czechoslovak studies association annual meeting will be...
TRANSCRIPT
BULLETIN
OF THE
CZECHOSLOVAK
STUDIES
ASSOCIATION
The Czech and Slovak History Newsletter
Volume 31▪ No. 2 ▪ FALL 2008
A Publication of the Department of Political Science Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698-0056
Czechoslovak Studies Association Annual
Meeting will be held
During The 40th National Convention of the American
Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies At:
Philadelphia Marriott Hotel Downtown Philadelphia, PA
November 21, 2008 Friday, 8:00 a.m.
Bradley Abrams
President
Cynthia Paces Vice President
James W. Peterson Newsletter Editor
Officers-at-Large
Bruce Berglund Chad Bryant Peter Bugge
John Connelly
Address Items for Newsletter to:
Dr. James W. Peterson Dept. Of Political Science Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 31698-0056
U.S.A.
OR
e-mail to:
“The Czech and Slovak History Newsletter exists to express interests in the history of Czechoslovakia, its predecessor and successor states, and all its people within and without its historic boundaries.”
Table of Contents
Message from President ............................................................... 1 Call for Papers ...............................................................................1 Assorted News Items .....................................................................2 New Books from the College Carolinum .....................................3 Books Brief Noted .........................................................................3 News from the Membership .........................................................10 Address Changes ...........................................................................17
Note from President Brad Abrams
Just a quick note in the run‐up to our
general meeting, to be held on Friday, 21 November at 8:00 in the morning in Hospitality Suite 2 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, in conjunction with the 40th National Convention of the AAASS. Among the items we will be addressing there are the awarding of the Pech Prize, and the setting of the Book Prize committee for next year. If anyone has an item they would like to see on the agenda, please contact me at [email protected] and our secretary‐treasurer, Gregory Ference, at [email protected]. Also at the AAASS this year, our organization has banded together with the Slovak Studies Association, Polish Studies Association, Hungarian Studies Association, Romanian Studies Association, and the Society for Slovene Studies to have a joint reception for our memberships. The purpose of this is to have the opportunity to network across state borders and get to know the people and projects that concern our region. If you are interested in attending (the cost will be roughly $20), please let me know. If you have already let me know that you will be attending, you do not need to reconfirm. I would also like to remind members that the Tenth Annual Czech Studies Workshop will be held at my home institution, Columbia University on 1‐2 May of next year. If any of you would like to participate, please see the announcement here in the newsletter.
Finally, since we have renamed our organization in order to emphasize our multi‐ and interdisciplinary membership, I would like to ask all of you who are in the academic world to encourage those people outside of your home department who would be interested in our organization to join. The larger and more well‐rounded we are, the more projects we will be able to launch.
Looking forward to seeing you all in Philadelphia.
Brad
Call for Papers
Sports and Society in the Bohemian
Lands/Czechoslovakia The Historical Commission for the
Bohemian Lands plans to hold a double conference on the theme “Sport and Society,” to take place during the years 2009 and 2010. In 2009, the focus will be on “Sport in a Multi‐Ethnic Society (up to 1938/39),” and in 2010, “Sport under Dictatorship (1938‐1989).” The emphasis on the Bohemian Lands and Slovakia (Czechoslovakia) may, in some cases, be extended to include comparative reflections on neighbouring regions.
If you are interested in this subject or wish to participate and eventually present a paper, please contact either Dr. Stefan Zwicker, the organizer for both conferences ([email protected]), or the chairman of the Historical Commission for the Bohemian Lands, Dr. Robert Luft ([email protected]).
Robert Luft Munich, September 2008
Forum of British, Czech and Slovak Historians:
The 2009 Forum will take place at the Modern History Research Centre, Oxford University on September 24‐26, 2009 on the theme:
“The Changing Landscape of East‐Central Europe c.1700‐1989”
The conference organizers are looking for research papers on this theme (and especially those relevant to the Czech/Slovak region). The conference will be split into three parts: 1. Proto‐industrialization/pre‐romantic; 2. Romantic (19th‐20th centuries); 3. Destruction and Reconstruction (1938‐1989). Themes to consider include: proto‐industrialization; nationalist study of nature; rivers and railways; forests; changing urban landscapes; borders and zones; forced industrialization; heritage. Papers by literary historians are especially welcome, and comparative perspectives (e.g. on Hungary, Austria or Poland) are also welcome. Please send paper titles and abstracts (c. 300 words) to Robert Evans ([email protected]) or Mark Cornwall ([email protected]) by 1 December 2008. (Please note that unfortunately not all paper proposals can be accepted).
Status Report Book Prize Fund
The book prize fund is off to a good start! As you know, we awarded the first‐ever CSSA book prize in the amount of $200 at our meeting in November 2007. There is currently
$852 left in the account. The book prize award will be presented again in 2009, for a book published in 2007 or 2008. Our next dues notice will feature a check‐off for donations to the fund. We urge all members to support this new venture with a generous donation to the book prize fund.
Committee to Fund the CSSA Book Prize Claire Nolte, President
Pech Prize Article Competition The Czechoslovak Studies Association
(CSA) is pleased to announce its Stanley Z. Pech Prize Competition for 2008, which will award a $200 prize to the best article or essay dealing with the history of Czechoslovakia and its successor and predecessor states/provinces published in 2006 or 2007. The committee welcomes submissions from all academic disciplines, as long as the entry essay has a substantial historical component. To be eligible, the author must be a member of the CSA.
To join the CSA, visit our website and fill out a membership application. http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/eglassheim/CHC/Welcome.htm
The prizewinner will be announced at the 2008 AAASS Convention in Philadelphia. Visit the following web page for a list of past prize winners: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/eglassheim/CHC/pech.htm
New Books from the Collegium Carlolunum
Detlef Brandes: Die Sudetendeutschen im Krisenjahr 1938 (Veröffentlichungen des Collegium Carolinum 107). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag: München 2008. XVI und 399 Seiten, gebunden. ISBN 978‐3‐486‐58742‐5
Peter Haslinger/K. Erik Franzen/Martin Schulze Wessel (Eds.): Diskurse über Zwangsmigrationen in Zentraleuropa. Geschichtspolitik, Fachdebatten, literarisches und lokales Erinnern seit 1989. (Veröffentlichungen des Collegium Carolium 108). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag: München 2008. ca.580 Seiten, gebunden. ISBN 978‐486‐58053‐2. Freia Anders: Strafjustiz im Sudetengau 1938‐1945 (Veröffentlichungen des Collegium Carolinum 112). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag: München 2008. ca. 580 Seiten; 1 CD‐ROM, gebunden. ISBN 978‐486‐58738‐8
Martin Zückert Collegium Carolinum
BOOKS BRIEFLY NOTED D. Blümlová‐Z. Gilarová a kol. ČAS SECESE. Kapitoly z kulturních dějin prelomu 19 a 20. století. Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Búdějovicích, 2007. V řadě HISTORIA CULTURAE XIII. STUDIA 8. Pp. 385. Illus. PB.
This is another strikingly designed volume in the series “Zíbrtův Kostelec” edited by doc.CSc. Dagmar Blümlová and others at the University of South Bohemia on Bohenian
culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. From the cover through the many illustrations the work breathes care and good taste. Twenty‐two essayists from Bohemian cities (one from Prague) and two from Bratislava contributed, inspired by a symposium held in Č.B. in May 2006, devoted to the era of Art Nouveau in its less familiar manifestations: in sculpture, painting, architecture, glass, textiles, book design and illustration, gastronomy, the depictions of women, and photography. Of particular interest is the essay by Jana Nová on the visit of Emperor Francis Joseph to Jablonec nad Nisou in June 24, 1906 (pp.322‐338). She sees it as an effort by the Emperor to resolve the nationality strife in the Bohemian Lands. (Photos on pp. 339‐346.)
D. Blümlová – J. Rauchová a kol. ČAS RYCHLÝCH KOL A KŘĺDEL, ANEB MEZI LAURINEM A KAŠPAREM.Kapitoly z kulturních dějin přelomu 19. a 20. století. Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích 2008. V řadě HISTORIA XIV, STUDIA 9. Pp. 350. Plus enclosure, Pp. 87. Illus.
In this innovative volume, twenty‐one scholars discuss technology, entrepreneurship, psychology, and environmentalism in the series on cultural history published by the history faculty at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. The unifying theme is the phenomenon of speed, which gathered momentum in the 19th and early twentieth centuries. The authors see speed as affecting human life, first as a novelty and then as a force that permeates work, life styles, and human consciousness, with both positive and negative aspects for the human psyche.
A few examples from the essays may suffice to show how the authors treat their subjects. Milan Hlavačka (Praha) discusses how the accelerating flow of time altered society’s perception of speed, in the management of
railroads and the impact of railroads (Pp. 7‐19). Ivan Jakubec (Praha) presents the firm of Laurin & Klement in Mladá Boleslav as manufacturers of speed with modern bicycles, motorbikes, and automobiles and their insights into market conditions and public appetites (148‐181). The effect of technological changes on a small north Bohemian community is highlighted in the title of the essay by Karol Bílek (a native of Mladá Boleslav): “Kterak technický pokrok vtrhl do poklidného města Sobotky” – “The tranquil town of Sobotka and the sudden invasion of technical progress” (226‐239). Josef Blüml (České Budějovice) has an interesting essay on how the writings of Jules Verne provided images of the modern world (253‐277).
Marek Ďurčanský (Praha) deals with the basis of the spa industry and the growth of a network of buses and railroads, as well as autos and bicycles, with special attention to “The Czech Nauheim: The first years of the Spa at Poděbrady” (303‐316). The volume ends with a philosophical perspective by Vlasta Christovová (Ústí nad Labem), “Historický původ tachogenního svéta” – “The historical origin of the ‘Accelerated’ World” (338‐342). She acknowledges the pioneering work of a German philosopher, Odo Marquard, in his 1981 study Abschied vom Prinzipiellen, which raised questions about the increasing acceleration of changes that bring unbearable conditions for humans to cope with. People unable to integrate experiences so rapidly may regress to dreams and illusions unless they change their life styles, the author suggests. The essays are enriched by photographs of the people and machines each author discusses. A surprising bonus is the inclusion of a facsimile appendix folded into the book’s jacket. It contains the illustrated fairy tale by Jaromír Hořejš, O vzteklém autu (Praha, 1933, Pp. 87).
Pět studií k dějinám české společnosti po roce 1945. Editoři Oldřich Tůma a Tomáš Vilímek. Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR. Praha 2008. Pp. 263. PB.
The five authors in this volume deal mainly with the period before and after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Their aim is to offer insights into the time period at the beginning of the invasion and ending with the reestablishment of hard‐line Communism dubbed “Normalization.” The veteran historian Milan Otáhal leads off with materials gleaned from StB (secret police) and party archives. He pointedly emphasizes that the reprisals against the reformers through the installation of mass purges and the cadre policy in Czechoslovakia exceeded in scale and cruelty similar measures in other Soviet bloc countries in their times of crisis. Květa Jechová next considers the status of Czech women in the 20th century, especially the complete subjugation of women’s organizations to the Communist Ministry of Information after February 1948, and the gradual growth of organizations until the movement adopted issues such as equal pay for equal work and similar demands still not fully resolved.
Tomáš Vilímek compares the course of the breakdowns of the “real existing” socialist regimes in East Germany and in Czechoslovakia up to 1989. The East German situation, he explains, had parallels with that in Czechoslovakia but was far worse environmentally. Both regimes gave birth to powerful ecological movements. The communist reaction of both was to charge environmentalists with anti‐Socialist goals or being agents of Western propaganda. David Weber traces the history of the landmark book Sedm pražských dnů 21.‐27.srpna 1968, published in English as The Czech Black Book (N.Y., 1969). He describes how dissidents at the
Historical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, led by its courageous director Josef Macek, analyzed the events of the first week of the Soviet occupation and prepared an Action Plan that aimed at greater freedom for their profession from ideology and politics. Historians issued leaflets against collaboration with the invaders and their cohorts, and the Sedm pražských dnů became a counter to the pro‐Soviet “White Book” of the collaborators. Weber concludes with the liquidation of the Historical Institute and its replacement in May 1970 by the renamed Institute of Czechoslovak and World History, with a screened and more compliant staff. The fifth essay, by Martin Franc, is social rather than political history. It depicts the ambiguous functions of holidays, and personal consumption inspired by them, as efforts to sovietize such observances under “Normalization.” Celebrations of Christmas in Bohemia in the 1950s and 1960s had ambiguous functions. They emphasized the family with themes of peace and exchanges of presents. However, shortages of holiday supplies, even those imported from other countries, according to Franc, often were widespread and led to long lines at the shops, where limits were placed on sales to consumers. These essays whet one’s appetite for more revelations from the archives discovered by scholars at the Institute of Contemporary History in Prague. While some of the information provided above is already known, it is good to be reminded of it or enlightened about significant new findings.
Židé v boji a odboji. Rezistence československých Židů v letech druhé světové války, Uspořádala Zlatica Zudivá‐Lešková. Historický ústav AV ČR, Praha 2007. Práce HÚ, Series C‐Miscellanea, Volume 17. Pp. 414. Photos. HC. Under the patronage of Prof.
Václav Pačes, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Forty‐one authors contribute essays and commentaries to this path‐breaking volume on the Resistance of Czechoslovak Jews to Nazi oppression during the Second World War. The eminent Slovak historian Ivan Kamenec, in addition to an essay, adds a concluding comment that the 2006 conference at which the essays were delivered was the first “special scholastic project” on the Jewish Resistance ever held in the Czech and Slovak Republics. He remarks that the conference papers contained both the facts of the Resistance gathered by scholars from contemporary evidence, and also speeches delivered at the conference by contemporaries and direct participants in the Resistance, which impressed those present by their “emotional charge, authenticity and capacity to increase knowledge” (386).
Aspects of these themes were repeated in introductory statements by the vice president of the AV ČR (J. Pánek), the director of the HÚ AV ČR (S, Raková), the president of the Union of Jewish Resistance Fighters and Soldiers (P. Kováčová), the president of the Administrative Council for the Victims of Nazism (T. Jelínek), and the vice director of the HÚ AV ČR (Jan Němeček). The opening essay by Zlatica Zudova‐Lešková, editor of the book, points out that the Resistance must be studied from the perspective of the whole range of the Resistance, including the Zionist youth movements, the Hagana members, and the fight‐back of people in the concentration camps and ghettos; else the Resistance will be underrated and often distorted. She pays special tribute to studies by Israeli and Slovak historians who have dealt with these questions.
Apart from participants already mentioned, the book has thirty‐three co‐authors, whose lives took them to Ukraine,
Slovakia, Poland, Bohemia, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, France, the United States, Finland, and Hungary during the war and after it. One useful feature of the book is the abstracts in English that follow every major paper. Another is the photographic portraits of Resistance fighters arranged on the end papers, every one of them named in an appendix; in uniforms or civilian garb, women and men alike. Intermixed with the text are photos of columns of Jews marching toward Terezín and other places of internment, and in Resistance actions.
Fragmenty dějin. Sborník prací k šedesátinám Jana Gebhardta. Uspořadali Jan Hájek – Jiří Kocian – Milan Zitko. Vydal Historický AV ČR ve spolupráci s Ústavem pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, Praha 2006. Pp. 640. HC.
If there exists a country whose historians publish more tribute volumes (Festchrifts) honoring a colleague on his or her decennial birthday from the 50th to the 80th than the Czech Republic, I would like to know that country’s name. Here is a recent tribute. Colleagues and friends have honored Czech historian PhDr. Jan Gebhardt, CSc. with a stout volume of 42 essays on periods close to those of his life’s work: the 1930s till Munich in 1938, from Munich to May 1945, and from 1945 until 1989. Gebhardt’s focus on contemporary history began in the seminar of Věra Olivová in the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University with a thesis in 1968 on Czechoslovakia’s share in the Central European agrarian movement; but he soon broadened his scholarship, while working at the Institute of Military History; then at the Historical Institute of the AV ČR and the Institute of Contemporary History, the cosponsors of this volume. His bibliography lists over 300 publications including 16 books, (some coauthored), and many articles on the war, partisan movements in Bohemia and
Moravia, and historiography. The breadth of his interests is also visible in the popular press (Lidové noviny, Nové knihy), where he wrote many readable and informative essays. A sampling from the Table of Contents of articles (Pp. 5‐9) by the contributors includes the following: Vratislav Lacina, “Vytváření bankovního systému v českých zemích po vzniku Československa (1918‐1930),” 79‐86. Josef Harna, “O příčinách rozpadu parlamentní demokracie v Německu a v Rakousku v období mezi světovymi válkami,” 151‐159. Robert Kvaček, “Beneš a kauza Tuchačevskij,” 219‐232. Jan Pešek, “L’udové milicie na Slovensku 1948‐1989,” 573‐586. There is no subject index, but there is a list of authors and contributors. HB
Untertanen, Herrschaft and Statt in Böhmen und im “Alten Reich. “ Sozialgeschichtliche Studien zur Frűhen Neuzeit. Heraus. Von Markus Cerman und Robert Luft. R. Oldenbourg, Műnchen 2005. Pp. 369.HC. A miscellany on the manorial system in Bohemia, Moravia, and the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, with essays by thirteen scholars from Vienna, Brno, České Budějovice, Munich (CSA member Robert Luft), Prague, Kassel, and Great Britain. Part ten of a series begun in 1996 on social structures in Central Europe in early modern times, with Markus Cerman of the University of Vienna as a prime mover. Richly footnoted.
Stanley B. Winters
"Where are you from?" – "I am from Czechia!" Eva Horová, Leoš Jeleček, Pavel Krejčí1
1 This text is an essentially abridged and adapted reading of the article by Pavel Krejčí "Don´t be afraid of CZECHIA, it needs your help!" in Klaudyán - the internet journal for historical geography and environmental history, compare www.klaudyan.cz (Vol. 5, No 1/2008). More information (especially rebuttal of various pseudoarguments against the
INTRODUCTION Almost every state in the world has two denominations which, as a rule, are based on the name of the majority nation. One of these denominations, the political name (or “conventional” name – cf http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/geoinfo/geoname), renders the state’s structure, political system etc., and is used mainly on formal, official occasions. It has one essential disadvantage: a change of the state´s system of government implies a change of its political name. At present, for example, France is a republic but it used to be an empire and a kingdom; Serbia is also a republic today but, in the past, it was also a principality, a kingdom, a people’s republic, and a socialist republic. In a majority of the world´s countries, the political name contains in itself what is called the geographical name (or the "short name"), that is, the other name of the state. This name usually originates in usage, mostly also derives from the name of the majority nation and is mainly used in commonly spoken language but also in social intercourse when it is more suitable and more natural than the political name. It is short, most often monosyllabic and therefore easier to remember. Contrary to the political name, it implies the state´s continuity in time and space, which are an important geopolitical value and also a factor of the nation’s and/or the state’s identity. While the subject called the Czech (Socialist) Republic has existed since 1969 when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic changed to the Federation of the Czech and the Slovak Socialist Republics, since 1993 as an independent state after the peaceful split‐up of the Federation on 31
name Czechia) can be found in the Czech reading of the article which was published in Klaudyan’s Vol. 4, No 2/2007.
December 1992), the history of Czechia has been in progress for more than a thousand years and includes the history of its three parts, i.e., the historical lands Bohemia, Moravia & Silesia. As early as 1993 all relevant state authorities and central institutions agreed on the short (geographic) name Česko (Czechia in English). While the domestic expression ČESKO has caught on without essential problems, its most important foreign‐language equivalent – the English term CZECHIA – still contends with considerable difficulties in asserting itself. FOREIGN‐LANGUAGE EQUIVALENTS OF THE NAME ČESKO. After the initial very short and promising start (particularly in some mass media) Česko, for hardly understandable reasons, soon fell into disfavour (shared intensively by ex‐president Václav Havel) and its use was interrupted. The same applies to its equivalents in foreign languages. It should be pointed out that these had existed from 1993. They were approved by the Terminological Board of the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre after consultations with other experts (such as geographers, linguists, historians, political scientists) and state authorities including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (whose representatives were among the members of the Board). Afterward the equivalents were published in the UNO Gazetteers of Geographical Names – Names of States and Their Territorial Parts (Prague 1993). In the same year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommended all Czech diplomatic corps abroad to use the one‐word names in everyday contacts. (Unfortunately, adherence to this guideline was left to the individual person´s discretion.) The above‐mentioned publication includes the following names: Czechia (English), Tschechien (German), Tchéquie (French), Chequia (Spanish) and Чехия (Russian).
Naturally, every European language has its own term for Česko, the UNO Gazetteers only cite the most important European languages. WHERE AND WHY "CZECH" HAS COME INTO BEING Practical experience shows that those who insist that no short name is necessary are wrong. The unprecedented expansion of the adjective Czech as a "substitute" for the officially approved geographical name Czechia or, on the other hand, the regional name Čechy (i.e., Bohemia) instead of Česko, prove the absolute necessity of a one‐word name for non‐formal communication. Among those who are to blame for the expansion of the wrong form Czech we can cite, in particular, the Czech Olympic Committee, various sports and even such companies as Pilsner Urquell (see its label Brewed in Pilsen.Czech). They were soon followed by producers of caps and sports jackets decorated with the ill‐famed CZECH. This is a unique phenomenon: nobody has ever seen caps or jackets with the inscriptions ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, or DUTCH. WHERE DID CZECHIA "GET STUCK"? The English version Czechia was hindered in its "journey to the world" by the indifference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Why? From 1993 on, its officials did not see to it that the Gazetteer of geographical (or "short") names, published by the UNO cartographic service on their websites, included the name Czechia. The UNO service waited until 1995 but the Minister at that time, Josef Zieleniec from the Civic Democratic Party, who was authorized to take this step, did not sent any relevant information and, consequently, the column short name was completed with this country´s political name – Czech Republic…! The whole unfortunate affair managed to enter the highest circles of Czech politics in the first half of 2004: on May 11, the Senate of the Parliament held its 7th Public
Hearing on Functional differentiation between the standard names Česká republika and Česko, and their respective equivalents in foreign languages. The participants of the Hearing carried a final Memorandum which recommends the central authorities to take adequate measures.2 WHY CZECHIA HAS NO OFFICIAL PROMOTION? If the state authorities had taken care of promotion of their own country from the very beginning, similar to other countries which arouse from disintegration of communist federations, the public would have soon taken into account that the well established "trade mark" Czechoslovakia continues as Czechia, and there would be nothing to discuss today. Who knew the name Czechoslovakia before 1918? Did anybody know such names as Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, before 1990? Did the names Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania have any meaning to anybody beyond those countries? Let alone a Moldova? No. The difference lies in the approach to the problem. While the representatives of the above‐mentioned countries took all necessary steps to make the new state formations known to the public, the Czech politicians did not do anything. To make matters worse, they even started to mislead the world by saying that the one‐word name of the Czech state "does not exist", that it "was invented by Hitler", it "is a Slovak word", it "is not official", etc. Small wonder, then, that the official website of the Czech Republic, operated by the Ministry of
2 See the Record on Proceedings of the 7th Public Hearing of the Senate on Functional differentiation between the standard names Česká republika and Česko, and their respective equivalents in foreign languages held on 11 May 2004 from 1:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Wallenstein palace. See also http://www.senat.cz/xqw/xervlet/pssenat/htmlhled?action=doc&value=27462>.
Foreign Affairs, presents this country under the address www.czech.cz. ČESKO NEEDS ITS ENGLISH TRANSLATION Thanks to essential help of the mass media the one‐word name of this country has finally established itself in the Czech area: Česko has a life of its own and – speaking in medical terms – it only needs to come for a checkup once a year. Czechia, on the other hand, is lying in the intensive care unit connected to medical devices, but no help is provided – the "doctors" don´t care a fig for this patient, and so he survives only because a kind nurse or another good soul brings him an orange from time to time. Czechia needs help however small it may be! Some help has been offered for a few years by producers of road maps: the East Moravian publishing house SHOCart&GeoClub was a pioneer. It would also help if the publishers of English versions of Czech internet papers decided to use the official one‐word name of this country next to the others (e.g., Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary ‐‐‐ Czechia.). At first, it would be enough to use the name occasionally so that the readers can get accustomed. It is wrong to argue that international agencies do not use Czechia – this is a confusion of cause and effect. If Czechia were used more often in the Czech area, it would certainly soon be adopted by international agencies. An important argument in favour of Czechia is the following: English is apparently the only language in Europe which "is not able" to translate the geographical name Česko. Should we really believe that the English language – the lingua franca of today´s world – is so incompetent while, for example, Faeroese, spoken by about forty thousand islanders in the North Atlantic, or Icelandic, spoken by three hundred thousand inhabitants of a remote country of volcanos, geysers and icebergs, do
have their own terms for Česko (Tekkia and Tékkland, respectively)?
News from the Membership
Bruce Berglund Promotions: Promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Publications: “The Democratic Castle as Sacred Space: Religion and Ideals in the Reconstruction of Prague Castle,” published in Czech translation in Souvislosti: Revue pro literature a kulturu, vol. 18, no. 2 (2007): 208‐221. Papers presented: “We stand at the threshold of a new age’: Alice Masarykova’, the Czechoslovak Red Cross, and the Building of a New Europe,” presented at the conference, “Aftermaths of War: Women’s Movements and Female Activists, 1919‐1923,” University of Leeds, September 10‐12, 2008.
Mark Cornwall
Promotions: Elected to Council of the Royal Historical Society
Papers Presented: “Prague’s Queer Space 1939‐1945,” Queering Central and Eastern Europe, UCL, London, April 2008. “Wartime Sacrifice and the German Youth Movements in Czechoslovakia,” Workshop on Memorialzation and Regeneration in East‐Central Europe after the First World War, University of Tübingen, Germany, June 2008. “The Sudeten German Foreign Policy of Heinrich Rutha 1935‐1937: Nazi Tool or Sudeten Idealist?,” British International History Group Conference, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, Sept. 2008.
Zdenek V. David
Publications: “Masaryk and Locke within the Context
of the Austrian Philosophical Tradition,” Cestou dějin. K poctě prof. Svatavy Rakově, ed. Eva Sematonová, 2 vols. Prague: Historický ústav AV ČR, 2007, vol. 2 pp. 69‐87. “Realism and Religion in Masaryk ‘s Political Thought,” Per saecula ad tempora nostra, Sborník pracík šedesátým narozeninám prof. Jaroslav Pánka, eds. Jiří Mikulec and Miloslav Polívka, 2 vols. Prague: Historický ústav AV ČR, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 657‐663. “Utraquism’s Liberal Ecclesiology,” in The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice. Vol. 6: Papers from the VI. International Symposium on Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, Prague, June 23‐25, 2004. Prague: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Main Library, 2007, p. 165‐188. Papers presented: “Utraquism as a Commoners’ Church,” for the VIII. International Symposium on
Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, under the auspices of the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, at Vila Lanna, Prague, June 20, 2008.
Melissa Feinberg General News: Melissa Feinberg has moved to Rutgers University‐New Brunswick.
Evgeni F. Firsov
General news: Has given an interview on Russian interradio “The Voice of Russia “ (announcement in the Czech language) on a theme: Value of the Prague Spring and August, 1968. On August 21, 2008, in the Czech embassy in Moscow under the invitation of the ambassador of the Czech Republic to Russia, he participated in a meeting devoted to events on Czechoslovakia in 1968. Publication: “The Attitude of Foreign Slavs’ Association in Russia to the Revolutions of 1917 on Archival Materials,” Theses of the Report Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. History. N5. 2008.
Thomas Fudge
General news: Has been asked by I.B. Tauris Publishers (London) to explore the possibility of an undergraduate level textbook on Jan Hus and the Hussite Revolution.
Publications: “Želivský’s Head: Memory and New Martyrs Among the Hussites.” In The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, volume 6. Eds., David R. Holeton and Zdeněk V. David. Prague: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2007, pp. 111‐132. Papers presented: “Popular Religion and Heresy in the Later Middle Ages,” University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, June 30, 2008. “Václav the Anonymous and Jan Příbram: Textual Laments on the Fate of Religion in Bohemia (1424‐1429),” Conference: Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice. Prague, Czech Republic, June 18, 2008.
Milan Hauner
General News: Visiting professor at Liverpool John
Moores University – November 2007. Initiated the “T.G.Masaryk Annual
Lecture on Democracy”, University of Chicago, First Speaker Madeleine K. Albright, May 13, 2008.
Publications:
HITLER: a Chronology of His Life & Time. 2nd rev. Edition (London: Palgrave‐Macmillan), Updated paperback edition Spring 2008
“Wars and Between the Wars – The Legacies of the Age of Catastrophe,” Contribution to a Conference on Mitteleuropa, held at the Diplomatic Academy Vienna, November 8, 2006. In: Does Central Europe Exist? Ed. by Thomas Row. Favorita Papers 03/2006 (Wien: Diplomatische Akademie), pp. 31‐63.
“Charter 77 and the European Peace Movement,” Conference in Prague, March 2007. [Volume in prep.]
“Nov ý pohled na setkání dvou prezidentů“, in: Acta Historica et Museologica Universitatis Silesianae Opaviensis 07/2007 (Opava 2007), pp.411‐423.
Papers Presented:
“Terrorism & Heroism – Reflections on the Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich,” Liverpool, John Moores University, November 15,2007; Diplomatische Akademie Wien, June 12, 2008.
“Churchill & Beneš – Two Statesmen‐Memoirists of the Two World Wars,” St.Antony’s College, Oxford, January 30, 2008; Czech Embassy London, January 31, 2008; Universities in Germany: Leipzig, Cologne, Freiburg, June 3‐10, 1008.
“Beneš and Minorities” Collegium Carolinum Munich, June 11, 2008.
“The Beginnings of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile,” Conference in London, September 17, 2008.
“Czechoslovakia and the International Crises 1933‐1948,” Conference in Prague, Sept.22‐23, 2008.
“Colloque sur Munich 1938,” Centre Culturel Tchèque Paris, October 2, 2008.
Peter Hruby
General News: Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), 24th World Congress, September 8th to 14th, Catholic University, Ružomberok, Slovakia.
Publications: “Český realismus v exilu: O časopise Skutečnost (1948‐1953) {Czech Realism in Exile: The Periodical Skutečnost, 1948‐53}, Ústav pro soudobé dějiny, Prague, Soudobé dějiny: Cestami exilu, 4/2007, pp. 744‐756. “Zdeněk Žižka a pokusy zestalinizovat Austrálii” [Zdeněk Žižka and Attempts to Stalinize Australia], Cěské archivy a prameny [Czech Archives and Sources], eds. Milena Secká, Jiří Křesťan and Jan Kahuda, Národní archive, Praha, 2007, pp. 175‐78. “Pošetilci a hrdinové: Měnící se role komunisticých intelektuálů v Československu [Czech translation of Fools and Heroes: The Changing Role of Communist Intellectuals in Czechoslovakia, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1980]. Rychnov nad Kněžnou: Ježek, September 2008. Hluboká stopa: Exilový časopis Skutečnost, 1949‐53, ed. Vilém Prečan, Praha, September 2008. Papers presented: “Harry Stein – Tropical Organizer of Refugees,” 24th World Congress of SVU, September 8‐14, 2008, Ružomberok, Slovakia
Wilma Iggers
Papers presented: Keynote address at conference: Was there a female Jewish Prague Circle? Sponsored by Institute for Art and Science and Czech Center in Vienna, April 24, 2008.
Leoš Jeleček
Publications: Jeleček, L., Chromý, P., Janáč, J. (2008): “Origins of landscape differences and related causes of change in land use: East Central and Southeast Europe from 1960s until the post‐communist present, pp. 81‐89.” In: Kabrda, J., Bičík, I. (eds.) (2008): Man in the landscape across frontiers: Landscape and land use change in Central European border regions. CD‐ROM Conference Proceedings of the IGU/LUCC Central Europe Conference 2007, Slovenia – Austria – Slovakia – Czech Republic, August 28 – September 4, 2007. Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. ISBN 978‐80‐86561‐80‐6. Papers presented: “Environmental consequences of border regions changes in Czechia during2nd half of 20th century” (co‐authors P. Chromy, P. Kuskova, R. Rasin), poster: ASEH Annual Conference: Agents of Change: People, Climate, and Places through Time, Boise, ID, March 12 – 16, 2008. Optional: The internet journal for historical geography and environmental history KLAUDYAN www.klaudyan.cz 3rd issue (1/2008) should be published by the end of September 2008. It brings three articles written in English. The Czech Geographical Society “Section for Historical Geography and Environmental History” (chairman L. Jeleček, vice‐chairman Pavel Chromý) became a member of the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICE‐HO) – founded by American and European Societies for Environmental History and US Forest History Society. For more info:
http://www.foresthistory.org/Events/ICEHO.html The First World Congress of Environmental History will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, August 4‐8, 2009. See: <wceh2009.org>.
Robert Luft Recognition: In April 2008, he was reelected for a three‐year term as Chairperson of the German “Historical Commission for the Bohemian Lands.” General News Items: On March 7, 2008, he served as Organizer of the 12th “Műnchener Bohemisten‐Treffen,” Collegium Carolinum, Munich. On April 20‐22, 2008, he chaired the Conference “Chronicon Aulae regiae/die Kőnigsaaler Chronik: eine Bestandsaufnahme,” organized by the German Historical Commission for the Bohemian Lands (Historische Kommission fuer die boehmischen Laender).
Kevin McDermott
Publications: “’To the Final Destruction of All Enemies!’ Rethinking Stalin’s Terror,” in B. Bowden and M.T. Davis (eds.), Terror: from Tyrannicide to Terroism (University of Queensland Press, St. Wua, Australia, 2008), pp. 175‐89. Papers presented: “Czech Popular responses to the Slánský Affair,” paper delivered at the conference “Remembering 1948 and 1968; Reflections on two pivotal years in Czech and
Slovak History; University of Glasgow, April, 2008. Optional: He is researching a book on Czechoslovakia, 1945‐89, and he would welcome information on sources on such themes as gender issues, leisure, housing, consumption and other aspects of everyday life. Please send any info to: [email protected]
Marie L. Neudorflová
Publications: “Sdílené názory českého žeského hnutí
s Bertou Suttnerovou.” In: Berta Suttnerová. Život pro mír. Ed. Eduard Šimek. Praha: Pedagogické museum J. A. Komenského 2007, s. 19–28.
Papers presented:
“Sponsorship in Czech Society in the Context of Political Conditions (1850‐1900),” International conference (in English and German): Kolektivní a individuální mecenášství a kultura veřejného daru v občanské společnosti. Historický ústav AV ČR, May 27‐30, 2008, Prague.
Special Note to Colleagues/Historians
A Czech historian Helena Polreichova, Ph.D. works on a biography of JUDr. Bedrich Stepanek (Bedřich Štěpánek), the Czechoslovak diplomat, a member of the Czechoslovak Envoy to Washington D.C. in 1921‐1922. After his conflict with Edward Beneš, he resigned from his post and from February until July 1923, he lived in Washington D.C. Then he moved to N.Y.C. to Hotel Pennsylvania. After 1926 he lived in San Francisco, California, 393‐27 Ave, after 1932 on 2806 Union Street, San Fr. She
would be very grateful for any information on the life of this man in the USA between 1923–1943, including the date and place of his death. Please, if you can help, send information to the address: [email protected] Thank you very much for your assistance. M.L.N.
Jaroslav Pánek Promotions: Served as President of the Czech National Committee of Historians and Vice‐President of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, responsible for the social sciences and humanities Awards: Festschrift dedicated to J. Pánek by Polish historians and political scientists “Na obrzeżach polityki (On the Coasts of Politics).” Vol. 4 Ed. by Marceli Kosman, Poznań 2007 (2008), pp. 249. Festschrift dedicated to J. Pánek by Moravian historians and Comeniologists “Komenský a patristika – Comenius and Patristics,” Studia Comeniana et historica, vol. XXXVII, Uherský Brod 2007 (2008), 303 pp. Papers presented: “Pain, Grief and Death in Renaissance Bohemia,” St. Laurence Church, Prague (Czech Republic), April 10, 2008. “Frederic of the Palatinate – A Puppet on the Bohemian Throne.” Pilsen Renaissance Town Hall, Plzeň (Czech Republic), April 15, 2008. Publications: “Gazety tygodniowe i korespondencja jako instrumenty komunikacji między Polska a Czechami w drugiej połowie XVI wieku,” in: Rola Komunikacji i przestrzeni w średniowiecznych i wczenonowożytnych dziejach Czech i Polski. Ed. by Anna Paner and Wojciech Iwańczak. Gdańsk 2008, pp. 271‐291.
“Rudolf II. – ein Kaiser zwischen Wien und Prag – im Werk Karl Vocelkas und in der tschechischen Historiographie,” in: Martin Scheuz and Vlasta Waleš (eds.), Wien und seine WienerInnen. Ein historischer Streifzug durch Wien über die Jahrhunderte. Wein‐Köln‐Weimar 2008, pp.17‐27. “Wandlungen des Bildes von Albrecht von Waldstein (Ein europäisches Thema aus der tschechischen Perspektive in sieben Jahrzehnten: 1934‐2007),” in: WALDSTEIN. Albrecht von Waldstein. Inter arma silent musae? Ed. by Eliška Fučková and Ladislav Čepička. Prag, Academia 2007 (2008), pp. 23‐27.
“Kultura polityczna w Europie Środkowej w średniowieczu i we wczesnym okresie nowożytności (Podsumowanie wyników konferencji w Pardubicach)”, in: Na obrzeżach polityki, Vol. 5. Ed. by Marceli Kosman. Poznań 2007 (2008), pp. 7‐11.
“Historiography of the Bohemian/Czech Lands Abroad, “in: Zdeněk V. David (ed.), Contributions of the Moravian Brethren to America. Selected Papers from the Conference of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, at the Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, June 8‐10, 2007. New York, NY 2008, pp. 71‐78.
Jim Peterson
Publication: “The Czech Republic in the World: Conflicting Loyalties, Organizational Memberships, and National Images,” The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, No. 1907, U. Pittsburgh 2008.
M. Mark Stolarik General News: The Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa, with the support of the Faculty of Arts, and with the co‐sponsorship
of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic, and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Canada, organized an international scholarly conference at the University of Ottawa on “The ‘Prague Spring’ and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968.” Scholars from all the former Warsaw Pact countries presented papers. North American scholars served as commentators. The conference took place on October 9‐10, 2008, at the University of Ottawa. M. Mark Stolarik was a visiting Professor of History at the Catholic University of Ružomberok in Slovakia during the month of May. He received a grant from the National Scholarship Program of the Slovak Republic in order to enable him to teach an intensive mini‐course on Slovak Immigration to North America. Publications: M. Mark Stolarik, “Slovenský archiv na Ottawskej univerzite,” Slovenská archivistika (Bratislava, Slovakia), Vol. XLII (No. 1, 2007), 188‐95. Stolarik also edited and published the scholarly anual Slovakia (Vol. 39, Nos. 72‐72, 2007), which featured articles by Igor Lukes, Patricia Krafcik, Martin Votruba, David Doellinger, Vladimir Baumgarten, Mark Stolarik, and review essays by Paul R. Magocsi and Jan Simko, plus book reviews. Papers presented: “Multiculturalism in Canada” to the Philosophical Faculty of the Catholic University of Ružomberok, Slovakia, May 2008.
Jerzy Tomaszewski Publications: “Przed 15. Roczniça konfliktu o Śląsk Cieszyński (Before the 15th anniversary of the Conflict In Tesin Silesia)” [in:] Per saecula ad tempora nostra. Sborník prací k šedesátym narozeninám prof. Jaroslava Pánka. Svazek 2. Uspořádali Jiří Milkulec a Miloslav Polívka.
Historický ústav Akademie věd České republiky, pp. 779‐785. “Zbąszyń” [in:] The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Ed. Gershon David Hundert. Vol. 2, New Haven & London, Yale University Press 2008, pp. 2114‐2115 “Polska w Europie Środkowej w XX stuleciu” [in:] Sprawy Międznarodowe 2008 nr 1 pp. 11‐34 [English translation: “Poland in Central Europe in the 20th Century” [w:] The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs 2008 Nr. 1, pp. 71‐40.
Stanley B. Winters General News: Many of the books and journals that Stanley Winters and Zdenka Winters donated to the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library in 2005 were ruined by water from the Mississippi River that overflowed into the upper levels of the facility on June 14, 2008. The Winters sent to the NCSLM a copy of the inventory of titles to help in assessing the damage. With Zdenka Winters has donated to the Archives of Charles University in Prague his diary entries and their correspondence dating from 1967 to 1979 with PhDr. Václav Příhoda (1889‐1979), professor of developmental psychology at Charles University and educational reformer, and with his American‐born wife Melissa Clark Příhoda (1888‐1977).
New Members Address Changes
Karla Huebner is currently a student at the
University of Pittsburgh where she is working on her doctoral degree. Some of her research interest includes Early Surrealism and Gender and Sexuality. Her area of specialization is Czech Modernism.
Melissa Feinberg History Department, Rutgers University 111 Van Dyck Hall 16 Seminary Place New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Kirsten Lodge is a Professor of Slavic Languages
and Literature at Columbia University. A principal research interests is Czech Decadence in the European Context. She specializes in Russian and Czech Languages, Literature, Film, and Culture.
Email: [email protected] Peter Hruby 650 American Drive, Apt. 103 Annapolis, MD 21403 Tel: (443) 949‐8374 Sheliagh Ogilvie is a Professor of Economic
History at the University of Cambridge. Her current research includes Early Modern Czech/Bohemian History. Additional areas of specialization are Economic and Social History and Women’s History.
Email: [email protected] Wilma Iggers 100 Ivyhurst Road Amherst, NY 14226