The Intellectual Origins of the Prague Spring

In this survey of the development of reformist ideas among the Czech intelligentsia from 1956 to 1967, Dr Kusin presents an intellectual pre-history of the Prague Spring of 1968. He believes that incongruity between the political, social, economic and cultural organization imposed on Czechoslovakia after 1948 and the national disposition of the people was at the root of reformist thinking. The desirability of change gradually found expression in the formulation of a national aim to make the system more democratic, humane and even in a sense 'pluralistic', while preserving its socialist character. The author's emphasis is on the growing influence of the 'unofficial' intellectual groups and their impact on the political structure of the day. The book is unusual in putting at least as much emphasis on reformist ideas in the fields of law, philosophy, culture, history and political science as on revisionism in economic organization.