Prezident viník? Edvard Beneš a Únor 1948 v kontextu učebnic dějepisu
President Culprit? Edvard Beneš and February 1948 in the context of history textbooks

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses two key aspects of the second presidency of Edvard Beneš: his involvement in the 1948 Coup in Czechoslovakia, and also the portrayal of both president Beneš and the February 1948 political crisis in history textbooks. The first part tackles president Beneš’s strategy in handling the governmental crisis and its limitations with regard to domestic as well as foreign affairs. The paper simultaneously examines the strategy of the Communist Party alongside that of the non-Communist Parties, the resignation of cabinet ministers of the latter having ultimately triggered the crisis. The second part provides a thorough analysis of primary and secondary school history textbooks published both during the so-called ‘Normalisation’ period (1969–1989) and the post-1989 democratic era. The aim of the analysis is to establish which issues related to the 1948 events were considered important and which facts, on the other hand, were being deliberately misinterpreted or suppressed. The author also addresses the questions of how much space in the history curriculum has been provided for individual crisis’ participants, how historical reality is being constructed and how the key players – Edward Beneš and Klement Gottwald – are being represented.

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