The Reflection of the Czechoslovak Federation in the Texts and Public Speeches of Zdeněk Jičínský, 1968-1992

This bachelor's thesis focuses on the reflection of the emergence, functioning, and dissolution of the czechoslovak federation in the texts and public speeches of the lawyer and post-1989 politician Zdeněk Jičínský (1929-2023). The aim of the thesis is to analyse his views and to explore the issue of the czechoslovak federation through the perspective of an individual who participated in its creation during the Prague Spring and who later became a direct witness to its demise during the democratic transformation of Czechoslovakia. At the same time, the thesis seeks to capture the intellectual development of an actor who underwent a significant ideological transformation, moving from communism to an advocacy of pluralist democracy. The introductory part briefly outlines the historiographical interpretation of the analysed topic. The thesis is structured chronologically and is primarily divided into three main periods: the Prague Spring, the period of normalization, and the democratic transformation of Czechoslovakia. In the first period, the federation is interpreted as the result of efforts to achieve the equal status of both nations within the reform processes of the second half of the 1960s. This is followed by the period of normalization, during which the bureaucratic and centralist model of...