseru byl v našich zemích vyvinut a uveden do provozu v dubnu 1963 ve Fyzikálním ústavu ČSAV díky Karlu Pátkovi (5. 5. 1927 - 25. 11. 1967), významnému badateli v oboru luminiscence pevných látek. V této stati představíme zmíněný laser a seznámíme čtenáře s pozoruhodným životem a dílem jeho konstruktéra., Luděk Vyšín, Libor Juha., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Historik, spisovatel a publicista Petr Placák v knize razí kontroverzní tezi, že v Československu v letech 1945 až 1948 vládl fašistický režim, který navazoval na nacistický režim z let německé okupace (1939-1945) a předjímal komunistický totalitní režim po únoru 1948. Fašismus přitom pojímá jako širší kategorii, než je obvyklé, když jej definuje především aktivistickým politickým stylem. Autor situuje Placákův přístup na teoretickém poli bádání o nedemokratických režimech do blízkosti mladších, postklasických stoupenců teorie totalitarismu. Oceňuje spíše druhou část jeho práce, analyzující politické poměry v poválečném Československu do roku 1948. Podle Budila jde o legitimní a v mnoha směrech přesvědčivý obraz, který logicky vysvětluje příčiny zhroucení československé demokracie, a paralela mezi Československem v roce 1945 a Itálií v roce 1922 působí věrohodně. Jako méně přínosnou hodnotí první část knihy, obsahující rozsáhlý exkurz do teorie a historie totalitních, fašistických a autoritářských hnutí dvacátého století. Placákova skepse ke schopnosti společenských věd podat jejich adekvátní vysvětlení není dost zdůvodněná a jeho geneze fašismu by měla být zasazena do širších souvislostí., In his book Gottwaldovo Československo jako fašistický stát (Gottwald´s Czechoslovakia as a fascist state), the historian, novelist, and journalist Petr Placák (b. 1964) puts forth the controversial view that from the end of the Second World War, in May 1945, to the Communist take-over, in February 1948, Czechoslovakia was ruled by a fascist regime, which was a kind of continuation of the Nazi regime during the German occupation of Bohemian and Moravia from mid-March 1930 to early May 1945, aticipating the Communist totalitarian regime beginning with the takeover in late February 1948. Placák thus conceives of fascism as a broader category that is generally considered to be, and he defines the regime by its activist political style. The author locates Placák´s theoretical approach to researching undemocratic regimes close to later, "post-classic" adherents to the theory of totalitarianism. More than the first part of the book, it is the second part that the reviewer appreciates. This part, which analyses the political situation in Czechoslovakia before the February takeover, presents, according to the author of the article, a legitimate and in many respects convincing picture, logically explaining the causes for the collaps of Czechoslovak democracy; indeed, the parallels Placák draws between Czechoslovakia after May 1945 and Italy in 1922 are credible. By contrast, the first part of the book, consisting of a long excursus into the theory and history of the totalitarian, fascist, and authoritarian movements of the twentieth century, is, in his view, weaker: Placák´s scepticism about the ability of the social sciences to provide satisfactory explanations for these movements is not well founded, and his explanations for the genesis of fascism lack context., [autor recenze] Ivo Budil., První ze 3 příspěvků v oddíle Tři hlasy k jedné knize: Konfrontace - kontrasty - kontexty, and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Post-war Czechoslovakia needed foreign labour and the ineffective system of planned economy even increased the demand. Polish labour was preferred in a significant way by Czechoslovak companies during the whole period of the communist regime. Therefore, some companies from certain industrial sectors, such as glass and textiles, became almost dependent on Polish labour. Overwhelming majority of the workers were women. At the same time, governments and central planning bodies of both countries tried to control and sometimes even limit the foreign workforce both from economic and political reasons. After the arrival of Polish guest workers, rumours about their immoral behaviour, perceived as hunting for husbands in Czechoslovakia in order to stay in an economically better developed country, spread among their Czech neighbours. This stereotype is based on facts in some cases but do not necessarily evince a relationship between cause and effect. It is likely that negative opinion on the Polish workwomen was infl uenced by a stereotypical view of their country of origin (and of foreigners in general) and their gender. Other reasons for taking a job in the CSR, like a wish to escape from social control at home as well as to obtain scarce commodities, played an important role.
As soon as the socialist regimes failed in East-Central Europe, there disappeared from the public sphere the positive, a priori understanding of the offi cial, public discourse of the socialist era. What the author of this article calls “premisunderstanding” has become part of the new anti-communist consensus and ethos. Th is premisunderstanding is rooted not only in an ideological and moral antipathy toward the socialist regime but also in the fact that the regime’s discourse diff ers signifi cantly from other types of discourse, including, not least, liberal discourse. When this kind of premisunderstading is applied to texts originating in the socialist era or to texts or statements that represent this era, the author calls this “reading in the spirit of the post-Velvet-Revolutionary consensus.” In the more extreme forms of this premisunderstanding, the interpreter presumes that the historical actor is lying, is dishonest, or is mistaken. Although this tendency toward premisunderstanding has become weaker in the face of revisionist conceptions in historiography, and in the face of increasing nostalgia throughout society, this ideological barrier to understanding the recent past survives to this day in various forms of anti-communist rhetoric.
Název „Kámen“ označuje jednu z provokačních metod Státní bezpečnosti v letech 1948 až 1951, která spočívala v inscenování falešné státní hranice a úřadovny americké vojenské kontrarozvědky v blízkosti skutečné hranice Československa s Rakouskem a Spolkovou republikou Německo. Na tato místa byli s pomocí sítě provokatérů, ale i nezasvěcených skutečných organizátorů přechodů přiváděni lidé snažící se o útěk na Západ, aby byli poté vyslýcháni, zatčeni a odsouzeni. Zatímco mechanismus této provokace historici už dobře znají, o jednotlivých případech, místech i počtu postižených se ví stále málo. Autorka v této dosud nejrozsáhlejší práci na dané téma podle recenzenta přináší odpovědi na řadu otázek. Přistoupila k ní s dokonalou znalostí prostředí, konkrétního terénu, místních pamětníků, osobních vazeb a lokálních dobových reálií v oblasti Všerub na Domažlicku a také s osobním zaujetím, protože jedním z převaděčů v oblasti byl její dědeček. Objevila také výjimečný pramen, totiž vzpomínkový rukopis jednoho z aktérů, který emigroval do Kanady, díky němuž mohla podrobně rekonstruovat události na falešné česko-bavorské hranici po únoru 1948., Operation ‘Stone’ (‘Kámen’) was a method of provocation used by the Czechoslovak secret police (Státní bezpečnost - StB) from 1948 to 1951. It consisted in the secret police building fake border crossings and fake offices of American military counterintelligence near the real Czechoslovak frontiers with Austria and West Germany. People trying to escape to the West were taken to these places by a network of agents provocateurs, as well as by real organizers of crossings who were unaware of the trap. The would-be escapees were interrogated, arrested, and sentenced. How this operation worked has long been roughly known to historians, but the details, such as individual cases, places, and the number of those affected, are still unknown. According to the reviewer, the author of this work, which is so far the largest on the topic, has provided answers to a number of questions. She has approached the topic with a profound knowledge of the place, the actual terrain, local people who still remember actors and events, personal connections, and local colour of the period in the area of Všeruby near Domažlice, in the Pilsen region of west Bohemia. She also has a personal stake in the telling of the history because one of the locals who were genuinely helping people to cross the border was her grandfather. She also discovered an exceptional primary source - namely, a manuscript of the memoirs of one of the people involved, who eventually succeeded in escaping to Canada. Thanks to this manuscript, she has been able to reconstruct in detail the events at the fake Czechoslovak-Bavarian border after the Communist takeover in February 1948., [autor recenze] Prokop Tomek., and Obsahuje bibliografii