No. I.-II.
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Contents
A Never-ending Story with a Sudden Ending:
The Cold War, 1945–89
Vít Smetana
The Cold War, 1945–89, a Never-ending Story with a Sudden Ending:
Many Impulses from a Prague Conference on the Cold War Contents
Articles
David Holloway
Nuclear Weapons and the Cold War
Csaba Békés
Cold War, Détente and the Soviet Bloc:
The Evolution of Intra-bloc Foreign Policy Coordination, 1953–1975
Alex Pravda
A Policy of Optimism and Caution
Moscow and Eastern Europe 1988–1989
Thomas Blanton
Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and the Revolutions of 1989:
American Myths versus the Primary Sources
Svetlana Savranskaya
The Fall of the Wall, Eastern Europe, and Gorbachev’s Vision of Europe after the Cold War
Mark Kramer
Why Did the Cold War Last So Long?
Discussion
Jan Randák
Memory and (Contemporary) History:
Thoughts on Three Volumes of the Periodical Paměť a dějiny and More
Reviews
Robert Kvaček
Some Belated Thoughts on Brügel’s Czechs and Germans
Daniel Baránek
Deportations to Nisko: Practice for the Shoah
Jaroslav Najbert
Nazi Crimes in East Bohemia
David Kovařík
The Legacy of the Cold War (and More) on an Edge of Austria and the Bohemian Lands
Martin Franc
A Successful Voyage to Planet Eden:
Sci-Fi, Outer Space, and Utopia in Communist Czechoslovakia
Petr Luňák
Atomic and Biological Fever:
The Arms Race in Recent American Publications
Jaroslav Bouček
The Annales School in Collaboration between French and Polish Historians
Chronicle
Pavla Šimková
Voices of Freedom or Western Provocation?
A Conference in Munich to Mark the Sixtieth Anniversary of Radio Free Europe
David Hubený – Miroslav Šepták
A Conference to Mark the 150th Anniversary of Modern Parliamentary Government in Central Europe
Antonie Doležalová
In Search of the Road to Reconciliation:
An International Historical Conference in Beijing
Johana Chylíková
Public Opinion Research in Socialist Czechoslovakia on the Web
Milan Hauner
Psychohistory according to Rudolph Binion
Annotations
Summaries
A Never-ending Story with a Sudden Ending:
The Cold War, 1945–89
The Cold War, 1945–89, a Never-ending Story with a Sudden Ending:
Many Impulses from a Prague Conference on the Cold War
Vít Smetana
In this introductory article, the author returns to the history conference ‘Dropping, Maintaining and Breaking the Iron Curtain: The Cold War and East-Central Europe Twenty Years Later’, which took place in the Straka Academy and in the Lichtenstein Palace, Prague, from 19 to 21 November 2009. He provides a detailed report on the conference proceedings and also acquaints the reader with the contents of this double-issue of Soudobé dějiny, the main section of which comprises six articles that were developed from the most interesting papers given at the Prague conference. The conference was organized to mark the twentieth anniversary of the collapse of the Communist régimes in Central and Eastern Europe, by the Institute of Contemporary History, at the Academy of Sciences, Prague, together with the Office of the Czech Government and the Institute of International Studies, at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague. About thirty historians from eleven countries of the formerly divided Europe and the United States took part in this meeting of top historians of the Cold War to discuss the records that are gradually being made accessible to scholars and the public and also the changing interpretations of this history. During the conference a former premier of the Czech Republic, Jan Fischer, awarded seven historians – Vojtěch Mastný, Thomas Blanton, Alex Pravda, Mark Kramer, Vilém Prečan, William Taubman, and, in memoriam, Saki Dockrill – the Karel Kramář Memorial Medal for the important contributions they have made to our knowledge of modern Czech history.
In the introductory panel discussion, the historians, together with some of the actors in the events, discussed the forming of new world order, but mainly in Europe, in the early years after the end of the Cold War. The key processes here were the reunification of Germany, the dismantling of the military-political institutions of the Eastern bloc, and the eastward expansion of Western integrating institutions – NATO and the EU. The dynamically forming reality, at the same time, put an end to conceptions developed by some leading politicians (François Mitterrand’s idea of a European confederation and Mikhail Gorbachev’s ‘common European home’). In a fruitful exchange of views it was repeated several times that the form of the European order which had developed after the Cold War was not something obvious and the eastward expansion of NATO was not something that any of the actors had expected. In the subsequent panels, the participants discussed the matter of whether competing for Central Europe was the main cause of the Cold War, as well as considering the role of strategic planning and nuclear weapons and the counter-efforts to maintain or to overturn the Cold War status quo. The highpoint of the conference, according to this author, was the panel discussions devoted to Germany – the division of the country, the existence of two German states side by side, and then reunification – and particularly the end of the Cold War. The conference closed with more general reflections on Communism and the Cold War. In the last part of his article, the author considers some terminological questions in connection with the articles published in this issue of Soudobé dějiny.
Articles
Nuclear Weapons and the Cold War
David Holloway
The atomic bomb did not prevent the Iron Curtain from descending over Europe. And when it was in place, nuclear weapons strengthened rather than weakened it. They became an integral part of the balance of military power in Europe, reinforcing the division of the continent. Nor, finally, did nuclear weapons bring the Cold War to an end. Reduction of the nuclear danger was a crucial factor in ending the Cold War, making it possible to bring the Cold War to a peaceful end. But it was not nuclear weapons that caused the end of the Cold War.
What, then, was the role of nuclear weapons in the Cold War in Europe? This article suggests that nuclear weapons were important in several different ways. First, during the years of the American monopoly they served as a guarantee of Western security. They made it easier for the United States to commit itself to the defence of Western Europe. Second, nuclear weapons became an integral part of the balance of military power in Europe. The presence of thousands of such weapons on the continent helped to deter each side from using military force to seek advantage at the expense of the other. Third, political leaders on both sides understood that a nuclear war in Europe would be so destructive as to be incapable of serving any conceivable political purpose, and they knew that the leaders on the other side understood that too. That served as a crucial restraint. But it did not prevent strenuous tests of political will. Fourth, each side drew up plans for using nuclear weapons in war, but the evolution of military strategy on both sides shows a movement away from reliance on nuclear weapons, though planning for nuclear war was never abandoned. Fifth, the dismantling of the Cold War security system in Europe and the construction of a new system was an extremely important task in a period when rapid transformations were taking place both within states and in the balance of power on the continent. It was done in a way that gives nuclear weapons a much smaller role in international security. In that respect, as in so many others, the post-Cold War Europe is far superior to the order that prevailed during the Cold War.
Cold War, Détente and the Soviet Bloc:
The Evolution of Intra-bloc Foreign Policy Coordination, 1953–1975
Csaba Békés
The death of Joseph Stalin in March 1953 was a major turning point in the future development of the Soviet bloc. It was followed by a bitter struggle for power within the Soviet Union, which had important impacts both for the relationship between Moscow and the West and for Kremlin’s policy toward Soviet ‘allies’ in East-Central Europe. In his article, Csaba Békés analyzes how the relations inside the Soviet bloc have changed following Stalin’s death and how the position of East-Central European states has shifted over time.
The author asserts that détente, which is often associated with the late 1960s and 1970s, has in fact started already in 1953 and has influenced the bipolar world, to a varying degree, ever since. Part of this development was the tacit acknowledgment of spheres of influence of Moscow and Washington by both superpowers and their unwillingness to react to events outside of their own spheres (demonstrated, for example, by the American reaction to the Hungarian revolution in 1956 or the Prague Spring in 1968). Another important aspect of the transforming international environment after 1953, which, as Békés points out, was not readily apparent to the contemporary witnesses, was the establishment of foreign-policy-coordination mechanisms within the Soviet bloc.
The author argues convincingly that already during Khrushchev’s and especially during Brezhnev’s leadership, the countries of East-Central Europe began to play a more active role in foreign policy of the bloc, in some cases after being encouraged to do so by the Soviet Union. He illustrates this shift by the involvement of some of these countries in such issues as the mediation during the Vietnam War, or the negotiation process leading to the Helsinki Conference and the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975. Despite the fact that the Soviet Union remained the ultimate ‘decider’, Moscow began to take into account the priorities of the Warsaw Pact states and began to consult her foreign policy regularly with the governments in East-Central Europe.
A Policy of Optimism and Caution:
Moscow and Eastern Europe 1988–1989
Alex Pravda
The article by Alex Pravda deals with the foreign policy of Kremlin toward the countries of East-Central Europe under Mikhail Gorbachev, primarily in the years 1988 and 1989. The author focuses on presenting the major concerns of the Soviet leadership in this particular time period, on identifying and analyzing the key trends shaping the approach of Moscow to its ‘allies’, and on explaining the practical impacts that Gorbachev’s policies had in the region.
In the first part of the article, Pravda points out some of the main differences between the position and policy framework of Gorbachev’s leadership in comparison with that of its predecessors. He mentions, for example, the deteriorating economy of the Soviet Union and the apparent need to stop subsidizing the East-Central European countries, which played an important role in some of the decisions taken by Moscow. He also pays attention to such significant shifts in the Soviet thinking as was the determination of Gorbachev and many of his colleagues to avoid, by all means possible, the use of force to support the crumbling communist regimes in the area.
Based on these observations, Pravda identifies several key trends in Soviet foreign policy, which could be observed in the late 1980s, and shows with what determination (and outcome) these were applied by Kremlin. The trends presented here are namely the promotion of perestroika; the reluctance to facilitate leadership change in other communist countries; the endorsement of centrist rather than reformist successors (in cases when the leadership change took place after all); the facilitation of neo-perestroika strategies and the focus on coalition-building; the easing of constraints (for example, the border regime of East-Central European countries) to avoid the build-up of tension; and finally, the changing perceptions of the Western policy toward the region and toward the Soviet Union as such.
Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and the Revolutions of 1989:
American Myths versus the Primary Sources
Thomas Blanton
This essay assesses the increasingly U.S.-centric narratives about the revolutions of 1989 and weighs them against the cumulative record from documentary sources. The emphasis focuses on the Reagan myth since this is the narrative most Americans credit. Proponents of the ‘victory school’ argue that the Soviets shifted to less confrontational policies in the late 1980s because the U.S. military build-up and political offensive in the early 1980s raised the costs of confrontation and forced the Soviets into a corner from which there was no escape save for surrender. Yet, a wide range of documentary and secondary sources undercut that myth. The data from both CIA and Soviet sources show that actual Soviet military spending remained generally flat from 1977 through 1984, went up slightly in the first year of Gorbachev and then down again. And Reagan himself sought a nuclear disarmament from the early years of his presidency. Another construction with particular salience in the U.S. credits President George H.W. Bush with a leading role in the actual revolutions of 1989. However, the documentary evidence suggests that U.S. policy stayed mostly on the sidelines during the actual events of 1989, either peripheral to the main events, or actually working to prevent the revolutionary change.
The Fall of the Wall, Eastern Europe, and Gorbachev’s Vision of Europe after the Cold War
Svetlana Savranskaya
This article focuses on Gorbachev’s policies towards Europe and his visions of overcoming the Cold War divide. The idea of a common European home played the pivotal role in his foreign policy plans. It was based to a large extent on Gorbachev’s desire to turn the CSCE framework into the main structure of European security, which would mean a gradual dissolution of both the Warsaw Treaty Organization and NATO and a growing role of the USSR as a great European power. With respect to Eastern Europe, the Soviets had only a vague strategy of transformation on the model of the Prague Spring – socialism with a human face minus the tanks – along with integration into Europe. However, the developments in the Soviet Union itself – economic crisis, elections and the rise of nationalism – kept pushing ‘socialist friends’ down the list of priorities.
For the European home to be built, the walls had to come down. At the same time, when the Berlin Wall came down, it launched a process of German unification, which became the central process in Europe and sidelined the building of a common home and made it irrelevant for European policymakers. Despite initial U.S. and German promises to the contrary, the united Germany became a member of NATO. The Warsaw Pact thus soon lost the last reasons for its existence and was disbanded by its members in March 1991. The Soviet Union followed suit soon thereafter. NATO actually became the entryway for East European countries to the new European home – the European Union. It gradually incorporated all the former Soviet East European allies, but the door remained closed to Russia.
Why Did the Cold War Last So Long?
Mark Kramer
The Cold War remains one of the most important phenomena in the post-World-War-II era. The conflict, which, according to Mark Kramer, is distinguished from other conflicts and other periods of modern history by a ‘fundamental clash of ideologies’ and a ‘highly stratified global power structure’, still raises many questions, which remain to be answered. One of these questions, addressed by Kramer in his article, is whether the Cold War could have ended earlier than in the late 1980s/early 1990s. It would have seemed that there were ‘windows of opportunity’ on several occasions before when both superpowers could have achieved a significant improvement in their mutual relationship and thus could help to ease the tensions on the global level.
The author’s primary objective is not, however, to try to provide an answer to the question stated in the previous article. He instead focuses on examining how different theoretical concepts could be used to aid the Cold War research. As a model example, Kramer has chosen to compare the situation in the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc in general in 1953, after Stalin’s death, and in 1987–1989, under Gorbachev’s leadership. He applies three different theoretical premises: ‘internalization and the shaping of policy preferences’; ‘double-edged diplomacy and highly unequal relationships’; and ‘new ideas and the sources of policy changes’.
Kramer convincingly argues that none of these approaches, taken just by themselves, could satisfactorily explain the developments in the Soviet Union and the internal-external linkages in the relations between Moscow and the countries of East-Central Europe in the time periods studied. He shows, however, that in a slightly modified version, the concepts can be used to highlight particular aspects of the problem, which could otherwise be overlooked. For this reason, these theoretical frameworks should be taken into account when conducting research of the Cold War period.
Discussion
Memory and (Contemporary) History:
Thoughts on Three Volumes of the Periodical Paměť a dějiny and More
Jan Randák
The author begins his assessment of the first three volumes (2007–09) of Paměť a dějiny (Memory and History), the quarterly of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, in Prague, by considering the terms in the title of the periodical and their relationship to each other, particularly in the field of contemporary history and with regard to the Communist past. He discusses the composition of the periodical, the individual sections, and the changes they have undergone, and he points out articles that particularly merit attention. The overall level of the published articles, according to the author, is markedly uneven, with descriptive articles full of facts based on primary-source research and conceived positivistically. The periodical, according to the author, lacks articles with a theoretical basis, methodological focus, and comparative scope. In this assessment, the author argues, that a relatively narrow pool of contributors predominates, most of whom are employees of the Institute. Overall, the periodical is focused on oppression, its machinery, and its victims in the period under investigation. On the other hand, the periodical also focuses on varying degrees of expression of civil resistance to that oppression. The founders and editors of the periodical, however, have strikingly placed to the fore stories about specific people. The vast majority of contributions concern the period of the Communist régime in Czechoslovakia, whereas the years of the German occupation remain largely neglected. The greatest pitfalls of the periodical, according to the author, are in its narrow or one-sided conception, which leads to a black-and-white picture of the (Communist) past: put more simply, it is a picture of heroes or victims facing culprits. In addition, ‘ordinary’ society remains more or less ignored, and this makes it impossible credibly to explain either the operation of the régime or the limited extent of resistance to it. The author proposes a number of topics and topic areas, which the periodical could, or should, devote itself to in order to expand its scope and to provide more comprehensive knowledge of the recent past.
Reviews
Some Belated Thoughts on Brügel’s Czechs and Germans
Robert Kvaček
Brügel, Johann Wolfgang, Češi a Němci 1918–1938, Prague: Academia, 2006, 846 pp;
Brügel, Johann Wolfgang, Češi a Němci 1939–1946, Prague: Academia, 2008, 416 pp.
Both volumes translated from the German by Petr Dvořáček.
The two important monographs under review, by the German historian, lawyer, and journalist from Hustopeče, Moravia, Johann Wolfgang Brügel (1905–1986), on the relations between the Czechs and the Germans of the Bohemian Lands from the creation of Czechoslovakia in late 1918 to the expulsion of most of the Germans after the Second World War, have been published in Czech translation many years after the original German editions published in Munich by Nymphenburger in 1967 and 1974. The reviewer considers them fundamental works on the topic, which stand out for their unusually broad research and interpretations of problems, though some of their preliminary conclusions have become outdated after more recent research. They also engage the reader because of their polemical style, stemming from the author’s actual participation in the events he describes and his post-war involvement in the Social Democratic Party of West Germany. The volumes are accompanied by useful afterwords by Václav Kural, and, particularly noteworthy, an introductory biographical essay about Brügel by Vilém Prečan.
Deportations to Nisko
Practice for the Shoah
Daniel Baránek
Borák, Mečislav, První deportace evropských Židů: Transporty do Niska nad Sanem (1939–1940), Šenov u Ostravy: Tilia, 2009, 301 pp.
The book under review, about the first deportations of the Jews of Europe to Nisko, Poland, in autumn 1939, is intended for a general readership. According to the reviewer, however, that does not make the work any less valuable for the specialist. The author of the book, Mečislav Borák, has supported survivors’ testimonies with facts from his thorough research and he illustrates the whole history with many pictures. A further strength of the book is the additional light it sheds on the essential context and also the plurality of views of the various actors.
Jaroslav Najbert
Gruntová, Jitka, and František Vašek, Málo známé zločiny SD ve východních Čechách. Prague: Naše vojsko, 2008, 271 pp.
The authors of the book under review, whose title translates as ‘Little Known Crimes of the Sicherheitsdienst in East Bohemia’, first present the creation, status, structure, tasks, and methods of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence service of the SS, in the Third Reich and particularly the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. They then document the activity of the SD in east Bohemia. From the standpoint of how it handles the material, the book is largely faultless. In most of the chapters the authors provide hitherto unpublished information, acquaint us with the fates of specific people, and demonstrate how the work of the SD led to the incarceration of many people or to their execution.
The Legacy of the Cold War (and More) on an Edge of Austria and the Bohemian Lands
David Kovařík
Blaive, Muriel, and Berthold Molden, Hranice probíhají vodním tokem: Odrazy historie ve vnímání obyvatel Gmündu a Českých Velenic. Trans. from the German by Jana Ogrocká. Brno: Společnost pro odbornou literaturu and Barrister & Principal 2009, 211 pp.
This volume by the French historian Muriel Blaive and the Austrian historian Berthold Molden was originally published in German as Grenzfälle: Österreichische und tschechische Erfahrungen am Eisernen Vorhang (Weitra: Bibliothek der Provinz, 2009). It is an investigation into the historical memory of the inhabitants of two towns in a region on the Czech-Austrian border, which several times belonged to one or the other country in the course of the twentieth century. Blaive interviewed the inhabitants of various generations of České Velenice and Molden did the same with inhabitants of various generations of Gmünd, Austria. The two historians have discovered how the momentous transformations that took place in the region (different régimes, the post-war expulsion of the ethnic Germans from the Bohemian and Moravian border areas, the existence of the Iron Curtain and then its removal) affected the lives of local people, and how the perceptions of events which were held by those people changed and what that has meant for Czech-Austrian relations at the local level. Despite some clichés, some errors of fact, and some debatable conclusions, the publication is, according to the reviewer, on the whole a contribution to the field and in many respects offers ideas for further research.
A Successful Voyage to Planet Eden:
Sci-Fi, Outer Space, and Utopia in Communist Czechoslovakia
Martin Franc
Adamovič, Ivan, and Tomáš Pospiszyl, Planeta Eden: Svět zítřka v socialistickém Československu 1948–1978. Řevnice: Arbor vitae, 2010, 246 pp.
In this luxuriously designed volume, published to accompany an exhibition, the authors have endeavoured to explain how the phenomenon of science fiction and space research in Socialist Czechoslovakia was manifested in belles-lettres, the fine arts, film, popular culture, and also in everyday life and the attitudes of the authorities. The authors draw on a broad range of different material, which, says the reviewer, they have considered in wide social contexts, raising provocative questions and coming to interesting conclusions. They also more generally consider the place of science fiction in the thinking of the previous era, and weigh up the utopian future vision of Communist ideology and the régime.
Atomic and Biological Fever:
The Arms Race in Recent American Publications
Petr Luňák
Rhodes, Richard, Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007, 386 pp;
Hoffman, David E., The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy. New York: Doubleday, 2009, 577 pp.
The reviewer, also considering archive records recently made public (particularly by the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C.), as well as the books under review, discusses the Soviet-American arms race in nuclear and biological weapons during the Cold War. He rejects ‘revived revisionism’, as represented by Richard Rhodes, who sharply criticizes US policy since the end of World War II as the work of manipulators while ignoring the well-documented confrontational steps taken by Moscow. Though the new political course of Mikhail Gorbachev played a very positive role in nuclear disarmament, biological weapons programmes were being intensively developed in the Soviet Union at the same time.
The Annales School in Collaboration between French and Polish Historians
Jaroslav Bouček
Pleskot, Patryk, Intelektualni sąsiedzi: Kontakty historyków polskich ze środowiskem ‘Annales’ 1945–1989. Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2010, 845 pp.
The book under review, a monumental work by a Polish author, comprehensively documents and analyzes the work between historians in France and Socialist Poland. The book traces the ups and downs, forms and mechanisms, personal contacts, and leading players in this collaboration. The book focuses on the Polish reception of the Annales School. French-Polish relations were most intensive from 1956 to the mid-1970s. The reviewer compares the Polish reception of Annales with the Czechoslovak reception of Annales in the same period. The latter was far weaker than the Polish, as were relations between the Czechoslovak and French historians.
Chronicle
Voices of Freedom or Western Provocation? A Conference in Munich to Mark the Sixtieth Anniversary of Radio Free Europe
Pavla Šimková
A conference was held in Munich from 28 to 30 April 2011 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the beginning of broadcasting by Radio Free Europe (RFE). Called ‘Voices of Freedom or Western Provocation?’, the conference was organized by the Collegium Carolinum and the Czech Centre, both in Munich, together with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Régimes, Prague. The papers in the individual panels, given by participants from many countries, considered the work of RFE in the context of the Cold War from the political, cultural-historical, and legal points of view, and also through the lens of US and West German policy. It also discussed the organization, journalism, and programme content of the broadcasts. The panels, furthermore, focused on the RFE audience and audience reception of its broadcasts, and, lastly, discussed the perception of RFE in the United States and the arts and propaganda activity that is sponsored apart from its broadcasting work. The author reports in detail on all the papers and she concludes by judging the conference a great success.
A Conference to Mark the 150th Anniversary of Modern Parliamentary Government in Central Europe
David Hubený and Miroslav Šepták
This is a report on the international historical conference ‘150 Years of Modern Parliamentary Government in Central Europe’, which was organized by the Masaryk Institute and Archive (part of the Czech Academy of Sciences), in collaboration with the Commission for the History of the Habsburg Monarchy, at Centre for Modern and Contemporary History (part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), Vienna, the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, Prague, and the National Museum, Prague. After two panels devoted to the emergence, development, and forms of modern parliamentary government in central Europe before 1918, the participants focused on democracy in the first Czechoslovak Republic, parliamentary government in confrontation with totalitarian and authoritarian régimes, and parliamentary government after the Changes beginning in late 1989. One weakness of the conference was, according to the authors of the report, the disproportionately high attention paid to Czechoslovakia and Austria and the relative neglect of parliamentary government in Poland and Hungary.
In Search of the Road to Reconciliation: An International Historical Conference in Beijing
Antonie Doležalová
This is report on ‘Historical Reflections and the Process of Reconciliation in East Asia and Europe after World War II’, an international conference held in Beijing in early September 2010 at the initiative of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Three clear positions emerged in the conference proceedings, based on the approaches that the individual participants took to the central topic – namely, the majority approach of the Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese, the Japanese approach, and the non-Asian approach. Though the discussions sometimes entailed sharp clashes, the conference closed in a friendly atmosphere of reconciliation.
Public Opinion Research in Socialist Czechoslovakia on the Web
Johana Chylíková
This is a report on making accessible sociological research data that was gathered by the Czechoslovak Institute for Public Opinion Research in several dozen polls from 1967 to 1988. The data are now publicly accessible on the website of the Czech Social Science Data Archive (www.archiv.soc.cas.cz), which is part of the Institute of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Sciences. This data provides valuable insights into public opinion and life in Socialist Czechoslovakia on several topics: current public opinion, public opinion about politics and the economy, the family and the marriage rate, young people, the status of women in society, consumption and the standard of living, education, the mass media, employment, work and leisure, old age, health, crime, and religion.
Psychohistory according to Rudolph Binion
Milan Hauner
This is a sketch of the life and works of the American historian Rudolph Binion (1927–2011), who pioneered the use of psychohistory as a distinctive trend in historical thinking, and is the author of an acclaimed work about the femme fatale, psychoanalyst, and writer Lou Andreas-Salomé, as well as some remarkable essays about Adolf Hitler.
