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Th e complex of events linked with the developments in Czechoslovakia at the time of the so called Prague Spring remains, even after 40 years, analyzed only partially. Th e international conjunctions of the reform process and the resulting normalization represent one of the least explored aspects of this problem. Th e relationship of Yugoslavia to the so called Prague Spring is impossible to explore without parallel analysis of the then position and development of contacts between Belgrade and Moscow. With respect to the complex spectrum of partial and more serious problems, the book traces particularly the wider frame of internal and international politics in the development of Czechoslovak-Yugoslav relations from 1968 to 1969. Th e other important questions connected with these problems (echoes of the Prague Spring in particular parts of Yugoslav society, degree of inspiration by the example of Tito's regime for the preparation of the post-January reform program, Yugoslav support of Czechoslovakian citizens on her territory after 21st August, economic and cultural relations of both countries etc.) the monograph either outlines or puts aside. Th e central line of interpretation is formed by a detailed analysis of political relations both between Belgrade and Prague, and Belgrade and Moscow. Th e book also deals in detail with the development of the approach of particular infl uences acting within the frame of Yugoslav power elite, both towards the politics of Dubček's leadership and towards reforms carried out in post-January Czechoslovakia. Th e chapter discussing the activities of four members of the Czechoslovak government who tried to create in Belgrade immediately after 21st August 1968 the embryonic core of a government in exile has the form of a kind of thematic excursion. Th e book concentrates more on the events in Yugoslavia. Th e relations with Belgrade did not have a signifi cant eff ect on the course of the so-called Prague Spring. Instead, the echo of the reformed process markedly (immediately and in the long term) infl uenced the political and social processes at that time in progress in Yugoslavia. Moreover, the development of the Tito regime from 1968 to 1969 has so far remained entirely outside the interest of historiography. Chronologically the book focuses on events from January 1968 to the end of summer of 1969. Although the Czechoslovak-Yugoslav contacts were regarding their content empty as early as the autumn of 1968, the relations of Belgrade and Moscow were infl uenced by the so called Czechoslovakian question – as a symbol, not a real problem – until the summer months of 1969. Th e shadow of this problem was defi nitely removed only during Gromyko's visit to Yugoslavia at the beginning of September 1969.

The collective monograph under the title Countries of the Western Balkan in the Last Twenty‑five years and Perspectives of their Development of the author's collective led by Jan Pelikán which was made as a result of the research supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR) is an attempt at analysing the development of the national states Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia – the majority of them were founded in the last twenty‑ five years after the fall of Yugoslavian federation. In the introductory chapter Jan Pelikán provides four categories of the Western Balkan states in light of their potential to participate in the European integrative process. The first group is formed by Croatia which already entered the European Union in 2013 and became its full‑ fledged member with capacity to grow – despite some today economic problems – into the political stability element in the territory of the South‑eastern Europe. To the second category of states rank Serbia and Montenegro which admission to the European Union is, however, unlikely in the horizon of shorter than eight or ten years. Both countries have already realized a number of unavoidable political steps leading to the acceleration of the access negotiations with the European Union. On the other hand, both states have caught up with the losses suffered in times of the Milošević regime which have been manifested particularly in insufficient economic transformation having the negative impacts on their economic development. The third category is represented by the states with prevailing Albanian population – Albania and Kosovo – which hopes for integration to the European structures in the horizon of ten years is utterly slim by reasons of their considerable economic backwardness, low level of observance of legal rules, often violation of parliamentary democracy rules, role of criminal activities in political life and unsolved Albanian national question posing the explosive potential which can destabilize the region of the Western Balkan. To the positive factors of the development primarily of Kosovo belong both the fact that after years of struggles the relations between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs have been at least partly solved, and the connection of both Albanian countries to the institutions of European Union. The fourth category of states is composed by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia which not only have no real chance to become the members of the European Union in the long‑ term perspective, but even are threatened by breakdown or distinctive revision of their borders. Both states have been de facto maintained alive by the pressure of the international community, their coherence is doubtful and separatist tendencies of the minor and dissatisfied nations have been all the time strong. Besides, they have suffered fom a number of economic, social and other difficulties similar to those of Albania or Kosovo. The latest history of Albania is analysed by Tomáš Chrobák who at first mentions the development of this territory in the whole 20th century, particularly the impacts of the Hoxha regime which dominated in the country after the WWII – without apprehension of this stage of Albanian history is impossible to understand what has happened in the last twenty‑ five years. The Hoxha regime is depicted as developed from the rule of the Stalinist type of state in which the personal rule by Hoxha, who increasingly combined the national xenophobia with the dirigisme statism supplemented by the ultra‑ leftist rhetoric mobilizing the population according to the samples of Chinese Cultural revolution, prevailed. After the collapse of the Communist regimes in the Central and South‑ eastern Europe the Hoxha's successor Ramiz Alia continued in the repressive course in internal affairs until the demonstrations in 1990 when the leadership of the Party of Labour of Albania de