History of Czechoslovakia
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With the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of World War I, the independent country of Czechoslovakia[1] (Czech, Slovak: Československo) was formed as a result of the critical intervention of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, among others.
The Czechs and Slovaks were not at the same level of economic and technological development, but the freedom and opportunity found in an independent Czechoslovakia enabled them to make strides toward overcoming these inequalities.[citation needed] However, the gap between cultures was never fully bridged, and this discrepancy played a disruptive role throughout the seventy-five years of the union.[citation needed]
Political history
Historical background to 1918
Although the Czechs and Slovaks speak languages that are very similar, the political and social situation of the Czech and Slovak peoples was very different at the end of the 19th century. The reason was the differing attitude and position of their overlords – the Austrians in Bohemia and Moravia, and the Hungarians in Slovakia – within Austria-Hungary. Bohemia was the most industrialized part of Austria and Slovakia was the most industrialized part of Hungary – however at very different levels of development.[1]
Around the start of the 20th century, the idea of a "Czecho-Slovak" entity began to be advocated by some Czech and Slovak leaders after contacts between Czech and Slovak intellectuals intensified in the 1890s. Despite cultural differences, the Slovaks shared similar aspirations with the Czechs for independence from the Habsburg state.[2][3]
In 1917, during World War I, Tomáš Masaryk created the Czechoslovak National Council together with Edvard Beneš and Milan Štefánik (a Slovak astronomer and war hero). Masaryk in the United States (and in United Kingdom and Russia too),[4] Štefánik in France, and Beneš in France and Britain, worked tirelessly to secure Allied recognition. About 1.4 million Czech soldiers fought in World War I, 150,000 of which died.
More than 90,000 Czech and Slovak volunteers formed the
The First Republic (1918–1938)
The new state was characterized by problems with its ethnic diversity, the separate histories of the Czech and Slovak peoples and their greatly differing religious, cultural, and social traditions. The Germans and Hungarians of Czechoslovakia openly agitated against the territorial settlements. Nevertheless, the new republic saw the passage of a number of progressive reforms in areas such as housing, social security, and workers' rights.[9]
In 1929, the gross domestic product increased by 52% and industrial production by 41% as compared to 1913. In 1938, Czechoslovakia held 10th place in the world for industrial production.[10]
The Czechoslovak state was conceived as a representative democracy.[1] The constitution identified the "Czechoslovak nation" as the creator and principal constituent of the Czechoslovak state and established Czech and Slovak as official languages. The concept of the Czechoslovak nation was necessary in order to justify the establishment of Czechoslovakia before the world, otherwise the statistical majority of the Czechs as compared to Germans would be rather weak.
The operation of the new Czechoslovak government was distinguished by its political stability. Largely responsible for this were the well-organized political parties that emerged as the real centers of power. After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in central and eastern Europe.
The Second Republic (1938–1939)
Although Czechoslovakia was the only central European country to remain a parliamentary democracy during the entire period 1918 to 1938,[11] it faced problems with ethnic minorities such as Hungarians, Poles and Sudeten Germans, which made up the largest part of the country's German minority. The Germans constituted 3[12] to 3.5[13] million out of 14 million of the interwar population of Czechoslovakia[12] and were largely concentrated in the Bohemian and Moravian border regions known as the Sudetenland.
The rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1933, the German annexation (Anschluss) of Austria in 1938, the resulting revival of revisionism in Hungary, the agitation for autonomy in Slovakia and the appeasement policy of the Western powers of France and the United Kingdom left Czechoslovakia without effective allies.[14]
After the acquisition of Austria, Czechoslovakia became Hitler's next target.[13][14] The German nationalist minority in Czechoslovakia, led by Konrad Henlein[15] and fervently backed by Hitler, demanded a union of the predominantly German districts of the country with Germany. On 17 September 1938 Hitler ordered the establishment of Sudetendeutsches Freikorps, a paramilitary organization that took over the structure of Ordnersgruppe, an organization of ethnic-Germans in Czechoslovakia that had been dissolved by the Czechoslovak authorities the previous day due to its implication in terrorist activities. The organization was sheltered, trained and equipped by German authorities and conducting cross border terrorist operations into Czechoslovak territory. Relying on the Convention for the Definition of Aggression, Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš[16] and the government-in-exile[17] later regarded 17 September 1938 as the beginning of the undeclared German-Czechoslovak war. This understanding has been assumed also by the contemporary Czech Constitutional court.[18]
Hitler extorted the cession of the Bohemian, Moravian and Czech Silesian borderlands via the Munich Agreement on 29 September 1938 signed by Germany, Italy, France, and Britain.[15] The Czech population in the annexed lands was forcibly expelled.[19]
Finding itself abandoned by the Western powers, the Czechoslovak government agreed to abide by the agreement. Beneš resigned as president on 5 October 1938, fled to London and was succeeded by Emil Hácha. In early November 1938, under the First Vienna Award, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede the mainly Hungarian-populated southern Slovakia (one third of Slovakia) to Hungary. After an ultimatum on 30 September (but without consulting with any other countries), Poland obtained the disputed the Trans-Olza region as a territorial cession shortly after the Munich Agreement, on 2 October. The ultimatum was only sent after Czech request.[citation needed]
The Czechs in the greatly weakened Czechoslovak Republic were forced to grant major concessions to the non-Czech residents in the country. The executive committee of the
On 14 March 1939, the
Second World War
Beneš and other Czechoslovak exiles in London organized a
Czechoslovak military units fought alongside Allied forces. In December 1943, Beneš's government concluded a treaty with the Soviet Union. Beneš worked to bring Czechoslovak communist exiles in Britain into active cooperation with his government, offering far-reaching concessions, including nationalization of heavy industry and the creation of local people's committees at the war's end (which indeed occurred). In March 1945, he gave key cabinet positions to Czechoslovak communist exiles in Moscow.[citation needed]
The assassination of Reichsprotector
On 8 May 1944, Edvard Beneš signed an agreement with Soviet leaders stipulating that former Czechoslovak territory liberated by Soviet armies would be placed under Czechoslovak civilian control.
From 21 September 1944, Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Soviet troops of the
The main brutality suffered in the lands of the pre-war Czechoslovakia came as an immediate result of the German occupation in the Protectorate, the widespread persecution of Jews, and, after the Slovak National Uprising in August 1944, repression in Slovakia. In spite of the oppressiveness of the government of the German Protectorate, Czechoslovakia did not suffer the degree of population loss that was witnessed during World War II in countries such as Poland and the Soviet Union, and it avoided systematic destruction of its infrastructure. Bratislava was taken from the Germans on 4 April 1945, and Prague on 9 May 1945 by Soviet troops. Both Soviet and Allied troops were withdrawn in the same year.[26]
A
The Third Republic (1945–1948) and the Communist takeover (1948)
The Third Republic came into being in April 1945. Its government, installed at
Following Nazi Germany's surrender, some 2.9 million
The democratic elements, led by President Edvard Beneš, hoped the Soviet Union would allow Czechoslovakia the freedom to choose its own form of government and aspired to a Czechoslovakia that would act as a bridge between East and West. Communists secured strong representation in the popularly elected National Committees, the new organs of local administration. In the May 1946 election, the KSČ won most of the popular vote in the Czech part of the bi-ethnic country (40.17%), and the more or less anti-Communist Democratic Party won in Slovakia (62%).
In sum, however, the KSČ only won a plurality of 38 percent of the vote at countrywide level. Edvard Beneš continued as president of the republic, whereas the Communist leader Klement Gottwald became prime minister. Most importantly, although the communists held only a minority of portfolios, they were able to gain control over most of the key ministries (Ministry of the Interior, etc.)
Although the communist-led government initially intended to participate in the
On 10 March 1948, the moderate foreign minister of the government, Jan Masaryk, was found dead in suspicious circumstances that have still not been definitively proved to constitute either suicide or political assassination.
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1948–1989)
In February 1948, the Communists took power in the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, and Edvard Beneš inaugurated a new cabinet led by Klement Gottwald. Czechoslovakia was declared a "
The economy was committed to comprehensive
Slovak autonomy was constrained; the
.Beneš refused to sign the Communist Constitution of 1948 (the Ninth-of-May Constitution) and resigned from the presidency; he was succeeded by Klement Gottwald. Gottwald died in March 1953. He was succeeded by Antonín Zápotocký as president and by Antonín Novotný as head of the KSČ.
In June 1953, thousands of workers in Plzeň went on strike to demonstrate against a currency reform that was considered a move to solidify Soviet socialism in Czechoslovakia.[29] The demonstrations ended without significant bloodshed, disappointing American Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, who wished for a pretext to help the Czechoslovak people resist the Soviets.[30] For more than a decade thereafter, the Czechoslovak communist political structure was characterized by the orthodoxy of the leadership of party chief Antonín Novotný, who became president in 1957 when Zápotocký died.
In the 1950s, the
The 1960 Constitution declared the victory of socialism and proclaimed the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR).
The Prague Spring (1968)
Dubček carried the reform movement a step further in the direction of liberalism. After Novotný's fall, censorship was lifted. The press, radio, and television were mobilized for reformist propaganda purposes. The movement to democratize socialism in Czechoslovakia, formerly confined largely to the party intelligentsia, acquired a new, popular dynamism in the spring of 1968 (the "
Party conservatives urged the implementation of repressive measures, but Dubček counseled moderation and re-emphasized KSČ leadership. In addition, the Dubček leadership called for politico-military changes in the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact and
A program adopted in April 1968 set guidelines for a modern, humanistic socialist democracy that would guarantee, among other things, freedom of religion, press, assembly, speech, and travel, a program that, in Dubček's words, would give socialism "a human face." After 20 years of little public participation, the population gradually started to take interest in the government, and Dubček became a truly popular national figure.
The internal reforms and foreign policy statements of the Dubček leadership created great concern among some other Warsaw Pact governments. As a result, the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries (except for
The Czechoslovak Government declared that the Warsaw Pact troops had not been invited into the country and that their invasion was a violation of socialist principles, international law, and the
The principal Czechoslovak reformers were forcibly and secretly taken to the Soviet Union, where they signed a treaty that provided for the "temporary stationing" of an unspecified number of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. Dubček was removed as party First Secretary on 17 April 1969, and replaced by another Slovak, Gustáv Husák. Later, Dubček and many of his allies within the party were stripped of their party positions in a purge that lasted until 1971 and reduced party membership by almost one-third.
On 19 January 1969, the student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union. His death shocked many observers throughout the world.
Aftermath
The Slovak part of Czechoslovakia made major gains in industrial production in the 1960s and 1970s. By the 1970s, its industrial production was near parity with that of the
Dubcek remained in office only until April 1969. Gustáv Husák (a centrist, and one of the Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" imprisoned by his own KSČ in the 1950s) was named first secretary (title changed to general secretary in 1971). A program of "Normalization" – the restoration of continuity with the prereform period—was initiated. Normalization entailed thoroughgoing political repression and the return to ideological conformity. A new purge cleansed the Czechoslovak leadership of all reformist elements.
Anti-Soviet demonstrations in August 1969 ushered in a period of harsh repression. The 1970s and 1980s became known as the period of "normalization," in which the apologists for the 1968 Soviet invasion prevented, as best they could, any opposition to their conservative regime. Political, social, and economic life stagnated. The population, cowed by the "normalization," was quiet. The only point required during the
In 1975, Gustáv Husák added the position of president to his post as party chief. The Husák regime required conformity and obedience in all aspects of life. Husák also tried to obtain acquiescence to his rule by providing an improved standard of living. He returned Czechoslovakia to an orthodox command economy with a heavy emphasis on
For a while the policy seemed successful; the 1980s, however, were more or less a period of economic stagnation. Another feature of Husák's rule was a continued dependence on the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, approximately 50 percent of Czechoslovakia's foreign trade was with the Soviet Union, and almost 80 percent was with communist countries.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, the regime was challenged by individuals and organized groups aspiring to independent thinking and activity. The first organized opposition emerged under the umbrella of Charter 77. On 6 January 1977, a manifesto called Charter 77 appeared in West German newspapers. The original manifesto reportedly was signed by 243 persons; among them were artists, former public officials, and other prominent figures.
The Charter had over 800 signatures by the end of 1977, including workers and youth. It criticized the government for failing to implement human rights provisions of documents it had signed, including the state's own constitution; international covenants on political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights; and the Final Act of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Although not organized in any real sense, the signatories of Charter 77 constituted a citizens' initiative aimed at inducing the Czechoslovak Government to observe formal obligations to respect the human rights of its citizens.
Signatories were arrested and interrogated; dismissal from employment often followed. Because religion offered possibilities for thought and activities independent of the state, it too was severely restricted and controlled. Clergymen were required to be licensed. Unlike in Poland, dissent and independent activity were limited in Czechoslovakia to a fairly small segment of the population. Many Czechs and Slovaks emigrated to the West.
The final years of the Communist era
Although, in March 1987, Husák nominally committed Czechoslovakia to follow the program of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, it did not happen much in reality. On 17 December 1987, Husák, who was one month away from his seventy-fifth birthday, had resigned as head of the KSČ. He retained, however, his post of president of Czechoslovakia and his full membership on the Presidium of the KSČ. Miloš Jakeš, who replaced Husák as first secretary of the KSČ, did not change anything. The slow pace of the Czechoslovak reform movement was an irritant to the Soviet leadership.
The first anti-Communist demonstration took place on 25 March 1988 in Bratislava (the Candle demonstration in Bratislava). It was an unauthorized peaceful gathering of some 2,000 (other sources 10,000) Roman Catholics. Demonstrations also occurred on 21 August 1988 (the anniversary of the Soviet intervention in 1968) in Prague, on 28 October 1988 (establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918) in Prague, Bratislava and some other towns, in January 1989 (death of Jan Palach on 16 January 1969), on 21 August 1989 (see above) and on 28 October 1989 (see above).
Velvet Revolution (1989)
The
On 17 November 1989, the communist police violently broke up a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration,[32] brutally beating many student participants. In the following days, Charter 77 and other groups united to become the Civic Forum, an umbrella group championing bureaucratic reform and civil liberties. Its leader was the dissident playwright Václav Havel. Intentionally eschewing the label "party", a word given a negative connotation during the previous regime, Civic Forum quickly gained the support of millions of Czechs, as did its Slovak counterpart, Public Against Violence.
Faced with an overwhelming popular repudiation, the Communist Party all but collapsed. Its leaders, Husák and party chief Miloš Jakeš, resigned in December 1989, and Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia on 29 December. The astonishing quickness of these events was in part due to the unpopularity of the communist regime and changes in the policies of its Soviet guarantor as well as to the rapid, effective organization of these public initiatives into a viable opposition.
Democratic Czechoslovakia (1989–1992)
A coalition government, in which the Communist Party had a minority of ministerial positions, was formed in December 1989. The first free elections in Czechoslovakia since 1946 took place in June 1990 without incident and with more than 95% of the population voting. As anticipated, Civic Forum and Public Against Violence won landslide victories in their respective republics and gained a comfortable majority in the federal parliament. The parliament undertook substantial steps toward securing the democratic evolution of Czechoslovakia. It successfully moved toward fair local elections in November 1990, ensuring fundamental change at the county and town level.
Civic Forum found, however, that although it had successfully completed its primary objective—the overthrow of the communist regime—it was ineffectual as a governing party. The demise of Civic Forum was viewed by most as necessary and inevitable.
By the end of 1990, unofficial parliamentary "clubs" had evolved with distinct political agendas. Most influential was the Civic Democratic Party, headed by Václav Klaus. Other notable parties that came into being after the split were the Czech Social Democratic Party, Civic Movement, and Civic Democratic Alliance.
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
By 1992, Slovak calls for greater autonomy effectively blocked the daily functioning of the federal government. In the election of June 1992, Klaus's Civic Democratic Party won handily in the Czech lands on a platform of economic reform. Vladimír Mečiar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia emerged as the leading party in Slovakia, basing its appeal on fairness to Slovak demands for autonomy. Federalists, like Havel, were unable to contain the trend toward the split. In July 1992, President Havel resigned. In the latter half of 1992, Klaus and Mečiar hammered out an agreement that the two republics would go their separate ways by the end of the year.
Members of Czechoslovakia's parliament (the Federal Assembly), divided along national lines, barely cooperated enough to pass the law officially separating the two nations in late 1992. On 1 January 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were simultaneously and peacefully established as independent states.
Relationships between the two states, despite occasional disputes about the division of federal property and the governing of the border, have been peaceful. Both states attained immediate recognition from the US and their European neighbors.
Economic history
At the time of the
Heavy industry received major economic support during the 1950s. Although the labor force was traditionally skilled and efficient, inadequate incentives for labor and management contributed to high labor turnover, low productivity, and poor product quality. Economic failures reached a critical stage in the 1960s, after which various reform measures were sought with no satisfactory results.[citation needed]
Hope for wide-ranging economic reform came with Alexander Dubcek's rise in January 1968. Despite renewed efforts, however, Czechoslovakia could not come to grips with inflationary forces, much less begin the immense task of correcting the economy's basic problems. [citation needed]
The economy saw growth during the 1970s but then stagnated between 1978 and 1982.[citation needed] Attempts at revitalizing it in the 1980s with management and worker incentive programs were largely unsuccessful. The economy grew after 1982, achieving an annual average output growth of more than 3% between 1983 and 1985.[citation needed] Imports from the West were curtailed, exports boosted, and hard currency debt reduced substantially. New investment was made in the electronic, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors, which were industry leaders in eastern Europe in the mid-1980s.
See also
From creation to dissolution – overview
N/A
References
- ^ ISBN 0-7230-0348-3p. 53
- ^ Judit Hamberger, "The Debate over Slovak Historiography with Respect to Czechoslovakia (1990s)," Studia Historica Slovenica 2004 4(1): 165–191
- ^ Igor Lukes, "Strangers in One House: Czechs and Slovaks (1918–1992)," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism 2000 27(1-2): 33–43
- ^ ISBN 978-80-87173-47-3.
- ^ Radio Praha – zprávy (in Czech)
- ^ Stuart Hughes Contemporary Europe: a History Prentice-Hall, 1961 p. 108
- ISBN 0-7139-9708-7p. 161
- ^ Stuart Hughes Contemporary Europe: a History Prentice-Hall, 1961, p. 129
- ISBN 9780520927018.
- ^ Ekonomika ČSSR v letech padesátých a šedesátých
- ISBN 0-14-014038-7p. 60
- ^ ISBN 0-340-51595-3p. 25
- ^ ISBN 0-333-39258-2p. 1
- ^ ISBN 0-330-23770-5p. 6
- ^ ISBN 0-7146-8056-7
- ^ President Beneš' declaration made on 16 December 1941.
- ^ Note of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile dated 22 February 1944.
- ^ Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic (1997), Ruling No. II. ÚS 307/97 (in Czech), Brno
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Stran interpretace "kdy země vede válku", obsažené v čl. I Úmluvy o naturalizaci mezi Československem a Spojenými státy, publikované pod č. 169/1929 Sb. za účelem zjištění, zda je splněna podmínka státního občanství dle restitučních předpisů, Ústavní soud vychází z již v roce 1933 vypracované definice agrese Společnosti národů, která byla převzata do londýnské Úmluvy o agresi (CONVENITION DE DEFINITION DE L'AGRESSION), uzavřené dne 4. 7. 1933 Československem, dle které není třeba válku vyhlašovat (čl. II bod 2) a dle které je třeba za útočníka považovat ten stát, který první poskytne podporu ozbrojeným tlupám, jež se utvoří na jeho území a jež vpadnou na území druhého státu (čl. II bod 5). V souladu s nótou londýnské vlády ze dne 22. 2. 1944, navazující na prohlášení prezidenta republiky ze dne 16. 12. 1941 dle § 64 odst. 1 bod 3 tehdejší Ústavy, a v souladu s citovaným čl. II bod 5 má Ústavní soud za to, že dnem, kdy nastal stav války, a to s Německem, je den 17. 9. 1938, neboť tento den na pokyn Hitlera došlo k utvoření "Sudetoněmeckého svobodného sboru" (Freikorps) z uprchnuvších vůdců Henleinovy strany a několik málo hodin poté už tito vpadli na československé území ozbrojeni německými zbraněmi. - ISBN 0-333-39258-2p. 2
- ISBN 0-330-23770-5p. 10
- ISBN 0-330-23770-5p. 10–11
- ISBN 978-0-330-35212-3p. 179
- ^ ISBN 0-7230-0348-3p. 55
- ISBN 0-340-51595-3p. 135
- ISBN 0-330-70001-4p. 1178–1181
- ^ ISBN 0-7230-0348-3p. 56
- ISBN 978-0-330-35212-3p. 69
- ISBN 0-297-79804-9p. 96>
- ^ Christian F. Ostermann, ed., Uprising in East Germany, 1953 (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2001), pp. 113-32.
- ^ Conversation dated 7-21-56 and cited in David M. Barrett, The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas) p. 251.
- ^ Sentence Archived 28 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine (original)
- ISBN 0-14-014394-7p. 22
Further reading
Surveys
- Bruegel, J. W. Czechoslovakia before Munich (1973).
- Cabada, Ladislav, and Sarka Waisova, Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in World Politics (Lexington Books; 2012), foreign policy 1918 to 2010
- Felak, James Ramon. At the price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1929–1938 (U of Pittsburgh Press, 1995).
- Korbel, Josef. Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia: The Meaning of its History (1977)
- Mamatey, V. S., and R. Luža, eds. A History of the Czechoslovak Republic 1918-48 (1973)
- Skilling, H. ed. Czechoslovakia, 1918-88. Seventy Years from Independence (1991)
- Lukes, Igor. 'Czechoslovakia between Stalin and Hitler', Oxford University Press 1996, ISBN 0-19-510267-3
- Olivová, V. The Doomed Democracy: Czechoslovakia in a Disrupted Europe 1914-38 (1972)
- Orzoff, Andrea. Battle for the Castle: The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe 1914-1948 (Oxford University Press, 2009); online review
- Preclík, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie [Masaryk and legions], published by Paris Karviná in association with Masaryk Democratic Movement, Prague. 2019, ISBN 978-80-87173-47-3, pp. 17–25, 33–45, 70–96, 100–140, 159–184, 187–199
- Steiner, Eugen. The Slovak Dilemma (1973)
- Thomson, S. Harrison. Czechoslovakia in European history (Routledge, 2019).
Pre 1918
- Vyšný, Paul. Neo-Slavism and the Czechs 1898-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 1977).
1939–1989
- Bryant, Chad. 'Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism', Harvard University Press 2007, ISBN 0-674-02451-6
- Douglas, R. M.: Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. Yale University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0300166606.
- Wolchik, Sharon L. Czechoslovakia in transition: politics, economics and society (Burns & Oates, 1991).
After 1989
- Ash, Timothy Garton. We the People by Granta Books, 1990 ISBN 0-14-014023-9,
- Echikson, William. Lighting the Night: Revolution in Eastern Europe Pan Books, 1990 ISBN 0-330-31825-X
- Simpson, John. Despatches from the Barricades Hutchinson, 1990 ISBN 0-09-174582-9
- Heimann, Mary. Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed 2009 ISBN 0-300-14147-5
- Skilling Gordon. 'Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution', Princeton University Press 1976, ISBN 0-691-05234-4
- Tauchen, Jaromír – Schelle, Karel etc. The Process of Democratization of Law in the Czech Republic (1989–2009). Rincon (USA), The American Institute for Central European Legal Studies 2009. 204 pp. (ISBN 978-0-615-31580-5)
Economic, social and cultural studies
- Abrams, Bradley F. The struggle for the soul of the nation: Czech culture and the rise of communism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
- Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. Origins of the Czech National Renascence (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994).
- Beck, Dennis C. "Setting the Stage for Revolution: The Efficacy of Czech Theatre, 1975–1989." Theatre Survey 44.2 (2003): 199–219.
- Beck, Dennis C. "Dissident patriotism: subverting the State by excavating the nation in "normalized" Czechoslovakia." Toronto Slavic Quarterly 9: 200+ online.
- Cohen, Gary B. "Cultural crossings in Prague, 1900: scenes from late Imperial Austria." Austrian History Yearbook 45 (2014): 1-30.
- Filipova, Marta. "The construction of national identity in the historiography of Czech art." (PhD diss., University of Glasgow, 2009).
- Katz, Derek. Janáček beyond the Borders (U of Rochester Press, 2009).
- Kohák, Erazim. Hearth and Horizon: Cultural Identity and Global Humanity in Czech Philosophy (Filosofia 2008, ISBN 978-80-7007-285-1)
- McFadden, Becka. "Theft, Contestation and Affirmation in Contemporary Czech Theatre: Krepsko's Ukradené ovace (The Stolen Ovation)." Performance Research 19.2 (2014): 126–134.
- McShane, Roger Burnham, and Stanley Buchholz Kimball. Czech nationalism: a study of the national theatre movement, 1845-83 (U of Illinois Press, 1964).
- Nolte, Claire. The Sokol in the Czech Lands to 1914: training for the nation (Springer, 2002).
- Paces, Cynthia Jean. "Religious images and national symbols in the creation of Czech identity, 1890-1938" (PhD thesis . Columbia University, 1998).
- Seton-Watson, Robert William. Racial problems in Hungary (1908) full text online
- Teichová, Alice. The Czechoslovak Economy 1918-1980 (1988)
- Wingfield, Nancy M. Flag Wars & Stone Saints: How the Bohemian Lands Became Czech (2007), 353pp.