Pod praporem socialismu do nové éry lidstva / Československo jako jedno z center pozdně socialistické debaty o marxistické globalistice
Under the Banner of Socialism toward a New Era of Humanity / Czechoslovakia as a Centre of Late Socialist Debate on Marxist Globalistics

Summary/Abstract: This study reconstructs the discourse of Marxist globalistics (a socialist variant of global studies) in late socialist Czechoslovakia, positioning it as a distinct alternative to Western global modeling during the 1970s and 1980s. While late socialism is often characterized by ideological exhaustion, this research demonstrates that a significant segment of the academic community viewed state socialism as the most advanced civilizational stage, uniquely equipped to solve planetary challenges such as the ecological crisis, resource scarcity, and the threat of nuclear war. The article focuses on the institutional background of this research, primarily centered around the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Ústav pro filosofii a sociologii ČSAV), and its theoretical foundations within the framework of Marxism–Leninism. The study further examines the 1985 Prague conference, “Socialism and the Global Problems of the Present” (Socialismus a globální problémy současnosti), as a pivotal attempt to institutionalize this field and coordinate international research across the Eastern Bloc. The analysis highlights how Czechoslovak scholars integrated Soviet concepts of the biosphere and noosphere, derived from the Russian geochemist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945), to propose a transition from spontaneous biological evolution to a “noogenesis” directed by human reason. Central to this discourse was the Scientific and Technological Revolution (vědecko-technická revoluce, VTR), which was envisioned not merely as an industrial tool but as a transformative force capable of rationalizing global processes. Unlike Western “limits to growth” models, which were criticized as pessimistic and bourgeois, socialist globalistics maintained a techno-optimistic stance, asserting that environmental and social crises were products of the capitalist mode of production rather than technology itself. By treating the era’s categories and “newspeak” as manifestations of a specific state-socialist rationality rather than mere propaganda, this article reveals how the regime perceived its own civilizational mission. Ultimately, while this discourse faced total discontinuity in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989, its holistic and systemic approach offers valuable insights into the intellectual history of late socialism and its unique attempt to conceptualize a unified, socialist-led planetary future.

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