SDEb1102 The Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc and Political Trials

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Vladimír Černý, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
PhDr. Vladimír Černý, Ph.D.
Department of International Relations and European Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The main goal of the course is to acquaint students with the mechanism of political trials taking place in the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Attention will also be paid to the international response of these trials.
Learning outcomes
Within the subject, students will gain an overview of the political processes taking place in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. In addition, they will be able to evaluate professional literature on the subject of the course and apply their analytical skills when creating a seminar paper
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction to the issue, introducing students to primary and secondary sources.
  • 2. The political trials is not an invention of the 20th century or from Socrates to van der Lubbe.
  • 3. The establishment of the Bolshevik regime in Russia, Stalin's struggle for power and the first trials in the 20s.
  • 4. The Moscow trials of 1936–1938 and their international response.
  • 5. The formation of the Soviet bloc, the creation of Informbyr and its functioning.
  • 6. Stalin's rupture with Yugoslavia and its consequences. The trials of "Tito's agents" in the Eastern Bloc, the persecution of real or imagined Stalinists in Yugoslavia.
  • 7. Of prominent communists indicted (Koçi Xoxe in Albania, László Rajk in Hungary, Trajčo Kostov in Bulgaria and their trials).
  • 8. Political terror and trials in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s.
  • 9. Media and Tribunals. Reporting on political trials in the Soviet Union and its satellites in Western countries.
  • 10. The role of Soviet advisers in the preparation and implementation of political processes in the Eastern Bloc.
  • 11. USA in the 1950s (McCarthy, Rosenberg, etc.). Comparison with the situation in the USSR.
  • 12. Rehabilitation only for the chosen ones. Attempts to rehabilitate victims of political trials in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • 13. Political trials in the Eastern Bloc in the 1970s and 1980s.
Literature
  • CHADIMA, Jan. Rudolf Slánský. Edited by Pavel Rychetský. Vydání první. Praha: Vyšehrad, 2022, 447 stran. ISBN 9788076016231. info
  • JEZERNIK, Božidar. Goli otok : Titův gulag. Translated by Jana Špirudová. Vydání první. Praha: Volvox Globator, 2020, 409 stran. ISBN 9788075115058. URL info
  • Stalin's soviet justice : "show" trials, war crimes trials, and Nuremberg. Edited by David Crowe. First published. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, ix, 245. ISBN 9781350083349. info
  • ARJOMAND, Minou. Staged : show trials, political theater, and the aesthetics of judgment. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018, xv, 232. ISBN 9780231184885. info
  • CONQUEST, Robert. Velký teror : nové zhodnocení. Edited by Lukáš Babka, Translated by Milan Dvořák. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 2012, 811 s. ISBN 9788020020789. info
  • A failed empire : the Soviet union in the cold war from Stalin to Gorbachev. Edited by Vladislav Martinovič Zubok. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina press, 2009, xxx, 467. ISBN 9780807859582. info
  • Stalinism revisited : the establishment of communist regimes in East-Central Europe. Edited by Vladimir Tismăneanu. Budapest: CEU Press, 2009, vii, 444. ISBN 9789639776555. info
  • Enemies within the gates?the Comintern and the Stalinist repression, 1934-1939. Edited by William J. Chase. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001, xxi, 514 p. ISBN 0300082428. info
  • KAPLAN, Karel and Pavel PALEČEK. Komunistický režim a politické procesy v Československu. 1. vyd. Brno: Barrister & Principal, 2001, 253 s. ISBN 8085947757. info
  • COURTOIS, Stéphane. Černá kniha komunismu : zločiny, teror, represe. Translated by Zuzana Dlabalová. Vyd. 1. Praha: Paseka, 1999, 311 s. ISBN 8071851957. info
  • KAPLAN, Karel. Sovětští poradci v Československu 1949-1956. Praha: ÚSD AC ČR, 1993, 146 s. ISBN 80-85270-26-9. info
Teaching methods
The course takes place in the form of a combination of lectures and seminar teaching. During the semester, students will prepare a seminar paper that will test their ability to apply analytical skills and work with academic literature
Assessment methods
Students are tasked with preparing a seminar paper of a minimum length of 18,000 characters on one of the assigned topics. The final exam consists of a written test consisting of seven open questions. The total evaluation of the subject in the amount of 60 points includes both this final test (maximum 30 points), an intermediate test written on the topics discussed so far in the middle of the semester (10 points) and a seminar paper (20 points). A student must obtain at least 40 points to successfully complete the course
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
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