1989: Thinking Revolution in East-Central Europe

   

Foto: Stanislava Kyselová, Akademický bulletin

All modern political identities and ideological currents are marked by their attitudes toward the phenomenon of revolution and toward various historical revolutionary models. The chief aim of this conference was to historicize the democratic revolutions of 1989 in Czechoslovakia and East-Central Europe, moving beyond the dominant “transitological” understanding of these revolutions in terms of the “End of Communism” and the “Beginning of Democracy.” This historicization will be achieved by scrutinizing historical accounts and contemporary reflections of observers and actors involved in the revolutions. These reflections were not merely spontaneous observations. They were a part of long-term intellectual and conceptual developments, firmly rooted in specific cultural and political tendencies, expert cultures, and contexts, which not only helped to structure a general understanding of the historical changes but also shaped ideas about the future, which in turn helped to set the foundations for emerging political culture in the region. In other words, we would like to ask how certain interpretations of the European and global revolutionary experience influenced understandings (and self-understandings) of the revolutions of 1989.
The conference focused on the following themes: Democratic, Liberal, or Neoliberal Revolution? Dissent, Post-Dissent, and the Ideas of 1989. The End of History or the End of the Future? Theories of Soviet-type Society. The Second Life of the Prague Spring in 1989.