Stalinismus in der Tschechoslowakei. Forschungslage und sozialgeschichtliche Anmerkungen am Beispiel der Industriearbeiterschaft

Abstract

Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. The State of the Research and Social-Historical Observations Using the Example of Industrial Workers

Different forms of institutionalized terror are central themes of research about the socialist period of communist Czechoslovakia. The analytical concepts of the exercise of power and the idea of the ubiquitous control of the communist party over society obscure one's view of the «flexible management» of the government administration. Using the example of industrial workers, this article indicates that, under the pressure of the needs of an industrial society, the party and labor unions already early on were forced to channel «divergent» industrial situations through regulations that adapted to their particular contexts. State socialism was not successful in forming in the long run an industrial labor force through the disciplinary project of «terror» and rigid demands for integration in the institutional system.