Overview

Across central and eastern Europe after World War II, the newly established communist regimes promised a drastic social revolution that would transform the world at great pace and pave the way to a socialist future. Although many aspects of this utopian project are well known - such as fast-paced industrialisation, collectivisation and urbanisation - the regimes even sought to transform the ways in which their citizens interacted with each other and the world around them. Using a unique analytical model based on an amalgam of anthropology, sociology, history and extensive archival research, award-winning scholar Roman Krakovsky here considers the Czechoslovakian attempt to 'reinvent the world' - 'time' and 'space' included - in this all-encompassing way. Ranging from WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall, his innovative analysis variously considers the impact of Stakhanovism, the impossible-to-achieve production targets intended to assert socialism's future potential; the attempt to replace Sunday's Christian attributes with socialist ones; and the profound changes brought about to the public and private spheres, including the culture of informing and the ways this was circumvented. Across a wide range of case studies Krakovsky demonstrates both the far-reaching extent of the communist vision and the inherent flaws and contradictions that gradually destabilised it. This in-depth perspective is vital reading for all scholars of twentieth century history and politics.

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9781784539146

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Krakovsky offers with this volume a remarkable perspective on the fundamental changes to the social order in socialist Czechoslovakia .... Krakovsky is eloquent in his combining of micro studies with general questions about socialist society. It is a stimulating, unconventional book. * Canadian Slavonic Papers * This monograph has many strengths and will assist the reader to fully understand how the Communist Party attempted to permeate all aspects of society. The chapters are based on clear and focused case studies ... An excellent contribution to the post-1989 historiography on communism. It offers a refreshing approach to understanding both ideology and society through a novel focus on time and space. * Europe-Asia Studies *

This is a refreshing new approach to east European communist regimes. While most work concentrates on economic weaknesses and political oppression, this book has an innovative focus: the relationship between state and society and the regimes' attempts to control the citizens' private sphere, the failure of which was a major contributing factor in their collapse. I warmly recommend it! - Ivan T. Berend, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Why and how were communist societies attractive to those who lived in them? Why and how did they become less and less attractive and eventually intolerable? In his remarkable study Roman Krakovsky offers what he calls pieces of a jigsaw puzzle which help us answer these questions but also highlight the need for further research. With originality and wit, he analyses the changed social construction of time and space under Czechoslovakian communism - initially inspiring hope in progress but eventually triggering disillusionment as the promised progress was not sustained. The imposition of `too much order' began to produce its opposite, until the last great attempt to reinvent the world collapsed. Krakovsky's jigsaw is rich and suggestive and very rewarding. - Ben Barkow, Director of the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, `In State and Society in Communist Czechoslovakia, Roman Krakovsky considers the heart of communism: its desire to master time and space. This book's revelations are very often groundbreaking and their implications go far beyond communist Czechoslovakia. This is important reading for all scholars of twentieth century Europe.' - Paul Gradvohl, Jr Professor, University of Lorraine

Author Information

Roman Krakovsky is a lecturer at the University of Geneva. He received his PhD in 2012 from the Universite Paris-Sorbonne and won a number of awards for his doctoral thesis, among them the Prix d'histoire sociale and the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History.

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