The making of a socialist underworld: people on the margins in post-war Czechoslovakia (1945–60)

ABSTRACT

This text depicts the mechanisms that created the underworld and the profiles of people who formed a part of it in post-Second World War Czechoslovakia. The chronological framework is set between the end of the Second World War and the declaration of the so-called Socialist Constitution. It therefore covers the establishment of the Communist monopoly on power in February 1948, the period of Stalinism, the post-Stalinist thaw after 1953, and the amendment of Communist policies in the second half of the 1950s. It also shows the continuities between the principles set at the end of the war and the politics of the post-1948 period, as well as points to several continuities which go back deep into the nineteenth century. The existence of the underworld contrasts with the determination of the post-war political authorities to create a better and more moral society, which took radical forms after the establishment of the Communist monopoly on power. More precisely speaking, the underworld often grew out of this determination on the part of the authorities as well as from some specificities of the post-war welfare and economic politics. The text illustrates these mechanisms using the example of a number of personal destinies. For this, it uses a variety of sources: criminal reports; interrogation protocols and intelligence of the Public Security Service (Veřejná bezpečnost) and various departments of the National Security Corps (Sbor národní bezpečnosti, SNB); reports of the National Committees (Národní výbory) and of the Ministry of the Interior and legal norms. The topic is approached from the perspective of the social and economic history of state-socialist regimes.

KEYWORDS:

• Criminality
• Czechoslovakia 1945–60
• welfare policy
• marginal strata
• underworld

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This was the case of most of the European states. The discussions and solutions are synthetically depicted in, for example: Judt, Postwar, 4–6 and 63–86; Mazower, Dark Continent, 215–89; and Abrams, “The Second World War,” 623–64.

2. The target was announced by the Programme of the Government of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks (Program vlády národní fronty Čechů a Slováků) approved in March 1945 in Moscow at the meeting of the London exile government and the Moscow exile. Known also as a Košice programme, according to the city of Košice, where it was officially declared for the first time in April 1945, it formed the basis for the post-war state construction, and defined its social, educational, cultural, international, labour, administrative and economic policy.

3. In a long line of such utopias see, for example, More, Utopia; Campanella, La città del sole; Saint-Simon, Nouveau christianisme; Fourrier, De l’anarchie industrielle and others. One of the last such ideas is described by Marx in The Civil War in France (published in 1871).

4. Besides the Programme of the Government of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks, this included for example the principle of mobilization of labour, planning, the duty to work and the measures in the domain of fun. Some of these principles are briefly depicted in the text.

5. Set in 1945, this formed a section of the National Security Corps (Sbor národní bezpečnosti), established in the same year, which was intended to unify the hitherto fragmented police institutions.

6. See note 4.

7. Established by presidential decree no. 18/1944 Coll. and confirmed by the Programme of the Government of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks, these were seen as the main bodies of the local administration and providers of the deputees to the National Assembly. They were also seen as the executors of the people’s democracy. See: Program vlády národní fronty Čechů a Slováků, Bratislava 1945, section V.

8. National Archive (hereinafter referred to as NA), Resource of the Ministry of the Interior I – New Registry, box 5168, Implementing Regulation for All Units of the National Security Corps Operating Within Greater Brno and for all Departments of the Directorate of the National Security Corps in Brno of 17 January 1947.

9. Ibid.

10. See, for example, Rock, “Sociological Theories of Crime,” 65–8.

11. NA, Resource of the Ministry of the Interior I – New Registry, box 5168, Implementing Regulation.

12. Program vlády národní, section XIV. For more details see: Kalinová, “Změny sociálního systému,” 119–55; Kožáková, “Sociálny štát,” 81–111; Hrachová, “Social Security,” 30–44; and Rákosník, “Kontinuita a diskontinuita vývoje,” 15–39.

13. See, for example, Hurtíková, “Institut prvorepublikové donucovací pracovny.” These continuities would deserve further research.

14. See: Decree of the President of the Republic of 4 June 1945 on the Provisional Edification of the Employment Protection Offices no. 13/1945 Coll., § 1.

15. This decree enabled the punishment of the individual by means of a heavy fine or imprisonment of up to one year, and sometimes both. See Decree of the President of the Republic of 1 October 1945 on Universal Work Duty no. 88/1945 Coll., Section 23. This decree represented the basic legal norm of the labour law until 1966, when the first post-war Labour Code came into force.

16. See note 11.

17. Tauchen, “Organizace a činnost úřadů práce,” 91–109; Ibid., “Labour Law in the Protectorate,” 15–34; and Marx, “The German Labour Administration,” 34–54.

18. Rákosník, Sovětizace sociálního státu, 197–242.

19. Especially with the system of coercive workhouses (Donucovací pracovny), dating back to 1929, which in turn were inspired by the Austrian Imperial Law of the nineteenth century on coercive workhouses. See: Act of 25 June 1929 on the Institution of the Coercive Labour Colonies and on the Amendment to Several Provisions of Penal Law No. 102/1929 Coll.; Act of 24 May 1885 on Labour and Correction Houses no. 89/1885 of the Imperial Act.

20. See note 11.

21. Ibid., Circular of the Directorate of the National Security Corps in Brno of 22 August 1946; Security Report to the Provincial National Committee in Prague.

22. On the consequences of the passing of the abolition act in Czechoslovakia, see e. g. Lenderová, Chytila patrola, 195–210; Havelková, “Blaming all Women,” 165–91; Wingfield, The World of Prostitution, 245–56; and Prokopovych, “Prostitution in Prague,” 185–90.

23. See: NA, Resource of the Ministry of the Interior I – New Registry, box 5168, various newspaper clippings.

24. NA, Resource of the Ministry of the Interior II – Nosek’s Archive, Prague, box 58, Proposal for Operation Plan for Raid on Brothels.

25. Ibid.

26. On the stigmatization of prostitution see also Havelková, “Blaming all Women,” 165–91; and Horváth, Stalinism Reloaded, 247–57.

27. The ‘Victorious February’ was the outcome of a long-lasting political crisis. The non-communist ministers decided to resign from the government. However, they did not form a majority, so no new election took place. President Beneš therefore appointed a new government, this time fully under the influence of the Communist Party. For more information see e.g.: Myant, Socialism and Democracy; Lukeš, “The Prague Coup,” 53–62; Kaplan, The Short March; Gleason, “The Communist Coup,” 182–93; and Margolius Kovály, Under A Cruel Star and others.

28. The transformation of penal law also consisted of the so-called ‘popularization’ of the judiciary, which introduced the function of Judges from the Ranks of the People (Soudci z lidu). No professional qualification was required for this function, and it could be performed by anyone who was elected by the participants at a meeting of the relevant District National Committee (Místní Národní výbor). The position was based on the principle of the public authority of the person in question within the local community, and for this reason the vote of a Judge from the Ranks of the People also carried the same weight as that of a professional judge. Court proceedings were to be public, and also began to take into consideration the ‘class origin’ of the defendant and his or her ‘relationship to the people’s democratic order’, which was intended to have a deterrent effect on others, while at the same time reinforcing the educational function of the justice system. See Přibáň, “Na stráži jednoty světa,” 41–56; Kuklík, ed., Vývoj československého práva 1945–1989, 106–20.

29. NA, resource of the Ministry of the Interior I – new registry, box 5168, Statement of Attorney General Dr. Lorek on the Enactment of ‘Educational Surveillance’.

30. See: Přibáň, “Na stráži jednoty,” 41–56; and Kühn, “Ideologie aplikace práva,” 60–73.

31. See Tomeš, “Metamorfózy sociálního státu,” 69.

32. National Insurance Act from 15 April 1948 No. 99/1948 Coll., § 1. Its approval was postponed several times due to the political crisis. As a result, when it was finally approved it did not fit into the newly established regime. For more on these delays and transformations see e.g. Rákosník, “Jak jsme si založili”; and Kalinová, Společenské proměny, 149–67.

33. Ibid., 138–49.

34. Ibid., 148.

35. Archive of Security Forces (hereinafter ABS), resource of the Administration of SNB of the Capital City of Prague, Protocols of Events I–1, Inventory Unit 1.

36. Kalinová, Společenské proměny, 148.

37. ABS, resource of the Administration of the SNB of the Capital City of Prague, Protocols of Events I–1, Inventory Unit 1.

38. Ibid., Files I-2, box 12, box 13.

39. Ibid., Files I–11, box 33.

40. Ibid., box 1.

41. Archive of the Capital City of Prague (hereinafter AHMP), resource of the District Criminal Court 1949–1960, not inventoried. Record of the Case of Libuše Soukupová from March 1951.

42. Marx, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, 8–9 and 38–9.

43. Havelková, “Blaming all Women,” 165–91; and Borák and Janák, Tábory nucené práce.

44. See ABS, resource of the Administration of the SNB of the Capital City of Prague, Files I–11, box 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

45. Ibid., files I–11, box 2.

46. Ibid., box 29.

47. Ibid., box 28.

48. Ibid., box 34.

49. On the impacts of the low education of youth, see Kalinová, Společenské proměny, 173–82.

50. ABS, Resource of the Administration of the SNB of the Capital City of Prague, Files I–11, box 28 and 34.

51. NA, Resource of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia – Central Committee 1945–1989, Prague – Politburo 1954–1962, volume 139, archival unit/point 182/16, Report on Results of the Work of the Public Security Service for 1956.

52. Ibid.

53. After the death of Stalin in March 1953, the societies of the Soviet Bloc started to liberalize. An important milestone was Khrushchev’s speech at the 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, which in some states marked important changes. However, Czechoslovak de-Stalinization was rather minor. See: Blaive, Une déstalinisation manquée.

54. NA, resource of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia – Central Committee 1945–1989, Prague – Politburo 1954–1962, volume 139, archival unit/point 182/16, Report on Results.

55. i.e. public property.

56. Administrative Criminal Act from 12 July 1950 no. 88/1950 Coll., Section 35.

57. Act of 6 March, Amending and Supplementing Administrative Criminal Act no. 88/1950 Coll., no. 14/1957, Article IV, point 1.

58. Act of 19 December 1956, Amending and Supplementing Criminal Act no. 86/1950 Coll., no. 63/1956 Coll., points 43–44.

59. ABS, resource of the Administration of the SNB of the Capital City of Prague I–2, box 14.

60. See e.g.: Zimmerman and Pullmann, Ordnung und Sicherheit; Brenner, “Život na úkor společnosti,” 96–104; Ibid., “Líné dívky, lehké dívky?,” 19–22; and Kotalík, “Capitalist Relic,” 36–58.

61. In the Criminal Act of 1961, the facts of the case were supplemented by the casuistic specification: ‘Section 202: Disorderly conduct: (1) Whoever, out of manifest disrespect for society, commits gross indecency or disorderly conduct in public or in a place open to the public, shall be punished by imprisonment for up to two years or by a correctional measure or a fine. (2) Imprisonment for a term of six months to three years or a correctional measure shall be imposed if the offender commits the act referred to in paragraph (1) as a member of an organized group.’; ‘Section 203: Parasitism: Whoever systematically avoids honest labour and secures the means for subsistence through prostitution, gambling or other dishonest means shall be punished by incarceration for up to two years.’

62. Forerunners of the newly introduced crimes had figured in the Imperial Criminal Act of 1852 and in the above-mentioned Labour Camps and Workhouses Act from 1885, directed against marginal strata, the purpose of which was to record, isolate, exclude and re-educate such individuals. The difference consisted in the fact that the Imperial law stipulated more lenient punishments and allowed arrested individuals wider room for manoeuvre in their defence. The highest rate of punishments set by the Austrian laws represented the lowest of the Communist ones, and whereas the Austrian criminal act allowed room for manoeuvre in that those ^arrested could claim to be seeking work, the communist amendment focused its interest on the present. The person in question either did or did not have work: no alternative existed. The Austrian laws also explicitly defined what was understood to constitute public offence, while under the communist formulation, virtually anything could be interpreted as disrespect towards society. Act of 27 May 1852, Criminal Act on Crimes, Offences and Misdemeanours no. 117/1852 of the Imperial Code, Sections 65, 68, 73, 74, 122, 283, 516; Act of 24 May 1885 on Labour Camps of the Imperial Code, Section 1.

63. This served as a form of compensation for the continual insufficiency of consumer goods that was characteristic of the centrally planned economy.

64. For a recent work on this, see Kolář and Pullmann, Co byla normalizace?, 180–201.

65. Kalinová, Společenské proměny, 138–82.

Additional information

Funding

This text was supported by the programme PROGRES Q9: History – Key for the Understanding of the Globalised World at the Charles University. Its translation was supported by the European Review of History Translation Prize.

Notes on contributors

Lucie Dušková

Lucie Dušková is a post-doctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe at the University of Leipzig, Germany (GWZO). Her research focuses on the social and economic history of post-1945 Europe and transnational history. She is currently preparing a book on the history of the night in state-socialist Czechoslovakia and an edited book about night work in the nineteenth–twenty-first centuries within the global context. Her recent publications are: ‘A Socialist Night? Governing Through Lights in the Post-War’, in Night Studies: Regards croisés sur les nouveaux visages de la nuit, edited by Luc Gwiazdzinski, Marco Maggioli and William Straw (Grenoble: Elya, 2020), 208–222 and ‘Yet It Is Still Necessary to Struggle for a Better World’: Media Images of Crime in Relation to Criminal Activities in People’s Democratic Czechoslovakia (1945–1961), Střed/Centre: Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies of Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries, no. 1 (2020): 108–140.