Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i.

O titulu

Kontakt

Redakční rada

Texty

Prodej, distribuce, objednávka

2003:10 The Reconstruction of Communist Rule at the End of the 1980s

Jiří Kabele a kol.

This volume summarises the descriptive-survey studies that emerged out of the research work conducted through a study of archive documents, interviews and memoirs. The studies are intended to serve as the foundation for further research on social hierarchies in modern age societies (grant project GA CR 403/01/1564 “The Legacy of Communist Rule”). The individual contributions describe the management of public affairs at the end of the 1980s in various areas within the communist government hierarchy. Jiří Kabele presents the normative framework of the entire hierarchic system and formal descriptions of the highest state bodies in the ČSSR. Martin Hájek describes rule at the level of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ) and Jan Maršálek rounds off that study with another, shorter one. Jiří Kabele and Petr Kohútek describe the management of security forces. Tomáš Holeček describes rule at the level of the regional divisions, while Zdenka Vajdová and Jiří Kabele offer the same kind of descriptions at the level of the district subdivisions. The volume also provides information on how the team technically co-ordinated the gathering and processing of data, and includes an appendix with organograms.

Summary

The goal of this volume, “The Reconstruction of Communist Rule at the End of the 1980s”, is to deliver a relatively comprehensive summary of information characterising not only the key decision-making places in the communist government in this country in the second half of the 1980s but also the method whereby decisions were made. The study observes the hierarchic ordering of these particular points. It also devotes focused attention to the Communist Party, state administration, and the security forces in their reciprocal relationships. The research is based on a study of archive documents, memoirs, and interviews.
The common denominator of all the studies is a standard description, which encompasses the historical context and the normative foundation of the particular body or unit in question. Each study goes on to provide a description of the structure, area of activity, and vertical and horizontal relationships of the particular body or unit. In those cases where it is possible and useful, the declared principles of government are presented. It characterises the time of decision-making, its content (planning and the inspection of the fulfilment of duties, etc.) and its procedures. In some cases attention is also devoted to selected forms of conduct. However, the authors were not in all cases able to fulfil the task at hand, as the materials they had to work with generally had not been previously processed by the archives, or consisted of documents even considerably less accessible.
The authors attempted as much as possible to avoid making interpretations, so that the studies could serve as a source of information equally well for both the authors themselves and for other scientists. As a follow up to the research presented in this study there will be another study that will be devoted to interpretations of the empirical findings. Departing from the purely descriptive orientation indicated here somewhat is the first study, “the Normative Framework of the Execution of Power in Real Socialism”, in which greater emphasis is placed on analysis and thus also on a synthetic interpretation.
The normative framework of the execution of power in real socialism is described in a study of the same name (Jiří Kabele) at four hierarchically ranked levels. The first level is formed by the Constructivist Complex of statutes, consisting of the international “bloc” treaties, the statutes of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, the Constitutional Declaration, the first chapter of the Constitution – the Social Order, and the post-1968 “Lessons to be Drawn from the Crisis in the Party and in Society”. At the next level, an analysis is made of the remaining areas of the constitution describing the division of state power. This is followed by a look at the socialist legal codes with the addition of laws relating to the act of association, service classifications, and economic arbitration. Finally, attention is turned to the legal regulations that govern the execution of control, the protection of state secrets, and the redress of complaint.
The second study (Jiří Kabele) presents formal descriptions of the highest state organs of the ČSSR and the ČSR – their governments, parliamentary committees, state defence councils, public prosecution offices, and highest courts – dating from the second half of the 1980s. The work in this part is based primarily on an analysis of legal documents.
The third study provides a description of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (ÚV KSČ) – the individual organs comprising it, and their inter-relations and relations to non-party organisations during the period at the end of the 1980s. The two key decision-making administrative bodies were the Presidium and the Secretariat, but a large share of the more minor decisions took place at the departmental level also. The Central Committee controlled the central institutions of the state and society by means of Party organisations within them, but also through the presence of key state dignitaries within the Presidium. The examination of the central communist power in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) is rounded out with a final and brief probe (Jan Maršálek) describing the organisation of the work of the Presidium and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.
The fifth study – “Security”, as a component of the armed forces (Jiří Kabele and Petr Kohútek) – first of all provides a characterisation of the socialist armed forces and shows what kind of position the departments of the federal and the Czech ministries of interior and the National Security Corps (SNB) occupied within the forces. The study then gradually turns its focus towards the formations and structures of decision-making within the federal Ministry of Interior, the Czech Ministry of Interior, the East-Moravian Regional Administration of the SNB and its relations to the District Administration of the SNB.
Rule at the regional level and the relationships between the East-Moravian Regional Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KV KSČ) and the local Regional National Committee are described in the sixth study (Tomáš Holeček). In addition to a description of the individual power configurations it contains examples of decision-making that are intended to demonstrate the extent and material content of their activities. On the basis of two examples of selected proceedings with people in positions lower within the hierarchy, evidence is provided of the dominant role of the leadership of the KV KSČ throughout the entire region.
Rule at the district level is the subject of the next study (Zdenka Vajdová), which includes a formal description of the communist and the constitutional hierarchy of rule in the Slavonice district of the West-Moravian region and the relations between them. It attempts to determine the connection at the end of the 1980s between the activities of the district organs of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ) and of the District National Committee (ONV) on the one hand and the activities of the highest organs and the overall situation in society at the time on the other.
The eighth study – Communist Rule in Filipov and in the Dubenec District (Jiří Kabele) –describes the execution of power in the town of Filipov (Municipal National Committee of the KSČ) in its relations to the district centres of power (District National Committee, District Committee of the KSČ and the District Defence Council).
The volume concludes with information on the technical and methodological issues of the collection, outlining the way the data was organised, shared and processed within the framework of a larger team (Petr Kohútek). The description of the planning and the actual implementation of data collection and of the formation of a shared archive as a space for sharing and assessing data reveals among other things how much any results depend on the particular path that is chosen. Special emphasis is put on the preparatory phase of the research and the use of digitalised data.

Key words
Social hierarchy, power, real socialism, headquarters, region, district, Communist Party, state administration, security