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The Impact of the Political Regimes on the Interpretation of the Proto- Czechs, the Oldest Generation of the Czech Elites and the Interwar Czechoslovak Elites

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The Impact of the Political Regimes on the Interpretation of the Proto- Czechs, the Oldest Generation of the Czech Elites and the Interwar Czechoslovak Elites SWS INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art ISSUE 3, 2020 SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art THE IMPACT OF THE POLITICAL REGIMES ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PROTO- CZECHS, THE OLDEST GENERATION OF THE CZECH ELITES AND THE INTERWAR CZECHOSLOVAK ELITES Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lucie Cviklová Philosophical Faculty, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic https://doi.org/10.5593/sws.iscss.2020.7.1/s01.03 ABSTRACT The role of the Proto-Czechs, the oldest generation of the elites and the interwar elites in the national memory can be advanced by showing the examples of the impact of the political regimes on the interpretation of the symbolic role of the individual elite members. The contribution draws on those concepts and methodological approaches that have been employed by the number of historians and historical sociologists such as historical consciousness, collective (social) memory and national memory; a major incentive for choice of the individual elite members were several sociological researchers on the Czech elites. The pluralist debates about the impact of the Czech elites and their contributions were launched in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and developed by the several generations of the Czech and the foreign historians. This thesis about the impact of the political regimes on the interpretation of the contributions of the Czech elites can be illustrated by (1)the current importance of the Proto-Czech elites such as Saint Wenceslaus I. [Svatý Václav], (Saints) Cyril and Methodius, Božena Němcová and Karel Havlíček Borovský, (2)the popularity of the members of the interwar political elite such as the economist Alois Rašín, the journalist Milena Jesenská, the politician Františka Plamínková and the diplomat Zdeněk Fierlinger, (3)the positive and negative reponse to the actions of the communist elites such as Rudolf Slánský, Klement Gottwald, Alexander Dubček and Gustav Husák and (4)the evaluation of the members of the communist counter-elite and later democratic elite such as Václav Havel and Petr Pithart. Keywords: Administrative Elites, Communist Elites, Cultural Elites, Czechoslovakia, Historical Consciousness, Interwar Elites, National Memory, Political Elites, Post-Communist Elites and Proto-Czech Elites. INTRODUCTION Czechoslovak elites in the historical Comprehension of the interpretation consciousness or in the collective memory of the Proto-Czechs and the interwar can be facilitated by the classification or DOI 10.35603/SSA2020/ISSUE3.02 - PB - - 11 - DOI 10.35603/SSA2020/ISSUE3.02 SWS INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY ISSN: 2664 - 0104 SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art ISSUE 3, 2020 SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art placement of the Czech elites in the distinct Party [Národní strana svobodomyslná] historical periods and by the examples of from 1907 to 1914, his later involvement the impact of the political regimes on the with the Czech Realist Party [Česká interpretation of the symbolic role of the strana realistická] and his struggle for the individual elite members. (A)The first type independence for the Czechs and the of the Czech elites is several generations Slovaks from the Austria–Hungary. The of the intellectuals or the patriots who Czech interwar debates put emphasis on aimed at the nation–building and later his international recognition as the head of at the foundation of Czechoslovakia [1]. the provisional Czechoslovak government, (B) The second category is the elites of his first success in the presidential elections interwar Czechoslovakia [2]. (C) The third and his later re–election in 1920, 1927 sort of the Czech elites is the artificially and 1934. After the communist takeover created communist nomenklatura ruling in 1948, the criticism of the Masaryk’s elite [3]. (D) The fourth group of the Czech contribution for the Czech nation and elites is the Czech post–communist elite the efforts to remove him from the Czech and its individual segments: it has been collective memory can be explained by composed of the former communist his criticism of Marxism; in the number of nomenklatura, the newcomers and the the Czech towns his statues were taken former counter–elite; e.g. the dissenters down and replaced by the dignitaries against the Czechoslovak ‘frozen’ post– from the Communist Party of the Soviet totalitarian regime [4]. Union such as Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Andrei Alexandrovich The discourses on the importance of Zhdanov and the others. On the other the Proto-Czech elites and the oldest hand, the post-communist historical generation of the Czech elites played and media discourses reintroduced and the important role in the Czech National reinforced his symbolic importance as Revival and later in the interwar period. the ‘founder of Czechoslovakia’ and the After the communist takeover in 1948 these ‘father liberator’ [5]. perspectives were partially submitted to the criticism by the communist historians. On The pluralist debates about the role the other hand, after 1989 the mainstream of the Czech interwar elites and their post-communist historians contributed contributions were launched in the First to the merger of the current discourses Czechoslovak Republic and later were with the previous pre-communist ones. criticized by the official communist line The telling example was the assessment and by the communist historians. On the of the actions that had been initiated other hand, the post–communist positive by the statesman of the Austria–Hungary and negative interpretation of the role of and the founder of Czechoslovakia the individual elite members more or less Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The early Czech merged with the original pluralist interwar discourses positively assessed Masaryk’s perspectives. An illustrative example was participation in the Reichsrat from 1891 the evaluation of the decisions that had to 1893 with the Young Czech Party been made by the Czech politician and [Mladočeši], officially National Liberal statesman Edward Benesch. The early DOI 10.35603/SSA2020/ISSUE3.02 - 12 - - 13 - DOI 10.35603/SSA2020/ISSUE3.02 SWS INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art ISSUE 3, 2020 SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art Czech discourses positively assessed his METHODOLOGY position of a Secretary of the National The paper partially ignores the mainstream Council in Paris and his collaboration sociological analysis of the elites; e.g. the with the first president of the post– problems of the social stratification and war Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue the demarcation of the national and the Masaryk; he was seen as one of the local elites by the mainstream sociological leading organizers of the independent researches. Furthermore, it draws on Czechoslovakia and as the active those concepts and the methodological contributor to its development. Despite the approaches that have been employed fact that the German interwar intellectuals by the number of the historians and the historical sociologists, i.e. historical held him responsible for the break–up of consciousness and collective memory. The the Central Europe after the World War I, historical consciousness, conceptualized the Czech ones positively evaluated his by the Czech historian Miroslav Hroch positions at the Czechoslovak political and the number of other social scientists, scene: they highlighted the fact that he is usually understood as the connection was the first and longest-serving Foreign among the interpretation of the past, the Minister of Czechoslovakia, represented understanding of the present and the Czechoslovakia at the 1919 Peace visions for the future [7]. The concept of the Conference in Paris, lectured at the collective (social) memory has referred to Charles University and was the second shared representations of a group’s past; president of Czechoslovakia. The early its employment has not been reduced radical post–war debates embraced his to the historical and the sociological decision to expel the Germans from the analyses and has been enriched by the liberated Czechoslovakia and partially anthropological an historical perspectives. drew on the democratic traditions in the More specifically, the paper opens a interwar period. Nevertheless, later the wider perspective from which to evaluate official communist historians were critical the individual members of the interwar of his participation in the Czechoslovak and the communist elites in the former government–in–exile, his commitment Czechoslovakia; its major point of departure to the Western democratic principles is historical consciousness or collective and their embodiment or influence in his memory of Czechs and their opinion on first and second presidency. While some the national elites. A major incentive for Czech post–communist historians pointed the choice of the individual elite members out Benesch’s efforts in the organization of was several historical and sociological researchers on the Czech elites; some of government in exile and his contributions them relied on the structured questionnaires to Operation Anthropoid to assassinate and some of them also involved the open Reinhard Heydrich, the other ones held questions. Czechs more or less positively him responsible for the expulsion of the assessed some of the Czech political Germans and the Hungarians as well as elite members such as Edward Benesch for the introduction of the communist rule or Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and had a in Czechoslovakia [6]. neutral or negative attitude to the number of the other ones such as Emil Hácha [8]. DOI 10.35603/SSA2020/ISSUE3.02 - 12 - - 13 - DOI 10.35603/SSA2020/ISSUE3.02 SWS INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY ISSN: 2664 - 0104 SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art ISSUE 3, 2020 SWS Journal of Social Sciences and Art RESULTS: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE was enhanced by the gathering places SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE PROTO- such as the cafés, the reading rooms CZECH ELITES, THE OLDEST GENERATION or the theatres and the access to the OF THE CZECH ELITES AND THE INTERWAR target bilingual population in the small CZECHOSLOVAK ELITES IN THE HISTORICAL settlements was eased or speeded by the CONSCIOUSNESS relatively small distances among them. Prague was the most important centre 1.
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