Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe

Description

Detailed case study review of secret agents and a re-thinking of history of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Whilst debates over secret agents and the public revelation of lists of former collaborators have fascinated both post-Communist societies and the wider world, it is surprising how little has been written either on the nature of Communist-era collaboration or the processes through which post-Communist societies have sought to make sense of what collaboration was, and how it should be dealt with in the present. This is surprising given the amount of work that has been produced on the themes of resistance and victimization.

Unlike more popular (and often lurid) accounts of collaboration, which naturalise the concept as an obvious and incontestable characterization of Communist-era behaviour, ‘Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe’ rather interrogates the ways in which Post-Socialist cultures produce the idea of, and knowledge about, ‘collaborators’. It addresses those institutions which produce the concept and examines the function, social representation and history of secret police archives and institutes of national memory that create these histories of collaboration. This work seeks to provide a more nuanced historical conception of ‘collaboration’, expanding the concept towards broader frameworks of cooperation and political participation in order to facilitate a better understanding of the maintenance of Eastern European Communist regimes.

This work contends that secret police files are too often used to provide a one dimensional historical account of the ‘mechanisms of oppression’. It demonstrates, through case studies, how secret police files can be used to produce more subtle social and cultural histories of the socialist dictatorships. Of particular importance is the focus on the microhistorical. Contributions here explore the motivations and moralities of becoming an agent, the personal decisions and social consequences such steps involved as well as the everyday milieus in which agents lived and were active. This book analyses communities of cooperation, with particular focus on local and mid-level party organizations, organs of the church organs and artist or intellectual networks. Ranging across differing categories of collaborators and different social milieux across East-Central Europe, this work provides a comparative account of collaboration and participation with a range hitherto unavailable.

Frameworks: Collaboration, Cooperation, Political Participation in the Communist Regimes By the editors; Part 1: Institutes; Chapter 1: A Dissident Legacy, The ‘Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records of the Former GDR’ (BStU) in United Germany, Bernd Schaefer; Chapter 2: In Black and White? The Discourse on Polish Post-War Society by the Institute of Polish Remembrance, Barbara Klich-Kluczewska; Chapter 3: The Exempt Nation: Memory of Collaborationism in Contemporary Latvia, Leva Zake; Chapter 4: Institutes of Memory in the Slovak and Czech Republics – What Kind of Memory? Martin Kovanič; Chapter 5: Closing the Past – Opening the Future. Hungarian Victims and Perpetrators of the Communist Regime, Péter Apor and Sándor Horváth; Chapter 6: To Collaborate and to Punish. Democracy and Transitional Justice in Romania, Florin Abraham; Part 2: Secret Lives; Chapter 7: ‘Resistance through Culture’ or ‘Connivance through Culture.’ Difficulties of Interpretation; Nuances, Errors, and Manipulations, Gabriel Andreescu; Chapter 8: Intellectuals between Collaboration and Independence. Politics and Everyday Life in the Prague Faculty of Arts in Late Socialism, Matěj Spurný; Chapter 9: Tito and Intellectuals – Collaboration and Support, 1945–1980, Josip Mihaljević; Chapter 10: Spy in the Underground. Polish Samizdat Stories, Paweł Sowiński; Chapter 11: Entangled Stories. On the Meaning of Collaboration with the Former Securitate, Cristina Petrescu; Part 3: Collaborating Communities; Chapter 12: Finding the Ways (around). Regional-level Party Activists in Slovakia, Marína Zavacká; Chapter 13: ‘But Who is the Party?’ History and Historiography in the Hungarian Communist Party, Tamás Kende; Chapter 14: Forgetting ‘Judas’. Priest Collaboration in Slovak Catholic Memory after 1989, Agáta Drelová; Chapter 15: Informing as Life-Style. Unofficial Collaborators of the Hungarian and the East-German State Security (Stasi) Working in the Tourism Sector, Krisztina Slachta.

Sujets

• Catholicisme
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Communisme
• 20th century
• Ideology
• Modern history
• Communism
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• HISTORY

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781783087259
• Langue: English

Extrait

Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe
Anthem Series on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
The Anthem Series on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies publishes original research on the economy, politics, sociology, anthropology and history of the region. The series aims to promote critical scholarship in the field and has built a reputation for uncompromising editorial and production standards. The breadth of the series reflects our commitment to promoting original scholarship on Russian and East European studies to a global audience.
Series Editor
Balázs Apor—Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Editorial Board
Bradley F. Abrams—President, Czechoslovak Studies Association, USA
Jan C. Behrends—Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, Germany
Dennis Deletant—University College London, UK
Tomasz Kamusella—University of St. Andrews, UK
Walter G. Moss—Eastern Michigan University, USA
Marshall T. Poe—University of Iowa, USA
Arfon Rees—University of Birmingham, UK
Maria Todorova—University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe
Edited by Péter Apor, Sándor Horváth and James Mark
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2017
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

© 2017 Péter Apor, Sándor Horváth and James Mark editorial matter and selection; individual chapters © individual contributors.

The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-723-5 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-723-4 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Collaboration, Cooperation and Political Participation in the Communist Regimes
Péter Apor, Sándor Horváth and James Mark
Part I. INSTITUTES OF MEMORY
Chapter 1. A Dissident Legacy and Its Aspects: The Agency of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records of the Former GDR (BStU) in United Germany
Bernd Schaefer
Chapter 2. Goodbye Communism, Hello Remembrance: Historical Paradigms and the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland
Barbara Klich-Kluczewska
Chapter 3. The Exempt Nation: Memory of Collaboration in Contemporary Latvia
Ieva Zake
Chapter 4. Institutes of Memory in Slovakia and the Czech Republic: What Kind of Memory?
Martin Kovanic
Chapter 5. Closing the Past—Opening the Future: Victims and Perpetrators of the Communist Regime in Hungary
Péter Apor and Sándor Horváth
Chapter 6. To Collaborate and to Punish: Democracy and Transitional Justice in Romania
Florin Abraham
Part II. SECRET LIVES
Chapter 7. “Resistance through Culture” or “Connivance through Culture”: Difficulties of Interpretation; Nuances, Errors and Manipulations
Gabriel Andreescu
Chapter 8. Intellectuals between Collaboration and Independence in Late Socialism: Politics and Everyday Life at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague
Matěj Spurný, Jakub Jareš and Katka Volná
Chapter 9. Deal with the Devil: Intellectuals and Their Support of Tito’s Rule in Yugoslavia (1945–80)
Josip Mihaljević
Chapter 10. A Spy in Underground: Polish Samizdat Stories
Paweł Sowiński
Chapter 11. Entangled Stories: On the Meaning of Collaboration with the Securitate
Cristina Petrescu
Part III. Collaborating Communities
Chapter 12. Finding the Way Around: Regional-Level Party Activists and Collaboration
Marína Zavacká
Chapter 13. Wer aber ist die Partei? History and Historiography
Tamás Kende
Chapter 14. Just a Simple Priest: Remembering Cooperation with the Communist State in the Catholic Church in Postcommunist Slovakia
Agáta Šústová Drelová
Chapter 15. Unofficial Collaborators in the Tourism Sector (GDR and Hungary)
Krisztina Slachta
Conclusion
Péter Apor and Sándor Horváth
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ÁBTL Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára (Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security) BStU Die Behörde des Bundesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records of the Former GDR)—Germany CC Central Committee CDU Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union)—Germany CNSAS Consiliul Naţional pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securităţii (National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives)—Romania ČSSD Česká strana sociálně demokratická (Social Democratic Party of the Czech Republic)—Czech Republic FDP Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei)—Germany Fidesz Fidesz—Magyar Polgári Szövetség (Hungarian Civic Alliance, the acronym Fidesz stands for Alliance of Young Democrats)—Hungary HZDS Hnutieza demokratické Slovensko (Movement for Democratic Slovakia)—Slovakia IM Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter [Unofficial Collaborator]—Germany IPN Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance)—Poland ISP PAN Instytut Studiów Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences)—Poland ISTR Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů)—Czech Republic KDU-ČSL Křesťanská a demokratická unie—Československá strana lidová (Christian Democratic Party)—Czech Republic KGB Комитéт госудáрственной безопáсности (Committee for State Security)—Russia KOR Komitet Obrony Robotników (Workers’ Defence Committee)—Poland KSČM Komunistickástrana Čech a Moravy (Communist Party of the Czech Republic and Moravia)—Czech Republic MfS Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry for State Security)—GDR MNV Městský národní výbor (Municipal National Bureau)—Czechoslovakia MSZMP Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt (Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party)—Hungary MSZP Magyar Szocialista Párt (Hungarian Socialist Party)—Hungary NEB Nemzeti Emlékezet Bizottsága (Committee of National Remembrance) NMI Nation’s Memory Institute (Ústav pamäti národa)—Slovakia ODS Občanská demokratická strana (Civic Democratic Movement)—Czech Republic PCR Partidul Comunist Român (Romanian Communist Party)—Romania ReTörKI Rendszerváltás Történetét Kutató Intézet (Research Institute and Archives for the History of the Hungarian Transition)—Hungary RFE Radio Free Europe SDL Strana demokratickej ľavice (Party of the Democratic Left)—Slovakia SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany)—GDR SIE Serviciul de Informatii Externe (Foreign Information Service)— Romania SIS Slovak Information Service (Slovenská informačná služba)—Slovakia SMER Direction—Social Democracy Party (Smer–sociálna demokracia)— Slovakia SNS Slovenská národná strana (Slovak National Party)—Slovakia SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party)—Germany ŠtB Štátna Bezpečnosť (State Security)—Czechoslovakia StUG Stasi-Unterlagengesetz (Stasi Records Law)—Germany SZDSZ Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége (Alliance of Free Democrats)— Hungary VB Verejná Bezpečnosť (Public Security)—Czechoslovakia
INTRODUCTION: COLLABORATION, COOPERATION AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN THE COMMUNIST REGIMES
Péter Apor, Sándor Horváth and James Mark
The Memory of Collaboration
Following the fall of the communist dictatorships in East Central Europe in 1989, the question seemed obvious: Should one forget or remember? Post-1989 governments of the region responded to this question by establishing various commissions, specialized archives and institutes of memory charged with the task of clarifying the recent past, uncovering the truth, and furthering the search for justice. 1 The urgency of the issue was also palpable in questions raised over what