PT Journal
AU Trapl, M
   Buresova, J
TI The Council of Free Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovak Exile in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s
SO Historica Olomucensia
PY 2016
BP 257
EP 276
VL 51
IS 2
DI 10.5507/ho.2016.042
DE Council of Free Czechoslovakia; Czechoslovak exile; exile societies; Australia; Czechoslovakia; 1970s; 1980s
AB The paper thematically follows the work of the authors (published in the previous issue of Historica Olomucensia) in the next period of time. It discusses a situation in Czechoslovak exile after August occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies in the year 1968. As a consequence of that and the subsequent strengthening of the Communist regime, another large exile wave followed. The Council of Free Czechoslovakia as a top body of the world Czechoslovak exile was reorganized and its activity was revived after the previous damping of its activities at the beginning of the 1970s. Nevertheless, the circumstances of exile were transformed in contrast to the preceding two decades.The article represents a case study of the exile life in Australia in the last two decades of the existence of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The concrete example of Czechoslovak exiles in Australia shows cultural and political activities of their societies. It thoroughly describes differences of opinion, typical for exile, and mutual, often personal conflicts, which crippled social and cultural work itself.The Council of Free Czechoslovakia corresponded with exile societies, which provide a basic source for this case study. It is just the correspondence, in which all the mutual relations and problems of the whole exile movement are visible. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the mutual contacts between the exile top body and the Australian exile as well as to describe the atmosphere of that period.
ER