Lexington Books
Pages: 324
Trim: 6¼ x 9
978-1-7936-4645-3 • Hardback • February 2022 • $126.00 • (£97.00)
978-1-7936-4646-0 • eBook • February 2022 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Jakub Šlouf is a researcher at the National Archives in Prague and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in the Czech Republic.
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Glossary of Terms
Introduction
1. Public Protests in Pilsen in the Years 1948−1949
2. Worker Strikes at the Škoda Works in 1949–1953
3. Pilsen Strikes and Protests on 1 June 1953
Conclusion
List of Archive Fonds and Abbreviations
Bibliography
Name Index
About the Author
This book is a seminal and entirely original study of the Pilsen revolt against the currency reform of June 1953, one of the crucial events from the early days of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Thanks to the author’s erudite exploration of historical sources—thoroughly backed up by theoretical research—as well as the concise, engaging presentation of his findings, this book surpasses anything published about the subject to this date.
— Michal Kopeček, Institute for Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences
This study is not merely a detailed reconstruction of the Pilsen riots, thoroughly backed up by historical sources. It is a case study that provides important insights and detailed analyses of the relationship between industrial workers and the socialist dictatorship at the height of the Stalinist era. Šlouf’s book challenges the prevailing interpretation of events which explains the June protests merely as a spontaneous reaction of Pilsen workers to the currency reform and its immediate impact on their living standard. Šlouf postulates, on the other hand, that the Pilsen riots were the final event in a chain of long-term conflicts that plagued Czechoslovak society since the end of the Second World War. It is no exaggeration to say that this book is a seminal milestone in the research of resistance against the socialist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia.
— Vítězslav Sommer, Institute for Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences