Towards an Understanding of the Party Historiography in the 1950s and 1960s

Abstract

This paper examines the origin and development of the party historiography in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 1960s. It considers this issue on two levels. The first level is a theoretical and methodological understanding through an analysis of the discourse and discursive practice with rejection of the paradigm shift in the party historiography of the fifties and sixties. The conceptual model is the existence of an unchanging paradigm, within which occurs a transformation or rivalry of several historiographic discourses. The second level is defining of the various stages of the party historiography, striving to identify the critical milestones and, based on period discussions, to formulate some interpretive and methodological shifts in the discursive practice. The main stages are defined as a period of Stalinist discourse (1950–1956), a period of post-Stalinist discourse (1956–1963), and a period of Reformist discourse (1963–1970).