Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české XVIII. (1956–1967) – Suk Jiří (2025)

In 1967, less than twenty years after the coup that was supposed to be proof of the infallibility of Marxist-Leninist theory, President Antonín Novotný admitted: "Have we made mistakes, comrades? We have." The first wave of reforms that arose after the revelation of the cult of personality a decade earlier was still managed to be halted, and the voices of reformists suppressed. At the turn of the fifties and sixties, the indebted economy continued to lag behind the capitalist West, the centrally controlled economy was out of touch with the expectations of a consumer-oriented society, people fulfilled their needs through the gray economy, corruption flourished, and above all, the demand for uncovering the police and judicial arbitrariness of the past years grew. The eighteenth volume of the Great History of the Lands of the Czech Crown comprehensively deals with the years 1956–1967, which have come to be known as the "period of thaw." Political, economic, and cultural history is accompanied by insights into everyday life under socialism – from assessments of living standards to housing, work, or health, to the intimate zone of family environments or religious beliefs.