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Czechoslovakia Associations
In 1948 there were 6,000 to 7,000 clubs and societies in
Czechoslovakia; these had long been integral to social life and
national aspirations. The right to form associations was first
won in 1848, although the Hapsburgs, realizing that they had
opened a Pandora's box in their ethnically diverse empire,
revoked it soon thereafter. The Czech lands regained this freedom
in 1867. Sokol clubs (gymnastic organizations), cultural
groups, savings and loan cooperatives, and a host of other clubs
proliferated in the Czech lands and anywhere Czech emigrants
clustered. Turn-of-the-century Vienna (with more than 100,000
Czechs) had Czech theaters, clubs, newspapers, and banks. The
Hungarians, however, offered more concerted opposition to Slovak
efforts to organize. Slovak emigres formed organizations wherever
they went, and these associations agitated for Slovakia's
inclusion in the First Republic.
A 1951 law gave the Ministry of Interior jurisdiction over
associations, and in the 1960s there were only a few hundred
societies still in existence. The right to form associations was
limited, and the associations themselves were under strict KSC
control. Cultural organizations operated under official auspices.
Friendship leagues were particularly encouraged: Bulgarian-,
Polish-, or Hungarian-Czechoslovak friendship societies could
easily receive official approval. The regime particularly favored
the Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship League, though its
rank-and-file membership declined as a result of a surge of
anti-Soviet sentiment after the 1968 invasion. There was official
sponsorship for "Circles of Creativity" and "Houses of
Enlightenment." Cultural societies for German or Hungarian
minorities were acceptable, but religious organizations faced
significantly greater restrictions. Any association that might
play a role in politics or the economy (that could however
remotely or tenuously be construed to threaten KSC domination)
was out of the question.
The Prague Spring reinforced this mania for control over
associations. The reform movement's potential was nowhere more
threatening to the hegemony of the party than in the population's
persistent demands for more truly representative organizations in
every area of life. That the KSC membership was underrepresented
in the popularly elected leadership of such organizations
confirmed the conservatives' worst suspicions: this was a reform
movement whose popular manifestations would prove difficult to
control. The regime's response was to restrict associations still
more.
Data as of August 1987
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