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The study primarily focuses on the activity of the international human rights movement Amnesty International in favour of prisoners of conscience in Czechoslovakia from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, but the text is also supplemented by examples of similar activities carried out by other non-governmental initiatives or, as the case may be, foreign political representations. The pressure of non-governmental organizations, governments and the public in the world to release political prisoners in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and to improve their living conditions in prisons apparently had no influence on the political leadership of the state and the state administration. The actions were ignored on the outside, i.e. they were left unanswered. Nevertheless, specific cases can be found where Czechoslovakia responded to this pressure and criticism, resulting in the easing of the conditions of imprisonment or release. Indirect influence from abroad was demonstrably very significant in the long-term perspective, leading in communist Czechoslovakia both to a change in some of the described cases and to a gradual, increasing carefulness in the treatment of political prisoners and approach to their criminal punishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Czechoslovakia and dealing with its consequences has taken twenty-five years. Drawing mainly on archival sources, this contribution gives a short overview of the historical background, and the development and current situation of dealing with the difficult heritage of selected former military facilities. The foreign military presence deeply influenced the general attitude of the current Czech population towards foreign military presence. Among the many sites of Soviet military deployment, Milovice and Ralsko, discussed in this article, are distinctive examples, as they show both the opportunities for and limits of the recovery of former military sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the unified system of civil defence education. This complex programme of civil defence and in particular of ideological preparation for an armed conflict was created in Czechoslovakia in the mid 1960s but was not launched until the so called normalization period. The programme's ambition was to educate people, starting already at the kindergarten, as conscious defenders of both their homeland and the international communist society. This system was part of the reality of pretence in Czechoslovakia in the 1970's and it was deemed as relatively successful by the ruling Communist Party. However, the public regarded it as a necessary evil and cherry-picked only the things that suited them best. In response to the ideological system, overall easing and the sense of safety after 1989, both the public and politicians rejected the unified system of civil defence education, together with the civil defence education as a whole. The system was a proof that the efforts to maintain the totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia before November 1989 were actually failing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ivan Medek's work as a long term freelancer of the Voice of America broadcasting station (VOA) was probably his most famous role in the public sphere. Medek started this collaboration shortly after his arrival and the start of his exile in Vienna. This relationship with VOA lasted until 1989. In spite of many formal and financial obstacles, Ivan Medek contributed to changing the structure of the VOA broadcasting and helped many persecuted Czechoslovak citizens along the way. This study follows Ivan Medek's mission with the VOA broadcasting station and the changes which occurred within the VOA in relation to political development in Czechoslovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study primarily focuses on the activity of the international human rights movement Amnesty International in favour of prisoners of conscience in Czechoslovakia from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, but the text is also supplemented by examples of similar activities carried out by other non-governmental initiatives or, as the case may be, foreign political representations. The pressure of non-governmental organizations, governments and the public in the world to release political prisoners in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and to improve their living conditions in prisons apparently had no influence on the political leadership of the state and the state administration. The actions were ignored on the outside, i.e. they were left unanswered. Nevertheless, specific cases can be found where Czechoslovakia responded to this pressure and criticism, resulting in the easing of the conditions of imprisonment or release. Indirect influence from abroad was demonstrably very significant in the long-term perspective, leading in communist Czechoslovakia both to a change in some of the described cases and to a gradual, increasing carefulness in the treatment of political prisoners and approach to their criminal punishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares and contrasts the past social and economic conditions in Germany and the Czech Republic. Both countries were similar in size and population, and both had relatively high living standards, economies and cultures. However, they differ from their efforts on how they dealt with their Communist past. Both countries passed different rehabilitation laws to rectify communist-era injustices and damages.