Socialismus jako myšlenkový svět Komunistická diktatura v kulturněhistorické perspektivě
Socialism as Sinnwelt: The Communist Dictatorship from the Perspective of Cultural History

Summary/Abstract: This article was originally published as ‘Sozialismus als Sinnwelt: Diktatorische Herrschaft in zeithistorischen Perspektiven’ in the Potsdamer Bulletin für Zeithistorische Studien, nos. 40–41 (2007), pp. 9–23. In the article, in connection with his historical research on the German Democratic Republic, the author explains the concept of Sinnwelt as providing productive and promising ways to understand how the Communist dictatorships were established and how they functioned and eventually collapsed. The dualistic picture of rulers and ruled, perpetrators and victims, which in many respects still dominates the interpretation and assessment of those dictatorships, is, according to the author, neither incorrect nor unnecessary. For it helps one to realize the fundamental differences between freedom and non-freedom, tolerance and oppression, the rule of law and arbitrary rule; it also evokes public compassion and thereby, at least in part, redresses the wrongs that the dictatorships committed. This essentially normative approach, however, is unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the long-term existence and comparative stability of these régimes.

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