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Czechoslovakia

Carter, April ; Randle, Michael, Support Czechoslovakia, London, Housmans, 1968, pp. 64

Account of four transnational teams going to Warsaw Pact capitals to protest against the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion.

Della Porta, Donatella, Mobilizing for Democracy: Comparing 1989 and 2011, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 384

Expert on social movements combines analysis of movements with theory of democratisation, and using comparative framework discusses causes and outcomes of 1989 movements in Eastern Europe with the Middle East and North Africa from 2011. Particular, but by no means exclusive, focus on GDR and Czechoslovakia and on Tunisia and Egypt.

EERC, Parallel Report by the European Roma Rights Centre concerning the Czech Republic, European Roma Rights Centre, 2016, pp. 8

This Report describes the situation regarding one of the most serious human rights abuses of women – the practice of coercive sterilisation among Romani women – and the legal, policy and other obstacles in reaching an effective remedy for the victims.

See also Van der Zee, Renate, ‘Roma women share stories of forced sterilisation’, Al Jazeera, 19 July 2016.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/roma-women-share-stories-forced-sterilisation-160701100731050.html

Fisera, Vladimir, Workers’Councils in Czechslovakia: Documents and Essays 1968-69, ed. Fisera, Vladimir, London, Alison and Busby, 1978, pp. 200

Garton Ash, Timothy, We the People: The Revolution of 89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague, London, Granta Books in association con Penguin, 1990, pp. 156

(Published in New York by Random House as The Magic Lantern).

Golan, Galia, The Czechoslovak Reform Movement, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1971, pp. 349

Starts with brief summary of period 1956-1962 and then analyses in detail developments both within the Party and in other social spheres up to 1968, including the role of dissent and public protest.  

Gorbanevskaya, Natalia, Red Square at Noon, London, Andre Deutsch, 1972, pp. 285

On the demonstration in Red Square, Moscow, against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and subsequent trial and sentences.

Kavan, Jan ; Tomin, Zdena, Voices from Prague: Documents on Czechoslovakia and the Peace Movement, London, Palach Press, 1982, pp. 75

See also: Sormova, Ruth ; Neubarova, Michaela ; Kavan, Jan , Czechoslovakia’s Nonviolent Revolution In Martin, Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defence (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)London, War Resisters' International, 1991, pp. 36-41

Kenney, Padraic, A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989, 352, Princeton NJ, Princetown University Press, 2003

Youthful personal impressions combined with later historical research on Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. Especially strong on the playful resistance of groups such as the Orange Alternative in Wroclaw.

Mlynář, Zdeněk, Night Frost in Prague: The End of Humane Socialism, London, Hurst, 1980, pp. 300

Account by Communist Party leader close to Dubcek of internal Party politics leading up to the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, personal account of the Kremlin ‘negotiations’ after the abduction of top leaders, and his resignation from the Party.

Nepstad, Sharon Erickson, Nonviolent Struggle: Theories, Strategies, and Dynamics, New York, Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 264

Designed as a textbook, it covers history, theoretical developments and debates about the results of nonviolent movements. It categorizes nine types of nonviolent action, which are illustrated by case studies.  A separate chapter explores key issues of why and when sections of the armed services defect from a regime challenged by a nonviolent movement. 

Prins, Gwyn, Spring in Winter: The 1989 Revolutions, ed. Prins, Gwyn, (Preface by Vaclav Havel), Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1990, pp. 251

Includes reflections by leading participants in revolutions from Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, a journalist’s view of ‘Why Romania could not avoid bloodshed’, and an essay by J.K. Galbraith on dangers of the triumph of a simplistic economic ideology, and a comparative chronology of 1988-1990.

Roberts, Adam, Civilian Resistance as a National Defence, ed. Roberts, Adam, [1967], 2nd edn, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1969, pp. 367

[Previously The Strategy of Civilian Defence]

Discusses campaigns of national unarmed resistance to military occupation (e.g. the Ruhr in 1923) and to both Nazi and Communist regimes. Basil Liddell Hart (pp. 228-46) compares guerrilla and nonviolent resistance to occupation. The 1969 edition analyses Czechoslovak resistance to Soviet occupation.

Saxonberg, Steven, The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland, London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 434

Chapter 10 ‘Nonviolent Revolutions’ compares Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

Skilling, Gordon, Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution, Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1976, pp. 924

Especially chapters 21-22 (pp. 659-758). Charts the background to and evolution of the Prague Spring, international reactions to it and mounting Soviet and Warsaw Pact pressure, before outlining the August 1968 invasion and popular and official unarmed resistance to it. Skilling also discusses reasons for the gradual end to resistance and acceptance of the replacement of Dubcek by Husak.

Sormova, Ruth ; Neubarova, Michaela ; Kavan, Jan, Czechoslovakia’s Nonviolent Revolution, In Martin, Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defence (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), London, War Resisters' International, pp. 36-41

Thompson, Mark R., To Shoot or Not to Shoot: Posttotalitarianism in China and Eastern Europe, Comparative Politics, Vol. 34, no. 1, 2001, pp. 63-83

Seeks to explain why in 1989 there was a massacre in Beijing but not in Berlin or Prague. Similar discussion in Thompson, Democratic Revolutions: Asia and Eastern Europe (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) .

Tokes, Rudolf L., Opposition in Eastern Europe, ed. Tokes, Rudolf L., London, Macmillan, 1979, pp. 306

Includes surveys of human rights and political change, worker resistance and potential for peasant opposition, and essays on Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland and Hungary from 1968-1978.

Vollnhal, Clemens, Jahre des Umbruchs: Friedliche Revolution in der DDR und Transition in Ostmitteleuropa, Goettingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012

The disintegration of the Soviet bloc led to different kinds of peaceful transformation in Central Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s.  In spite of many differences, common tendencies became apparent. Leading experts elaborate on similarities and differences in the GDR, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Wheaton, Bernard ; Kavan, Zdeněk, The Velvet Revolution: Czechoslovakia 1989-1991, Boulder CO, Westview Press, 1992, pp. 255

Williams, Kieran, The Prague Spring and its Aftermath: Czechoslovak Politics 1968-1970, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 286

Windsor, Philip ; Roberts, Adam, Czechoslovakia 1968: Reform, Repression and Resistance, London, Chatto and Windus (for the Institute of Strategic Studies), 1969, pp. 200

The first half by Windsor explores the broad context and reasons for the Soviet invasion; Roberts (pp. 97-143) assesses the resistance drawing on the BBC monitoring service reports and interviews. Key documents relating to the invasion are included in appendices.