Monographs
Our publications can be purchased in bookstores or at the Institute’s Ján Langoš library in the Czech Republic, or in the Czech-language at: www.kosmas.cz. For international orders in English, please write: info@kosmas.cz, objednavky@kosmas.cz.
They fought and died in Indochina. The first Vietnam War and Czechoslovaks in the Foreign Legion
(Bojovali a umírali v Indočíně. První vietnamská válka a Čechoslováci v cizinecké legii)
Ladislav Kudrna
 |
Ladislav Kudrna’s eighth book outlines an aspect of our modern history that has remained unknown until now. More than 2,000 young Czechoslovaks fought and died in the inferno of the first Vietnam War. Over 500 of them later fell on far-flung foreign fields. All of them were members of the French Foreign Legion. The author had materials at his disposal concerning 21 of these men, who were captured by the Vietnamese during some hard fought battles. After more than a year of hardship in prison camps, they were subsequently transported to the “people’s” democratic Czechoslovakia. The book is not only devoted to the combat deployment of these 21 Czechoslovak citizens, but also looks at what happened to them beforehand and what their subsequent fate was, i.e. why did these youngsters (many of whom were minors) escape abroad? Why did they enter the service of the Foreign Legion and what was their tough training in north Africa like? How was the course of the war itself and what conditions prevailed in Vietnamese labour camps? The repatriation of the captives to Czechoslovakia and the Czechoslovak government’s support for the Ho Chi Minh regime is also dealt with. The book looks at the treatment of these repatriates after their arrival in the country as well as how they were used for propaganda purposes or punished. Besides all of this, the publication will also give readers information on other aspects related to the given issue. The book is richly complemented with hitherto unknown photographs and archive materials. Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR), Our Troops (Naše vojsko), Prague, 2010, 1st edition, bound publication, 400 pages, ISBN 978-80-87211-26-7 (ÚSTR), ISBN 978-80-206-1099-7 (Naše vojsko) This publication is available only in Czech. |
A Biographical Dictionary of Officials of the Ministry of the Interior in the Years 1948-1989. Ministers and Their Deputies
(Biografický slovník představitelů ministerstva vnitra v letech 1948-1989. Ministři a jejich náměstci)
 |
The publication of A Biographical Dictionary of Officials of the Ministry of the Interior in the Years 1948-1989. Ministers and Their Deputies is the result of a long-term research project pursued by historians at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. It presents a mosaic of 55 names/individuals who participated during the era of the communist regime to a lesser or larger extent in the activities and operations of the Ministry of the Interior on the territory of what is today the Czech Republic. For the period 1948-1989, the dictionary focuses on the ministers and deputy ministers of the Ministry of the Interior (the Ministry of National Security in the period 1950-1953) at the central, Czechoslovak level. After January 1969, the dictionary also considers three ministers of the interior of the Czech Socialist Republic. The book is supplemented with a detailed study devoted to the development of the Ministry of the Interior’s organisational structure. Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR), Prague 2010, 1st edition, bound publication, 232 pages, ISBN 978-80-87211-25-0 This publication is available only in Czech. |
Civic Forum, the first day. The establishment of the Civic Forum in documents and photographs
(Občanské fórum, den první. Vznik Občanského fóra v dokumentech a fotografiích)
Team of authors
  |
This is an edited transcript of an original recording from the Činoherní Klub theatre on the evening of 19 November 1989. It comprises a unique and irreplaceable document, which provides an in-depth and vivid reconstruction of the founding deeds of various strands of anti-communist opposition at that time. The document is introduced by a brief study, which looks at the moments in which the Civic Forum was established in order to find root causes for the type of organisation it later became. This is followed by the transcript itself as well as profiles of significant people connected with the establishment of the Civic Forum. The significance of the edition is underlined by a complete video recording of the Civic Forum’s proceedings which is included on two DVDs. There are also two interviews concerning the evening in question with cameramen who recorded the events. Further interviews with selected participants at the meeting in the Činoherní Klub theatre also tie in with the book. On the day the book is launched, these interviews will be made available at this address: www.ustrcr.cz/cs/rozhovoryof. The transcript is complemented with colour as well as black-and-white photographs taken by Jaroslav Kořán, which recorded the Civic Forum’s proceedings. There is also a brief account from the photographer recalling the first days of the fall of the communist regime. Besides a facsimile of one of the first versions of the Civic Forum’s proclamation, the reactions of the communist totalitarian authorities on 19 – 21 November 1989 are also published in the appendices. Moreover, unique information from the First Department of the National Security Corps’ Second Directorate makes it possible to identify one of the totalitarian authorities’ important sources of information on the early stages of the Civic Forum’s development. The book has been reviewed by the historians Prokop Tomek and Jiří Suk. “The publication of a transcript of the discussions from the initial meeting of the Civic Forum in the Činoherní Klub theatre on the evening of 19 November 1989 is undoubtedly an important editorial development” says Suk, author of Through the Labyrinth of the Velvet Revolution (Labyrintem revoluce). “Thanks to this book, our knowledge of the political upheaval/revolution, as well as it collective protagonist, the Civic Forum, has been supplemented and clarified. The inaugural debate on the establishment of the Civic Forum is crucial in many ways, and it comprises an important starting point for understanding the subsequent development of this transient, but significant political movement.” Institute for the Study of Totalitarian regimes and the City District of Prague 1, Prague 2009, 1st edition, bound publication, 192 pages, ISBN 978-80-87211-28-1 This publication is available only in Czech. |
I'm Sealing You All Inside My Heart. The Life Story of Josef Cardinal Beran
(Uzavírám vás do svého srdce. Životopis Josefa kardinála Berana)
Stanislava Vodičková
 |
This publication deals with the fate of Josef Cardinal Beran (1888-1969) within the context of the contemporary history of the 20th century. It portrays Beran as a person solidly anchored in Christian values, who opposed two totalitarian regimes. During the period of the Nazi occupation, he ended up a prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp, and during the period of Communist rule he underwent incremental “domestic imprisonment,“ a fourteen-year internment under the surveillance of the State Security Service (Státní bezpečnost - StB) that ultimately resulted in his exile from his homeland without permission to return. The description of Beran’s life stages is supplemented by a wealth of period photographs and archive materials, most of which have never before been published. A CD with an authentic recording of Beran’s memoirs is also included. The book has been issued on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the death of Josef Cardinal Beran in Rome. CDK, ÚSTR, 2009, 1st edition, hardcover, 400 pages, ISBN 978-80-7325-189-5 (Centrum demokracie a kultury – Center for Democracy and Culture), ISBN 978-80-87211-16-8 (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů – Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes) This publication is only available in Czech. |
We Came Into This World To Be Persecuted. Prison labor camps in the uranium mines, 1949-1961
(Přišli jsme na svět proto, aby nás pronásledovali. Trestanecké pracovní tábory při uranových dolech v letech 1949-1961)
Tomáš Bursík
 |
In this book, the author uses concrete cases to document the forms and methods that were in regular practice in Soviet prison labor camps as early as the 1920s, and which were likewise used in the system of the uranium “gulag” in Czechoslovakia. He addresses the mass deployment of prisoners in the uranium industry, the differentiated food rations, and the enforcing of rewards and punishments depending on the work output of the convicted. In many cases, the Czechoslovak communist dictatorship “learned” from its blood brother – the Nazi regime in neighboring Germany. ÚSTR, Prague 2009, 1st edition, hardcover, 212 pages, ISBN 978-80-87211-22-9 This publication is available only in Czech. |
Prague Through the Lens of the Secret Police
(Praha objektivem tajné policie)
Team of authors
 |
This entirely bi-lingual Czech-English book brings forward one of a kind, never before published photographs taken in the course of secret police surveillance during the period of the communist totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia. The publication presents a raw picture of Prague during the “normalization” era of hard-line socialist entrenchment after the 1968 Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia in hundreds of photographs, supplemented by introductory and scholarly texts, a thorough index, and information on how and why the book came into being.   |
ÚSTR, Prague 2009, 1st edition, 288 pages, Czech and English, ISBN 978-80-87211-11-3 |
Media Coverage:
- Prague from the Perspective of the Pathological Powerful (Foam Magazine, issue #22)
- State-sponzored voyeurism (Vice, 2009)
- “Secret Police Photos Evoke the Iron Curtain Era” (Archival Outlook: Newsletter of the Society of American Archivists, Jan/Feb 2010)
- Citizen spies, spied-on citizens. An exhibit of Czech secret-police photos from the Communist era, at Harvard through Dec. 21, shows Big Brother as unintentional artist (Harvard University Gazette, news.harvard.edu/gazette, 03-16 December 2009)
- 'Paparazzi de Estado' UN LIBRO REÚNE FOTOS TOMADAS POR LA POLICÍA SECRETA CHECOSLOVACA (Vanity Fair, 13/2009)
- When Prague Spied on Its Own (Roll Call, Washington, DC, September 14, 2009, www.rollcall.com)
- Praga Através das Lentes da Polícia Secreta (Canal de Moçambique, www.canalmoz.com, 8/12/2009)
- Kühle Blicke auf das Leben anderer (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 7/24/ 2009)
- Big Brother’s Family Album. Secret police photographs evoke the oppression of communist Czechoslovakia (Prague Monitor Magazine; 03/2009)
- Coffee-table book with a difference collects photographs taken surreptitiously by communist-era secret police (www.radio.cz, 28 May 2009)
Victims of the Occupation. The Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia 21 August–31 December 1968
(Oběti okupace. Československo, 21. srpen – 31. prosinec 1968)
Milan Bárta, Lukáš Cvrček, Patrik Košický, Vítězslav Sommer
 |
This publication presents as yet unpublished facts on the deaths of Czechoslovak citizens caused by members of Warsaw Pact forces in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The authors outline the political and military aspects of the invasion, describe the criminal activity of foreign soldiers and, through profiles, inquire into the fates of individual victims. ÚSTR, Prague 2009, 1st edition, 192 pages, Czech and English, ISBN 978-80-87211-12-0 |
Media Coverage:
- Soviet invasion´s victims finally have stories told (Czech Business Weekly, April 23, 2009)
- Soviet invasion up close (Prague Daily Monitor, 23 March 2009, praguemonitor.com)
- The everyday occupation (The Prague Post, 19 March 2009, www.praguepost.com)
Jan Palach ‘69
Petr Blažek, Patrik Eichler, Jakub Jareš
 |
This book not only presents for the first time ever a detailed historical description of Palach’s story, but also expands on his theological, philosophical and artistic reflections and occupies itself with the fates of Palach’s successors and predecessors. An extensive series of archival documents and photographs and a DVD containing a group of six documentary and artistic films relating to the theme make up a part of the book. ÚSTR, FF UK, Togga, Prague 2009, 1st edition, 165 x 240 mm, 640 pages, Czech, ISBN 978-80-87211-04-5 This publication is available only in Czech. |
A Demagogue in the Party’s Service. Portrait of Politician and Ideologist Václav Kopecký
(Demagog ve službách strany. Portrét komunistického politika a ideologa Václava Kopeckého.)
Jana Pávová
 |
The book presents not only the life trajectory and political career of Václav Kopecký, one time Minister of Information and Culture, but also acquaints the reader in detail with his personality. The author maps Kopecký’s positions and behavior with the assistance of many citations and episodes from his life and a number of illustrative materials. ÚSTR, Prague 2009, 1st edition, 220 x 250 mm, 192 pages, Czech, ISBN 978-80-87211-09-0 This publication is available only in Czech. |
One of the Forgotten Men. Air Force Colonel Petr Uruba, Pilot of the 311th Czechoslovak Bombing Squadron, as a Guidebook through the “Short” 20th Century
(Jeden ze zapomenutých mužů. Plukovník letectva Petr Uruba, pilot 311. československé bombardovací perutě, jako průvodce „krátkým“ 20. stoletím)
Ladislav Kudrna
 |
RAF pilot Petr Uruba serves as a guide not only through his own fate, but those of other Czechoslovak fliers, as well. For the first time the public is comprehensively presented with the problems of persecution of members of the Royal Air Force after February 1948. A preview to the bitter 1950s – into life in the shadow of the powerful State Security Service (StB), the beginnings of rehabilitation in the 1960s and a host of other new perspectives – is included. ÚSTR, Prague 2008, 1st edition, 230 x 287 mm, 304 pages, Czech, ISBN 978-80-87211-07-6 This publication is available only in Czech. |
The Border Guard Service and Attempts to Cross State Borders in the Years 1951–1955
(Pohraniční stráž a pokusy o přechod státní hranice v letech 1951–1955)
Pavel Vaněk
 |
The book describes the development and structure of the Border Guard Service after 1948 through the example of the Cheb and Znojmo border brigades. It also deals with the impact of the border guards’ activity on the local population and describes the fates of those who tried to cross the state border. ÚSTR, Prague 2008, 1st edition, 165 x 240 mm, 216 pages, ISBN 978-80-87211-08-3 This publication is available only in Czech. Ohlasy v médiích: Grenzschutz in der fünfzigen Jahren (Landeszeitung, 11. 8. 2009) |
