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Arabic fiction --- Arabic fiction --- Lebanese literature --- Women in literature. --- War in literature. --- Women authors --- History and criticism. --- History and criticism. --- History and criticism. --- Lebanon --- History --- Literature and the war.

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The beginning of the Communist dictatorship in 1948 was one of the most important milestones in the history of Slovak historiography. We can justifiably speak of the new formation of Slovak historical science from the organisational, personnel and thematic points of views, even though the full consequences of the introduction of Marxism-Leninism in historical research were only fully noticeable from the 1950s onwards. Before 1948, Marxist historiography in Slovakia hardly existed at all and even after the Communist coup, it took a long time for the Marxist historical school of though to even begin to produce relevant works. This turning point in Slovak historiography, however, was not as complete in any direction as the official Communist propaganda declared. When analysing the institutional base of Slovak historical science, we must in the first instance record the setting up of the Historical Institute of the SAV (up to 1953 called SAVU) as the leading establishment for historical research. The institute, as the top institution, replaced the Historical Seminar of Comenius University, which fulfilled this function in the period of the First Republic, and the Historical Section of Matica slovenská which held an important position during the Slovak State. At this time, the centres of research in historical science came under the strict control of state and party institutions. The system of historical research during this period stabilised itself as a relatively operative model, but one not accepted without reservations. From 1948, a mixture of rational decision-making and demonstrations of class hatred ruled the human resources policy of institutions concerning themselves with history. The Communist regime began the larger-scale screening of historians at the beginning of the 1950s. However, it could not afford mass redundancy, since there was no one with whom to replace the “unsuitable” employees. In this way, the purges only affected a small number of historians, and only for a certain time. In general, state power did not hinder their research work, even in the case of screening reservations, on condition that the historians displayed loyalty to the regime and its ideology in their work. In the interpretation of national history, no deviations from the prevailing Marxist dogmas of the time were allowed. After 1948, a new, Marxist, master narrative began to be created. Its old, non-Marxist concepts were labelled as unusable, not taking into account Marxist notions of historical development. In Slovakia, Marxism-Leninism was installed in historiography in its most vulgar, Stalinist form by Communist ideologists who also set up the basic shape of the new, master narrative. In this way, historical science in the 1950s only participated in the creation of the national story by developing and confirming the lines defined by the party central office and by filling in the schemes given in advance. Historical research directly driven by ideology thus produced more or less trustworthy theories that in the end led to a distortion of history, and often the devaluing of new knowledge, too. The disintegration of Stalinist dogmatism in the second half of the 1960s brought with it a partial revision of these theories. At this time, the most problematic distortions in the Slovak master narrative were revised. Even though the Marxist base of historical science was respected, historians often inclined towards older, non-Marxist versions of the national story. In conclusion, we can state that the characteristic sign of Slovak historiography since its beginning was (sometimes more or less visible) the attempt to create an independent Slovak national story which would not merge with, and would not be part of, the Hungarian or Czech master narratives. However, this process was not totally completed even during the 1948-1967 period.

History --- WW II and following years (1940 - 1949) --- Post-War period (1950 - 1989) --- History of Communism --- Slovakia --- History.

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Author’s goal in the presented monograph was to analyze the democratisation process in Czechoslovakia of that era, by taking into acount the development in Slovak part of Republic, which in that time had merely a status of a province. He could, however, not ignore the crutial tendencies, that were inherent in the whole Czechoslovak Republic or within the Soviet bloc, since the development in Slovakia was fundamentally infl uenced by these tendencies. In the presented book author is focusing on political evolution only, since separate publications dealing with the economic and cultural aspects in Slovakia of that period are synchronously prepared by other Slovak historians. The book is divided into fi ve chapters. First of them is dealing with the cautious and moderate liberalization in Slovakia during the so-called „pre-spring“ (1963–1967), since the revival process of 1968 had its evolution and did not came out from nowhere. In 1968, the democratic tendencies, that started some years before, were solely intensifi ed. The second chapter is analyzing the political development in Slovakia and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic during the fi rst months of 1968, when the promoters of reforms were strenghtening their power possitions and preparing the programme of reforms: the known Action Programme of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. A detailed analysis of this documment is an integral part of the second chapter. In the third chapter titled „Reformers and Conservativists“, the author’s ambition was to give an account of the complicated development taking place in the leadership of the Communist Party of Slovakia, which resulted from the polarization between the adherents of reforms on the one hand and their adversaries in the other hand. The reformers understood the necessity of modernisation of the Soviet-type socialism by perceiving and adopting global development trends in the world, especially the so-called third wave (scientifi c-technical revolution). They knew as well, that it is impossible to undertake such a step without democratization of not only the economic, but also the political system. The conservativists, concentrated mostly in the bureaucratic aparate of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia – the strongest part of the whole socialist political system, were deeply concerned about such a possibility. They were aware, that the democratization tendencies implemented in the economics and politics create a strong pressure on bureaucratic structures of the party-leadership and that their own political existence is strongly questionable by this fact. The fourth chapter is focused on the main question, that is: what is the reason for the fact, that the democratization process (actually processes) in the Czech and the Slovak parts of the Republic were going different ways? Both national communities were pursuing non-identical priorities of this movement, such as the revived civic society in both parts of the state acted differently and followed disparate goals. In order to fi nd an answer this question, the mentioned chapter is based on the analysis of the reasons and concrete symptoms of these differences. In this (and partly also in the fi rst) chapter, the author is paying some attention to the national minorities living in Czechoslovakia – the Hungarian, Ruthenian/Ukrainian, and the Roma-minority, and their perceptions of the reformation process. The fi fth (fi nal) chapter called „The end of reform“ is dealing with the culmination of the democratization process in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, with the failed attempt of the consolidation of this process initiated by the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. This chapter speaks also about the brutal attacks on Czechoslovak reform-attempt comming from the Warsaw-Pact states and about the military invasion of „Five“. The mentioned chapter of the book describes the adoption of the Act concerning the „temporary“ stay of Soviet military troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia in the mid-October 1968 – that means the legalization of occupation of the country.

History --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Post-War period (1950 - 1989) --- History of Communism --- Slovakia --- Politics and government.

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The book Rok 1968 Eto vaše delo is based on lecture cycle, organised by the Slovak Institute in Prague in cooperation with the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute for Contemporary History of the ASCR. The aim of this lecture cycle was to remember about the 40th anniversary of the reform process in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The lectures presented by Slovak historians, were extended and collected as papers, that are part of this book. The aim of the particular papers is to analyse the main aspects of the reforms, further their ideological roots, as well as their political, social and economic casualties. The authors intended to reflect the immanent development of the autonomous reform process in Czechoslovakia, taking into account both political, constitutional, national-political, socioeconomic, cultural and confessional issues. The opening paper written by Professor Ivan Laluha is an authentic testimony about the gradual maturation process, that was proceeding the reforms in the field of economic theory, which is the main field of interest of the author. The author’s goal was to outline the efforts undertaken in order to achieve a further development of reforms in the constitutional and national-political sphere. Jozef Žatkuliak is analysing the genesis of the ideas proposing a new, federal constitution for Czechoslovakia. The key focus of Slavomír Michálek’s study is based on the American political context of the Czechoslovak attempt for reform of Socialism. There is no doubt, that, during that time, the United States of America and the Soviet Union were trying to reach an agreement and that both sides were conducing a bipolar détente politics. On the one hand, in Washington there was a kind of sympathy for the reform process taking place in Czechoslovakia, but on the other hand, it was perceived as an internal problem of the Soviet Bloc. Two following studies writen by Stanislav Sikora are dealing with the ideological background of the Prague or Bratislava Spring, involving a critical analysis of the term „Socialism with human face”. In his study, Miroslav Londák is explaining the main principles of the economic reform in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by going to the roots and anatomising the process of industrialisation of Slovakia since 1948. Furthermore, Londák is paying close attention to the efforts of Slovak economists undertaken in order to replant the special economic needs of Slovakia; these efforts were closely connected with the preparations for a federalization of the Czechoslovak state. The study of Jan Pešek is dealing with the process of a limited regeneration, under conditions of the Communist regime, of Churches. Elena Londáková is broaching the issue of reform movement in culture. She emphasised, that it were above all the exponents of cultural life, who acted as the pioneers of the reform movement and, in the same time, as the main critics of the whole social and political system.

Christian Theology and Religion --- History --- Fine Arts / Performing Arts --- Cultural history --- Photography --- History of Church(es) --- Diplomatic history --- Economic history --- Political history --- Recent History (1900 till today) --- Special Historiographies: --- Theology and Religion --- Post-War period (1950 - 1989) --- History of Communism --- History of Religion --- Czechoslovakia --- Politics and government.