Histoire du Parti communiste tchécoslovaque

Des origines à la prise du pouvoir

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Czechoslovak Communism produced both the most ruthless and entrenched stalinism in Eastern Europe and the most daring expriment in attempting to give socialism a " human place ". How to account for such a sharp contrast ? By writing its history. Drawing on ail the sources accessible today, Jacques Rupnik examines the background of this fundamental duality of Czechoslovak Communism. He shows the weight of the traditionally démocratie political culture of the country as well as the rôle of domestic factors in the formation of what he calls " indigenous stalinism ". Besides the officiai Party history published in Prague, there was no available comprehensive study of the history of Czechoslovak Communism. Starting from the scattered pièces of the puzzle left to us by the Czechoslovak historiography silenced after 1968, Jacques Rupnik continues its work by attempting what it did not hâve the time to produce : a reinterpretation of the history of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.