Sociální dějiny vládnoucích komunistických stran v dlouhé perspektivě
Social History of Ruling Communist Parties in the Long Run

Summary/Abstract: CHRISTIAN, Michel. Camarades ou Apparatchiks? Les Communistes en RDA et enTchécoslovaquie (1945–1989). Paris: Presses universitaires de France 2016, 400 pp.,ISBN 978–2-13–063504-8. The author of the book, who works at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, wrote the social history of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – SED) in theGerman Democratic Republic, covering more than four decades of their post-war road to power and rule. In doing so, he emphasizes a meticulously chosen mutual comparison and long-term historical processes. The reviewer highly appreciates the synthetic quality of his work, precisely applied methodology, and broad field of research including the formation and reproduction of local party elites, administrative party practices, and everyday life of members of both parties. The reviewer presents principal findings of the author concerning the operation of the parties,including the specific significance of the nationalistic factor in the legitimization strategy of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the substantially deeper penetration of SED into everyday life of its members.

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