ČESKÝ ČASOPIS HISTORICKÝ / THE CZECH HISTORICAL REVIEW
ročník 116
č. 4/2018
S. 947–1128

STUDIE / STUDIES

DOUBEK Vratislav
Pojetí republikanismu před ustavením
Československé republiky … S. 953
(The concept of republicanism before the establishment
of the Czechoslovak Republic)

The study analyses some aspects of the dynamic development of the end of the First World War, which led to the declaration of an independent Czechoslovakia. In particular, it concentrates on the planting of the republican character of this state as not a matter-of-course, only a gradually adopted part of the political plan and the programme of foreign resistance, headed by the later president T. G. Masaryk. In connection with the controversy over the character of the future state during the world war the text also contemplates the earlier considerations of the Czech political thought of the 19th century on the issue of the republic and the republican form of government.
Key words: Republicanism – Czech political thought – creation of the Czechoslovak Republic – T. G. Masaryk

RESUMÉ
On 28 October 1918, the independence of the Czechoslovak state was declared. This was a consequence of the rapid development in the Central European space at the end of the war, when newly-formed successor states of a republican character filled the area after the break-up of Austria-Hungary.
Republicanism was not accepted in Czech society was a constructive state political concept, immediately for several reasons. In the first place, there was a lack of progressively developing debate, which would promote its concept as part of a positively viewed political agenda. In the Central European area, there was no experience with this government model that would at least admit its application. Earlier examples of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and, above all, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Republic of the Two Nations) were tied to a specific regional development. In addition, these systems bore the elements of monarchism, so their reception has seen only some hybrid forms of alternative or weakened monarchies. Similarly, the Swiss Confederation did not represent sufficient inspiration for the Czech society, among other things for the religious context of ist republican administration.
In contrast, Czech political thought and perception arose from the tradition of a stable and unifying monarchism – whether this tradition related to the residue of the medieval state of the lands of the Bohemian Crown, the historical justification of the presently applied land administration authority within the Austrian Empire, whether it was directly related to the Habsburg monarchy as its shared broader homeland. The most remarkable reinterpretation of republicanism thus came from the German radical democratic movement and referred to the inspiration of the Great French Revolution. In this sense, republicanism carried the signs of the decay of order and the violent form of seizing power. Such a concept, however, did not leave strong support in the majority Czech society, even at the time of the revolutionary enthusiasm of the late 1840s. Among other things, because also the domestic representatives of the radical democratic stream, the republican model was related to the supranational ideal of the European Democratic Republic. Using the examples of the rejected or simply ignored alternatives of the republican form of government in the Czech political thought of the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, it can be proved that this concept in the time before the outbreak of the war appeared politically unacceptable and undesirable.
The war itself did not change anything in that approach at first. At the time when the foreign resistance formulated and eventually publicly presented its separatist program, this was clearly based on the monarchical basis of the future statehood. In all of Masaryk’s main memorandums and political considerations of that time, we find changeable views on the form of an independent Czech (Czechoslovak) state or its federal union within a broader state entity that combined a clear leaning towards the monarchist form of government. Still at the beginning of 1917, Masaryk considered joining the Czech lands to tsarist Russia. It is the fall of tsarism and the experience of the revolutionary Russia and the republican United States that led to the change of the programme of foreign resistance and T. G. Masaryk in adopting the republican character as the optimal state form of the independent Czechoslovakia. Only subsequently does the Czech domestic politics accept this thesis and the majority society is confronted with it. The paradox of this time-conditioned approach is the fact that the republican form of government, presidential office and its personification – President Masaryk – later become the fundamental and strongest attribute of the modern Czechoslovak tradition.

VLNAS Vít
Portréty T. G. M. od karikatury k ikoně … S. 967
(Portraits of TGM: From Caricature to Icon)

The genesis of the official image of Tomaš Garrigue Masaryk started immediately towards the end of 1918, on the day when the first Czechoslovak President returned to his homeland. The “hunger” for the statesman’s portraits was principally based on the fact that the visual images of TGM were primarily fixed in Czech public awareness by spiteful caricatures from the period of the Manuscripts of Dvůr Kralove and Zelena Hora´s disputes and the so-called Hilsneriada. For a number of reasons, the depiction of TGM (especially in portrait painting) was the domain for more conservative artists, starting with Masaryk´s contemporaries from the National Theatre generation. Artists professing their allegiance to the avant garde movements, applied themselves to Masaryk´s portrait rather sporadically, although with striking results.
Key words: Masaryk, Tomaš Garrigue (1850–1937) – Czechoslovakia: history 1918–1938 – history of modern Czechoslovak visual art – portraits of statesmen

RESUME
The first Czechoslovak President, as a representative sort of model, became the subject of intense interest for a number of his artistic contemporaries, starting with the protagonists of the National Theatre generation, the founding members of the Manes Union of Fine Artists up to the representatives of the fine art avant garde. Although the majority of Masaryk´s portraits created after 1918 are of an official nature and usually also respect the President´s traditionalist notions on fine art, derived from literary categories, the preserved works offer a remarkably broad range of views of Masaryk as a man, statesman and inspirator. However, the first “portraits” of TGM were caricatures which emerged in connection with the disputes surrounding the Manuscripts and the so-called Hilsneriada. As a consequence, the visual appearance of the President Elect had not been sufficiently fixated in the eyes of the Czech public in 1918. The first response to topical social demand came first from “oficial” portrait painters who had already secured their standing in the period of the late Habsburg Empire (e.g. Max Švabinsky and Vojtěch Hynais – from amongst the earlier artists). In the 1920s the image of TGM gradually took shape in sculpture, which in the end provided a greater range of interpretive variants of the President´s image than contemporary painting. The fine art avant garde resorted to Masaryk as a subject only sporadically, yet usually with remarkable results. The truest depiction of Masaryk – the man, was presented in caricatures from the 1930s. These, in contrast to the earlier caricatures from the end of the 19th century, did not emerge with dishonest intent.

NĚMEČEK Jan
Hořký epilog Mnichova 1938 … S. 990
(The bitter epilogue of Munich 1938)

Nazi Germany consciously and consistently sought to absorb Czechoslovakia. The instrument of breaking the Czechoslovak state became the German national minority headed by the dominating Sudeten-German party, working in the intentions of Hitler. Nazi diplomacy in 1938 set up the problem of the German national minority as an international one and launched a policy of direct coercion thanks to the appeasement of the Western powers. Following Berlin’s direction, it culminated in the adoption of the Munich Agreement of the Four Great Powers, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France, and the truncation of the Czechoslovak state as the first step towards its destruction. The other was the definitive liquidation of the Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939.
Key words: Munich Agreement – Czechoslovakia – appeasement – Sudeten Germans

RESUME
The Munich Agreement as a textbook example of the great-power interference in the internal affairs of a small state remains alive. However, the analogy with Munich does not always correspond to historical experience. Nazi Germany, following the accession of Adolf Hitler, consciously and consistently sought to absorb Czechoslovakia. The instrument of breaking the Czechoslovak state became the German national minority, which, after the break-up of the German activist camp, was dominated in the intents of Hitler by the working Sudeten German Party. Nazi diplomacy in 1938 set up the problem of the German national minority as an international one and launched a policy of direct coercion thanks to the appeasement of the Western powers. Following Berlin’s direction, it culminated in the adoption of the Munich Agreement of the Four Great Powers, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France, and the truncation of the Czechoslovak state.
The agreement provided for the withdrawal of four zones of the Czechoslovak so-called Sudeten German territory of Germany. On 30 Septmeber, the Czechoslovak representation accepted the agreement, when the only alternative was the war of isolated Czechoslovakia against the Nazi superpower, supported moreover by Hungary, and probably also by Poland, in the factual disinterest of the Western powers. Munich was caused by external influences (though using internal forces), which the leadership of the Czechoslovak state could hardly withstand. Czechoslovakia did not have a chance in the collapse of the collective security system and became just an object in the game of the Great Powers.
The Second Republic, whose capabilities for sovereign and independent development were eliminated by the Munich Agreement, Vienna Arbitration Award, and other aggressive acts, became a state entirely dependent on the policy of its German neighbour. The definitive break-up of Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939 was again the result of external aggression, led first by diplomatic and then military means. The emergence of the Slovak state cannot be understood as a result of the emancipation process of Slovakia but as a result of Germany’s foreignpolicy pressure on the Slovak autonomist representation in Berlin, which resulted in the declaration of the Slovak state on 14 March. The subsequent occupation of the Czech lands showed that the Munich Agreement had become a mere intermediate stage on the path of Hitler’s aggressive policies towards Europe and the world, a path leading to the Second World War.

ČTVRTNÍK Mikuláš
Historické prameny v utajovaném režimu … S. 1012
(Historical Sources under the Regime of Security Classification)

Records classified under the regime of security classification at its very origins represent an important part of future historical resource materials. Their information contents and evidential value in terms of quality are in many cases over and above the standard even for the historical science. For this reason, the historical science should pursue most diligently the fortunes of records under the regime of classification, including currently emerging documents. The phenomenon of classified records and access to them is, however, crucially relevant for the civic society and, in general, for the maintenance of fundamental democratic orders. In the Czech Republic there has not practically been held any discussion about the institution of classified documents. How do the secret services, for example, handle their records? Are they destroyed willfully? Are these records kept classified for a long time and unnecessarily? The Czech legal system does not exert any real pressure to have the materials, which were once classified, released. Does this state of affairs represent a potential threat to a democratic and free society? The following study will focus on the subject matter of the institution of records security classification and their declassification in some countries with developed democratic orders and advanced archival systems, in particular in the USA and United Kingdom, and to some extent in France and Germany also, while simultaneously addressing the historical development of this institution in the second half of the 20th century. It will also pay attention to some frapant and well documented examples of unauthorised destruction of classfied records.
Key words: historical sources, classified information – classified records – the disclosure of information – archival science – archival theory – archival studies – management of documents – history of the USA in the 20th century – history of Great Britain in the 20th century

RESUME
Records classified under the regime of security classification from its very origins represent an important part of future historical resource materials. Their information contents and evidential value in terms of quality are in many cases over and above the standard even for the historical science. For this reason, the historical science should pursue most diligently the fortunes of records under the regime of security classification, including currently emerging documents. The phenomenon of classified records and access to them is, however, crucially relevant for the civic society and, in general, for the maintenance of fundamental democratic orders. In the Czech Republic there has not practically been held any discussion about the institution of classified documents. How do the secret services, for example, handle their records? Are they destroyed willfully? Are these documents kept classified for a long time and unnecessarily? The Czech legal system does not exert any real pressure to have the materials, which were once classified, released. Does this state of affairs represent a potential threat to a democratic and free society? The study submitted here deals with the subject matter of the institution of records classification and their release in some countries with developed democratic orders and advanced archival systems, in particular in the USA and the United Kingdom, and to some extent in France and Germany also, while simultaneously addressing the historical development of this institution in the second half of the 20th century. It also pays attention to some frapant and well documented examples of unauthorised destruction of classfied records.
In the first part the study focuses upon several documented cases of the destruction of documents classified under the regime of security classification in the second half of the 20th century. It is evident that the extent of their destruction has been significantly greater than what is known from publicly available sources. The study pays attention to the matter of the unauthorised destruction of documents from the American Federal Bureau of Investigation in the 1970s and to similar cases in the Netherlands and United Kingdom. In more detail, it looks at the fortunes of classified records from the production of the central organs in the former East Germany (DDR), in particular the Ministry for State Security in the transitional period of 1989/1990 until the re-unification of Germany. At its conclusion, the study draws attention to the fact that merely a small percentage of the original volume of classified documents has been preserved.
In the second part, the study deals with the main theme, which is the institution of records classification. At first its historical development in the USA in the period after 1945 is comprehensively researched. Through the course of detailed argumentation the study arrives at final conclusions, namely that the phenomenon of over-classification and non disclosure of classified documents in the USA emerged and took roots in the early 1950s. This reinforced institution of data classification was then – rather surprisingly – weakened during the administration of Richard Nixon and consequently that of Jimmy Carter. This more liberal trend was then radically abandoned during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. The situation changed when Bill Clinton introduced the policy of openness not merely in the case of the institution of classification of information. This development is here scrutinized up to the period of Barack Obama’s administration, which brought a certain, yet rather less important relaxation of processes related to the regime of data classification.
Following that, the study investigates the development of the institution of classification, declassification and release of formerly classified documents in the United Kingdom following the issue of the Public Records Act, 1958, up until the present day. A particular attention is paid to the so-called Waldegrave Initiative from the early 1990s, which resulted in the publication of the White Paper on Open Government. This study analyses the contribution of Lord William Waldegrave’s Initiative to increase access to documents classified under the regime of security classification and a more transparent handling of them. Some attention is also paid to the institution of classification and declassification in Germany, France and at the level of the European Union nowadays.
In conclusion, the study deals with the institution of classification and declassification of documents in the Czech Republic and the procedural regulation of their preservation. While the Czech archival policy is generally thought to be liberal, the reverse is true with regard to classified records. The definition of the handling of classified records is absolutely vague in the Czech legal system. Based on comprehensive research, the study shows that there is practically no public control and supervison over the handling of records under the regime of security classification in the Czech Republic. Indeed, there are no signs of any transparency in the processes related to the release of „classified“ materials. This problem has so far failed to become a political, social or a mass media issue. Thus, nothing is practically being released in the Czech Republic, and if it is, this happens rarely and not systematically. In addition, the secret services and powerful ministries create their own security archives, where there is practically no „outside“ control. Compared to legal regulations and procedural settings in the USA or the United Kingdom, the Czech model appears to be non-transparent in general and contrary to what is understood under the term open government.
In addition to the historical perspective of the topic under research, this study also aims, through a comparative analysis of selected foreign regulations, to point out how the processes of dealing with classified records, including their declassification, could or should be set out. Firstly, the study considers it important for classified records, still under the regime of security classification, i.e. before their actual declassification, to be transferred in the largest possible numbers into national archives, which are not subject to the originators of respective classified materials. Secondly, it is of key importance that public power is subject to continuous pressure to release classified records gradually according to certain and transparent regulations, ideally in such a way that specialist advisers, historians and archivists among others are involved in this process, as happens in the British and American models.
This study aims to establish that the archives and historians serve as a very important “safety valve” of democracy. Their involvement in the British and American models of work with classified records and their declassification – though understandably primarily in their advisory capacity not as decision-makers – did not come down from heaven as manna. It happened as a consequence of some cases of unauthorised destruction of classified documents, such as the case of the destruction of their own documents, which the FBI carried out in the 1970s, or possibly initiatives such as that of Lord William Waldegrave in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. We, historians, archivists and citizens must strive to serve as that democratic safety valve, democratic control mechanisms, or more precisely seek to further strenghten this role of ours in the future.

MATERIÁLY / MATERIALS

NEŠPOR R. Zdeněk
Sto let Českobratrské církve evangelické
a Církve československé (husitské): Náboženské organizace,
společenská poptávka a racionalita řízení … S. 1059
(Centennial Jubilee of the Protestant Church
of the Czech Brethren and the Czechoslovak (Hussite) Church:
Religious Organisations, Public Demand and Managerial Efficiency)

The article analyses organisational development of two main established non-Catholic churches in the Czech Lands, i.e. the Protestant Church of the Czech Brethren (Českobratrska cirkev evangelicka) and the Czechoslovak (Hussite) Church (Cirkev československa /husitska/), since their establishment in 1918 and 1920 to the present. Author shows that particular congregations were established more or less according to public demand in the first decades, but the structure of the churches remained in large degree stable, with just a little reaction to growing secularization and religious differentiation (including spatial) in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The path dependency was even deeper in case of higher organization entities, Protestant seniorates and Hussite dioceses, that hardly respond to regional differences in religiosity. The two “modern” denominations starting with distinct flexibility in comparison with the Roman Catholic Church (mostly at expenses of the very church), have become quite conservative in their organisations in few decades, and as such they are not able to compete with smaller, nonconformist denominations nowadays.
Key words: Czech Lands – church – religion – religious geography – religious organisations – Protestantism

DISKUSE / DISCUSSION

RATAJ Jan
Nevyužitá příležitost
aneb mediální politika druhé republiky … S. 1079

OBZORY LITERATURY / REVIEW ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

Recenze

Marzena MATŁA
Czeskie wpływy w życiu religijnym i piśmiennictwie
państwa piastowskiego w X–XI wieku
(Marie Bláhová) … S. 1090

Ephraim SHOHAM-STEINER (ed.)
Intricate Interfaith Networks in the Middle Ages.
Quotidien Jewish-Christian Contacts
(Daniel Soukup) … S. 1093

Susanne HÄRTEL
Judische Friedhofe im mittelalterlichen Reich
(Lenka Blechová) … S. 1099

Joachim BAHLCKE – Kateřina BOBKOVÁ-VALENTOVÁ –
Jiří MIKULEC (eds./Hrsg.)
Religious, Violence, Confessional Conflicts and Models
for Violence Prevention in Central Europe (15th – 18th Centuries)
/ Religiose Gewalt, konfessionelle Konflikte und Modelle
von Gewaltpravention in Mitteleuropa (15. – 18. Jahrhundert)
(Olga Fejtová) … S. 1104

Wolfgang REINHARD
Die Unterwerfung der Welt. Globalgeschichte
der europaischen Expansion 1415-2015
(Jaroslav Pánek) … S. 1109

Anna MUR i RAURELL
„La mancha roja“ y „La montana blanca“.
Las ordenes militares de Santiago, Calatrava y Alcantara
en Centroeuropa antes y despues de 1620 (s. XVI–XVII)
(Pavel Marek) … S. 1114

Lauric HENNETON – Louis H. ROPER (eds.)
Fear and the Shaping of Early American Societies
(Svatava Raková) … S. 1118

Martina NIEDHAMMER
Nur eine »Geld-Emancipation«? Loayalitaten
und Lebenswelten des Prager judischen Grossburgertums 1800–1867

Martina NIEDHAMMER
Jen pro peníze? Pražské židovské elity v 19. století – skupinová biografie
(Milan Hlavačka) … S. 1123

Jaroslav KŘÍŽ – Lenka KŘÍŽOVÁ
Střípky z českého Chicaga. Edice dokumentů k dějinám Čechů
v americkém Chicagu v letech 1848–1918

Martin NEKOLA
České Chicago
(Josef Opatrný) … S. 1125

Eva DOLEŽALOVÁ – Robert ŠIMŮNEK – Jaroslav BOUBÍN – Josef ŽEMLIČKA
August Sedláček in the Age of Digital Humanities
(Karel Maráz) … S. 1129

Michal MACHÁČEK
Gustáv Husák
(Juraj Marušiak) … S. 1132

Zprávy o literatuře … S. 1139

Z VĚDECKÉHO ŽIVOTA / CHRONICLE

DOLEŽALOVÁ Antonie
XVIII. světový kongres hospodářských dějin v Bostonu … S. 1193

Nekrology

Galina Pavlovna Muraško (3. ledna 1932 – 16. června 2018)
(Lukáš Babka) … S. 1201

Mikuláš Teich (23. července 1918 – 16. srpna 2018)
(Antonie Doležalová) … S. 1206

Knihy a časopisy došlé redakci … S. 1212

Výtahy z českých časopisů a sborníků … S. 1212