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IMPACT OF THE POLITICAL REGIMES ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE INTERWAR CZECHOSLOVAK ELITES

L. Cviklova

Abstract

The role of the interwar Czechoslovak elites in the historical consciousness or in the national memory can be advanced by showing the examples of the impact of the political regimes on the interpretation of the symbolic role of the individual elite members. The contribution draws on those concepts and methodological approaches that have been employed by the number of historians and historical sociologists such as historical consciousness, collective (social) memory and national memory; a major incentive for choice of the individual elite members were several sociological researchers on the Czech elites. The pluralist debates about the impact of the Czech interwar elites and their contributions were launched in the First Czechoslovak Republic and later were criticized by the official communist line and by the communist historians. On the other hand, the post–communist positive and negative interpretation of the role of the individual elite members more or less merged with the original pluralist interwar perspectives. This thesis about the impact of the political regimes on the interpretation of the contributions of the interwar Czechoslovak elites can be illustrated by (1) the members of the interwar political elite such as the economist and the politician Alois Rasin, the lawyer and the political Frantisek Soukup, the physician and Vavro Srobar and the politician Jiri Stribrny, (2) the members of the interwar cultural elites such as the writer Karel Capek and the journalist Milena Jesenska and (3) the members of the administrative elites such as the expert in the field of gender Frantiska Plaminkova and the diplomat Zdenek Fierlinger.

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