Rozhovor Britských listů 234. Petr Pithart: Normalizace. Byla to éra bezčasí [Britské listy Interview 234. Petr Pithart: The decades after the 1968 Soviet invasion. It was an era of timelessness]

Culik, J. and Pithart, P. (2019) Rozhovor Britských listů 234. Petr Pithart: Normalizace. Byla to éra bezčasí [Britské listy Interview 234. Petr Pithart: The decades after the 1968 Soviet invasion. It was an era of timelessness]. [Audio]

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Publisher's URL: https://youtu.be/D6WSHQ1Wjwo

Abstract

(This interview is in Czech with English subtitles.) On the occasion of the thirty years' anniversary of the fall of communism, we broadcast three exclusive interviews with Petr Pithart, the first Prime Minister of the post-communist Czech Republic and a close collaborator of Czechoslovak President Václav Havel. In this, third, interview, Petr Pithart talks about the drastic impact of the so called "normalisation period" - the two post-invasion decades from 1969 to 1989. At the beginning of this period, all adult citizens of Czechoslovakia were subjected to political interviews during which they were forced to approve of the invasion and renounce all their previous liberal or democratic statements, otherwise they lost their jobs. These interviews were extremely humiliating. The Czechoslovaks retreated into the privacy of their families and homes and started distrusting their fellow citizens. The deep trauma of normalisation has not been exorcised to this very day and it still deeply influences life in contemporary Czech Republic, argues Pithart. The interview was broadcast by the Czech cable TV station Regionalnitelevize.cz from Friday 23rd August, 2019.

Item Type:Audio
Keywords:Czechoslovakia, 1968 Prague Spring, 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak period of "normalisation" (1969-1989), Czechoslovak post-invasion purges, Mikhail Gorbachev, fall of communism in Czechoslovakia.
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Culik, Dr Jan
Authors: Culik, J., and Pithart, P.
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > Slavonic Studies
Publisher:Britske listy
Related URLs:

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record