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Glossary -- Czechoslovakia
- army
- In Soviet military usage, an army has at least two divisions. A
Soviet or non-Soviet Warsaw Pact motorized rifle division has
between 10,000 and 14,000 troops.
- Carpatho-Ukraine (also Subcarpathian
Ruthenia)
- An area once part of Czechoslovakia but ceded to the Soviet
Union after World War II. Populated mostly by Ukrainians, who prior
to World War II were sometimes referred to as Ruthenians.
- Charter 77
- The human rights documents around which Czech and Slovak
dissidents have rallied since its signing in 1977.
- Comecon
- Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Sometimes cited as CMEA
or CEMA. Members in 1987 included Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia,
the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, the
Mongolian People's Republic, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, and
Vietnam. Its purpose is to further economic cooperation among
members.
- Cominform
- The Communist Information Bureau, made up of the communist
parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia (expelled in 1948), France, and Italy.
It was formed on Soviet initiative in 1947 and dissolved on Soviet
initiative in 1956. The Cominform's primary function was to publish
propaganda touting international communist solidarity. It was
regarded primarily as a tool of Soviet foreign policy.
- communist and communism
- Czechoslovakia officially describes itself as "socialist" and
its economic system as "socialism" (the preferred terms in the West
are "communist" and "communism") and claims that it is working its
way toward communism, which Lenin defined as a higher stage of
socialism. Czechoslovak socialism bears scant resemblance to the
democratic socialism of, for example, Scandinavian countries.
- Dual Monarchy
- The dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy established by the Compromise
of 1867 and lasting until 1918. Austria and Hungary were virtually
separate states, each having its own parliament, administration, and
judicial system. They shared a common ruler, a joint foreign policy,
and finances.
- extensive economic development
- Expanding production by adding resources rather than by
improving the efficiency by which these resources are exploited.
- front
- In Soviet military usage, a front consists of at least two
armies and usually more than that number. Two or more fronts
constitute a theater of military operations.
- Hussitism
- Teachings of the fifteenth-century Czech religious reformer Jan
Hus challenging papal authority and the corruption of the Roman
Catholic Church. In asserting national autonomy in ecclesiastical
affairs, Hussitism acquired an anti-German reputation and was
considered a Czech national movement.
- koruna (pl., koruny)
- National currency consisting of 100 halers (halere--Cz.;
haliere--Sl.). Symbol is Kcs. In 1987 the official, or commercial,
exchange rate was Kcs5.4 per US$1; the tourist, or noncommercial,
rate was Kcs10.5 per US$1. The value of US$1 on the black market was
at least twice the tourist rate of exchange.
- Kraj (pl., kraje)
- Primary administrative region into which both the Czech and the
Slovak socialist republics are divided.
- Kulaks
- the relatively prosperous segment of peasants in the Russian
Empire disenfranchised by Soviet authorities.
- liquidity shortage
- The lack of assets that can be readily converted to cash.
- Marshall Plan
- A plan announced in June 1947 by the United States Secretary of
State George C. Marshall, for the reconstruction of Europe after
World War II. The plan involved a considerable amount of United
States aid.
- Munich Agreement
- An agreement in September 1938 between Germany, Italy, Britain,
and France calling on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland
(q.v.) to Germany and smaller parts of its territory to
Hungary and Poland.
- "normalization"
- A return to tight party control over Czechoslovak life following
the suppression of the Prague Spring (q.v.) reform
movement.
- okres (pl., okresy)
- Administrative territorial subdivision of kraj
(q.v.) roughly equivalent to a county in the United States.
- opportunity cost
- The value of a good or service in terms of what had to be
sacrificed in order to obtain that item.
- Prague Spring
- The culmination in the spring of 1968 of the late 1960s reform
movement in Czechoslovakia. Cut short by Warsaw Pact (q.v.)
invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
- samizdat
- Literally, self publication. Russian word for the printing and
circulating of materials not permitted by the government.
- Sudetenland
- An area in Czechoslovakia along the German border. Before World
War II populated primarily by Germans. After the war most of the
Germans were forcibly resettled in Germany.
- Svejk
- The fictional hero of Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier
Svejk. He symbolizes characteristic Czech passive resistance.
- Treaty of Rome 1957
- Established the European Economic Community (EEC--also known as
the Common Market).
- Uniate Church
- Sometimes referred to as the Greek Catholic Church. A branch of
the Catholic Church preserving the Eastern rite and discipline but
submitting to papal authority; found primarily in western Ukraine
and Carpatho-Ukraine (q.v.).
- Warsaw Pact
- Political-military alliance founded in 1955 as a counterweight to the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization. Members in 1987 included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Has served as
the Soviet Union's primary mechanism for keeping political and military control
over Eastern Europe.
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