Political Polarisation and Communist Past: Czech and German Case

Political polarization, populism and illiberal tendencies in post-communist countries stem among other sources from their communist heritage, whose bearers are, paradoxically, also organizations of political prisoners who unintentionally transformed the political polarisation characteristic of the socialist dictatorship into a strong current of anti-communism and a polarized view of history. The research objectives are to: (1) study the roots of the narrative of polarisation among the politically persecuted; (2) analyse the value system, the formation of values and their transfer within associations of political prisoners; (3) study the transfer of their polarised narrative and value system to society and the degree of their success. Although there is a large body of literature focusing on the politics of memory, survivor trauma and anti-communism, none of them has addressed the link between political polarization and coping with the communist past. The project combines the historical research methodology of data gathering with the concepts of psychology (political polarisation and narrative). The German-Czech comparative project is expected to: (1) contribute to the emerging literature on political polarisation; (2) bring a better understanding of the links between the success of the democratization process and radical forms of anti-communism and populism while contributing to the ever growing debate on the need to use a non-polarized approach towards the communist past in education, politics and history; (3) initiate discussions on the role of political bodies with respect to victim organisations and their members and the necessity of various forms of help for persecuted persons (financial, psychological etc.). The project seeks to transfer best practices from Germany, where a more balanced view of the past seems to be prevalent, and analyse which historical, cultural, social and political factors have contributed to it.