Nejen Rudé právo: Panorama meziválečného československého komunismu po letech v jedné edici
Not only "Rudé právo": A Panorama of Interwar Czechoslovak Communism, in a Single Edition after Many Years

Summary/Abstract: Although the party press, once a major public and political force, has lost its contemporary relevance, it remains invaluable as a historical source. According to the reviewer, this is clearly demonstrated by the extensive publication "„Došlo na slova komunistů“: Edice meziválečného komunistického tisku" [“The Communists Were Right”: An Edition of Interwar Communist Press], compiled by four historians – Jakub Vrba, Jakub Rákosník, Bohumil Melichar, and Martin Dolejský. Acting both as editors and authors of the introductory study, they present in a thoughtful, thorough, and vivid manner the diverse, multiethnic landscape of the communist press in Czechoslovakia, tracing its transformations from 1921 – the year the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická strana Československa, KSČ) was founded – to 1938, when the First Republic came to an end. The combination of chronological and thematic arrangement of selected texts is logical and reader-friendly ,and each article is accompanied by careful explanatory notes. As a clear advantage over previous works on related topics, the reviewer highlights how the editors drew on a wide range of periodicals – from the largest daily newspapers as "Rudé právo" to the children’s communist magazine "Kohoutek" [The Rooster]. In addition to the Czech- and Slovak-language press, the anthology also contains a substantial number of translated German-language articles, as well as examples of texts originally published in Hungarian, Polish, and Ruthenian. Furthermore, it gives voice not only to well-known figures of communist journalism but also to authors almost unknown or even anonymous.

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