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Fools and Heroes

The Changing Role of Communist Intellectuals in Czechoslovakia

1st Edition - January 1, 1980

Author: Peter Hruby

eBook ISBN:

9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 1 - 3 9 7 7 - 7

Fools and Heroes: The Changing Role of Communist Intellectuals in Czechoslovakia details two crucial years of 1948 and 1968 that marked the climax of contradictory developments,… Read more

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Fools and Heroes: The Changing Role of Communist Intellectuals in Czechoslovakia details two crucial years of 1948 and 1968 that marked the climax of contradictory developments, namely, the acceptance and repudiation of Soviet ideology and statecraft. Organized into three parts, this book begins with the class struggle and moral problems in Czechoslovakia. Subsequent part explores the economic problems and social history of the nation. The search for truth in terms of history, philosophy, and politics is also addressed.

List of Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Introduction (Aims of the Work, Its Methods and Contribution)

Part I The Glass Struggle and Moral Problems

Chapter 1. Moral and National Hara-Kiri

Chapter 2. "We are Charlatans Who Passed Ourselves off as Surgeons"

Chapter 3. "We Have Learned from our Own Blunders"

Chapter 4. "From a Blockhead to a Human Being"

Chapter 5. "Without the Benefit of Humanism and Justice"

Part II Economic Problems and Social History

Chapter 1. The ČSR: Workers and Intellectuals in a Soviet Economy

1. Cast of Actors

2. Fears, Hopes and Illusions (1945-8)

3. Stalin's Hand

4. Workers' Opposition (1948-53)

5. Intellectuals' Collaboration (1948-56)

6. The New Course and Hesitant De-Stalinization

7. Popular Roots of Revisionism: Workers in a "Workers' State" (1956-9)

8. White Collar Reaction to Pressure from below

9. Conclusion

Chapter 2. The ČSSR: Economic Reform and Scientific-Technical Revolution?

1. Economic Failure and Intellectual Power

2. Workers Opposed, Intellectuals Changing

3. The Decisive Year 1963: From Economic Stagnation to Economic Discussion

4. Problems of the New Economic Model

5. Political and Social Conditions of the Scientific-Technical Revolution

6. Workers' Activism before and after the Invasion

7. The Intelligentsia in 1968

8. Human versus Soviet Face of Socialism

9. Abnormalizing the Normal (Intellectuals)

10. Abnormalizing the Normal (Workers)

Chapter 3. Patterns of Stratification: Workers and Intellectuals

The Theme

1. First Stage: Imported Stalinism

2. Second Stage: Reforms

3. Restoration and Revenge

4. Conclusion: The Advantages and Limitations of Sociology

Part III Searching for Truth and Reality

Chapter I. In History

1. The Re-Educators

2. Karel Bartošek: From Stalinism to the New Left

3. Josef Macek: Communist "Hussitism", A Career, and Cautious Compromising

4. Milan Hübl, Gustáw Husák, and Some Other Retrievers of the Past

5. Husák and Hübl: Moscow Time Again

Chapter 2. In Philosophy

1. On the Warpath (1945-8)

2. Stalinist Philosophy (1949-54)

3. Post-Stalinist Rebirth

4. Milan Machovec: Could Jesus Help the Marxists?

5. Ivan Sviták: The Strategy of Truth

6. Miroslaw Kusý: The Strategy of Probing the LimIts

7. The Question of Internationalism

Chapter 3. In Politics

1. Student Leader Purging Students

2. Anti-Colonial Fight Led from A Colony

3. A TV View of the Castle

4. Revolution by Television

5. Carnegijsky: How to Turn Friends into Enemies

6. The Beliefs of Youth

7. Why do they Collaborate?

8. Towards Euro-Communism?

Conclusion (Aberration, Recovery, Lost and Found, Realism, Russian Tyranny)

Bibliography

Name Index

Subject Index