Ideologie a život: Obraz doby socialismu v českých, slovenských, polských a německých učebnicích dějepisu.

Authors

  • Zdeněk Beneš Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague
  • Tomáš Nigrin Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague

Abstract

Ideology and Reality: the Socialist Era As Presented in Czech, Slovak, Polish and German History Textbooks

The paper deals with the issue of loyalty towards the ruling regimes in communist Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia), Poland and East Germany. The main emphasis is placed on the behavior of society and on the reasons why most people were ready to collaborate with the communist regime, showing hardly any signs of active resistance. School textbooks published in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland, and Germany in the last twenty years have been subjected here to a comparative analysis. The authors state that the issue of loyalty has not been adequately treated in the above textbooks yet, despite the fact that it is of paramount importance for our understanding of the communist era in the respective countries.

Keywords: communism, school textbooks, loyalty, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany

Published

2012-01-25

Issue

Section

Articles