Lexikon ČSLA - Svazy a svazky – Fidler Jiří (2020)

DISCOVERING ENCYCLOPEDIA NOT ONLY FOR ALL FORMER SOLDIERS OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK ARMY
More than four million of our citizens passed through the ranks of the Czechoslovak People's Army from the first half of the 1950s to the end of the 1980s. It was one of the fundamental pillars of state power and throughout its existence was on the front line: at the borders between two hostile political, economic, and military blocs.
Yet, there is still a lack of comprehensive and synthetic historical works that would address the phenomenon of the Czechoslovak People's Army. During that time, there were few other state institutions that so deeply influenced the lives of almost every citizen. The army was a precisely hierarchized system that was thoroughly prepared for conducting combat operations in the event of a war conflict. However, it could also "generate" different outputs, such as rescuing the population in the event of natural disasters, providing economic assistance to various sectors, or promoting sports, culture, and especially the ideological propaganda of the social system.
The Czechoslovak People's Army Lexicon is the first attempt to offer basic information about one of the most important military spheres: the organization and deployment at the level of divisions and brigades. It focuses on the period from January 1951 to March 1990, content-wise on divisions...