On the emergence of Czechoslovakia

Jaroslav Opat

pp. 41-52

in: Harald G. Skilling (ed), Czechoslovakia 1918–88, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1991

Abstract

For four full decades authoritative ideologues of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPCz) have been interpreting the birth of the Czechoslovak Republic in a monopolistic fashion which contradicts certain basic historical facts. Their thesis was then repeated with minor changes by propagandists in various articles and books, including the authors of school books. For readers dependent on interpretations developed in this fashion, and lacking access to other more objective sources, the truth about the origin of the state in which they are fated to live remains hidden.