The Struggle for Human Rights in the Microregion of Communist Czechoslovakia in the 1980s

Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Since 1948, the country has been ruled by a monopoly Communist Party that controlled all aspects of daily life. The ruling party enforced the official culture, the official political and social discourse. Opponents were punished by the communist regime. During the 1980s, more and more opposition groups began to circulate in Czechoslovakia and many young people began to speak out against the ruling communist regime and its power. But the situation in Czechoslovakia did not develop as quickly as in Poland or Hungary, for example. This paper focuses on the perspective of the micro-region. It presents the life stories of dissidents and young people who opposed the communist regime in the locality of a village or small town. Two examples of happening resistance are also presented in the text. The historical stories are reconstructed primarily because of recorded oral history interviews with the actors of the events, but also because of archival research.