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Annotation and Course Description: The course is intended to broaden understanding of personal strategies, motivations, practices, everyday life and routine under the socialism. These aspects (i.e. grey network of “blat”, inequality of a Socialist distribution system and others) were common for all countries of the Socialist bloc such as Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union, Poland etc. This fact gives a universal dimension to the course and provides a shared platform for studying of the Central- and East European societies under the Socialism.
Schedule: Tuesday, 9:10 - 10:45 teacher's email: alena.markova@fhs.cuni.cz Last update: Marková Alena, Mgr., Ph.D. (07.01.2023)
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Course Objectives and Outcomes: The main goal of the course is to introduce students to the reality of everyday life under the Soviet regime in the countries of the Soviet Bloc (Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union and others). The main learning outcome of the course is to improve and promote students’ critical thinking through asking following question: Was the socialist society an egalitarian society of equals/equality? What does a grey network of “blat” and similar practices (mutual favors and connections, etc.) mean in soviet (socialist) economy and everyday life of citizens of the Socialist bloc? Can be a denunciation considered as a personal strategy? How not to be deceived by propaganda in mass media (in periodicals of socialist period and today)? and many other related questions. Last update: Marková Alena, Mgr., Ph.D. (03.12.2021)
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Course Requirements: Students are expected to discuss all current issues related to lectures topics. Students have to attend online classes regularly (two unexplained absences are tolerated). Last update: Marková Alena, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2024)
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Recommended Reading: Bolton, Jonathan, Worlds of Dissent. Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 2012. Bren, Paulina – Neuburger, Mary (eds.), Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Caldwell, Melissa L., Dacha idylls: living organically in Russia's countryside, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. Chernyshova, Natalya, Soviet consumer culture in the Brezhnev era, New York: Routledge, 2013. Crowley, David –Reid, Susan, Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the East Bloc, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2010. Fitzpatrick, Sheila, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s, Oxford University Press, USA, 1999. Fitzpatrick, Sheila (eds.), Sedition: everyday resistance in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. Froese, Paul, The plot to kill God: findings from the Soviet experiment in secularization, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Gorsuch, Anne – Koenker, Diane P., The Socialist Sixties: Crossing Borders in the Second World, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013. Havel, Václav, “The power of the powerless”, in: Václav Havel, John Keane (eds.), The power of the powerless: citizens against the state in central - eastern Europe, London: Hutchinson, 1985. Havelková, Hana –Oates-Indruchová, Libora (eds.), The politics of gender culture under state socialism: an expropriated voice, London: Routledge, 2014. Katz, Katarina, Gender, Work and Wages in the Soviet Union A Legacy of Discrimination, Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Publishers, 2001. Kelly, Catriona, Comrade Pavlik: The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Boy Hero, Granta Books, 2005. Lovell, Stephen, Summerfolk: a history of the dacha, 1710-2000, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003. Ledeneva, Alena, Russia's Economy of Favours: Blat, Networking and Informal Exchange, New York, 1998. Machovec, Martin (ed.), Views from the inside: Czech underground literature and culture (1948-1989): manifestoes - testimonies – documents, Praha: Ústav české literatury a literární vědy, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, 2006. Marsh, Christopher, Religion and the State in Russia and China, London and New York: Continuum, 2011. Millar, James R. (ed.), Politics, Work, and Daily Life in the USSR. A Survey of Former Soviet Citizens, Cambridge, New York, New Roghelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambrige University Press, 1987. Roubal, Petr, Spartakiads: the politics of physical culture in communist Czechoslovakia, Prague: Karolinum Press, 2019. Last update: Marková Alena, Mgr., Ph.D. (03.12.2021)
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Structure: lectures and discussions Remote online lectures on ZOOM platform, online discussions. A link to the lecture will be sent via email. Schedule: Tuesday, 9:10 - 10:45 teacher's email: alena.markova@fhs.cuni.cz Last update: Marková Alena, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2024)
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Course Requirements: Students are expected to discuss all current issues related to lectures topics. Students have to attend online classes regularly. Terms of passing the course: Examination (6 ECTS): 1. Final essay Final essay (2 700 – 2 800 words long) on a pre-agreed topic needs to contain exact references and to state all their sources, i.e. also a bibliography. Clear, precise, and comprehensive citation is absolutely essential. Student’s critical observations, experience and critical reflections are very welcomed. Deadline: July 1, 2024 OR: 2. Final presentation. Students can prepare and deliver a ppt. presentation (20-25 min) on a pre-agreed topic during semester instead of a final essay. The number of slots for presentation is limited!
Evaluation Method: Grades will be based on active participation in discussions (25%), attendance (15%), and a final essay (or a final presentation) (60%) Last update: Marková Alena, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2024)
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Knowledge of English and access to the link for online courses. Last update: Tumis Stanislav, PhDr., M.A., Ph.D. (03.12.2021)
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Syllabus: 1. Introduction. 2. Methodology. What is a cultural history? 3. Socialist distribution system: a society of (in)equality? 4. Informal practices: shortages and a shadow network of mutual favors and connections (“blat”) 5. Socialist luxury, fashion and VIP shops (Tuzex and others) 6. Style Hunters: a bright subculture of the Khrushchev Thaw. “Bad bourgeois” taste vs. the “proper socialist” style. 7. Culture of socialist underground: protest or fashion? 8. Denunciation as a social and a personal strategy 9. Religious and church: from elimination to mocking 10. Mass gymnastics: Faster, Higher, Stronger 11. Ideology, changing women’s role and some gender stereotypes 12. Final discussion. Presentations. Last update: Marková Alena, Mgr., Ph.D. (13.02.2023)
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