TOWARDS A PORTABLE PUBLIC SPHERE: HOW TECHNOLOGY CREATED A DISCURSIVE SPACE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1968 by Misha Mazzini Griffith A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History and Art History Committee: ___________________________________________ Director ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Department Chairperson ___________________________________________ Program Director ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: _____________________________________ Summer Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Towards a Portable Public Sphere: How Technology Created a Discursive Space in Czechoslovakia, 1968 A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Misha Mazzini Griffith Master of Arts California State University, Chico, California, 2006 Bachelor of Arts University of Washington, 1983 Director: T. Mills Kelly, Professor Department of History and Art History Summer Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2017 Misha Mazzini Griffith All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION There are two men in my life who have made this study possible. They have sacrificed much, have critiqued the work when necessary, and have encouraged me at every turn. I wish to dedicate this work to my husband, Jerry Griffith and my son Alexander. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A dissertation may be the work of a single researcher, but this work cannot be done alone. Three exceptional scholars formed my committee and have supported me throughout this process; I find it difficult to adequately express my gratitude for their patience and assistance. Dina Copelman, and Marion Deshmukh are scholars from whom I have learned so much. My advisor, T. Mills Kelly, has been my Polaris—my pole star—patiently guiding me in the right direction. I received institutional help with a travel grant from George Mason University’s Provost Office, which made travel to archives in Europe possible. The Open Society Archives in the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary and the National Museum of Technology in Prague, the Czech Republic, provided me with ample archival and exhibition information that was critical to the research. Both of these facilities deserve greater support from the scholarly community. My gratitude also goes out to Gary Francis Powers, Jr. and the volunteers at the Cold War Museum on Vint Hill in Virginia for their demonstration of the teleprinter and other intelligence gathering systems. One reason why historians love to live in this area is the proximity to the two best facilities for archival research in the United States: the National Archives and the Library of Congress; and I want to specifically thank Helen Fedor at the European Reading Room for her support. The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Library Director David Muhlena provided their treasure trove of Oral Histories from Czech and Slovak emigrants, and I thank Rosamund Johnson who led the collection effort. Fenwick Library at George Mason University’s Fairfax campus helped to gather materials from far-flung libraries, and I wish to thank the Dean of Libraries John Zenelis, Digital Collections Archivist Robert Vay, History Librarian George Oberle, Development Officer Jamie Coniglio, UDTS Coordinator Sally Evans, and the rest of the library staff for their assistance and comfortable facilities. Eminent historians in various fields have been generous to me with their time, recommendations, and the use of unpublished works, and so I would like to acknowledge the scholarly assistance of Cate Giustino, Paulina Bren, Kiernan Williams, Hugh Agnew, Owen V. Johnson, Peter Hruby, Zdeněk David, Madeleine Albright, and A. Ross Johnson. Finally, I wish to thank those colleagues and fellow grad students who gave me moral support throughout the process, and especially John and Elizabeth Orens for bottomless cups of tea, suggestions and sympathy. Opravdu moc vám děkuji. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... vi Abstract ............................................................................................................................... x Chapter One ........................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 2 Literature ....................................................................................................................... 20 Chapter Two...................................................................................................................... 32 Ideological Considerations ............................................................................................ 53 Chapter Three.................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter Four ................................................................................................................... 124 Chapter Five .................................................................................................................... 177 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 242 Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 248 References ....................................................................................................................... 250 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Czechoslovak Television ............................................................................................... ČST Czechoslovak Radio....................................................................................................... ČSR Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ............................................................................. KSČ Czechoslovak News Agency ..........................................................................................ČTK Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior Secret Police .......................................................StB Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Central Committee ...................................... UV KSČ Communist Party of the Soviet Union .........................................................................CPSU vi ABSTRACT TOWARDS A PORTABLE PUBLIC SPHERE: HOW TECHNOLOGY CREATED A DISCURSIVE SPACE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1968 Misha Mazzini Griffith, PhD. George Mason University, 2017 Dissertation Director: Dr. T. Mills Kelly This study examines the efforts to use communication technology to create a public sphere in two very different circumstances. The first instance was in socialist Czechoslovakia in January of 1968, when a group of reformers were given the leadership of an authoritarian government in an economic crisis. They instituted such reforms as freedom of expression to re-engage the population and revitalize the economy. The second instance was in August of that same year when a foreign military intervention stopped the government’s reform agenda. In both situations, broadcast and consumer technology played crucial roles by engaging citizen participation in politics and the public space. Using a constructivist methodology, this study examines the technology, the users, the ideological aspirations, the political movements, and the institutional management of the broadcast media to better understand the context of the technology. This extended study demonstrates that the personalized communication devices available x in Czechoslovakia during the 1968 reform movement and the subsequent Soviet-led invasion played an important and understudied role in the creation of the successful but short-lived public sphere during the period commonly known as the “Prague Spring.” The compact and personalized nature of these new technologies allowed users to repurpose the original intended functions of their equipment to develop a range of sophisticated, interwoven dialogues between the elites, content production personnel, and the general public. The result was the Czechoslovak Communist Party leadership’s ability to use communications technology to gain popular support for their pluralistic reforms in the first eight months of 1968. Following the Soviet-led invasion devised to put an end to those reforms, the same broadcast technologies and workers became the organizing arm of the captive government and were used to coordinate the non-violent resistance against the invasion. The situation came full circle because the government and the media return to their pre-1968 configurations. Set in a brief time period that contained an established inventory of equipment, this study concludes that, through the process of democratic rationalization, the choices made were formed through social pressures and the individuals’ knowledge, aspirations, and skill. In both situations, the broadcast media facilitated a lively public space which was only abandoned under extreme duress. xi CHAPTER ONE The study of the democratization of