SOU OBÉ ĚJINY - Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV - Akademie věd ČR

528 Soudobé dějiny XVI / 2–3
on the Continent today. The reviewer points to certain contributions in particular,
and finds that the common feature dominant in them and other works that define
the special character of (central) Europe lies in the spirit of anti-essentialism and
pluralistic openness.
From the ‘Springtime of Nations’ to the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Martin Valenta
Brandes, Detlef, Dušan Kováč, and Jiří Pešek (eds). Wendepunkte in den Beziehungen
zwischen Deutschen, Tschechen und Slowaken 1848–1989. Essen: Klartext, 2007,
336 pp.
This is a review of the fourteenth volume in the series ‘Veröffentlichungen der
Deutsch-Tschechischen und Deutsch-Slowakischen Historikerkommission /
Publikace Německo-české a německo-slovenské komise historiků’. In seventeen
contributions this particular volume charts out the turning-points in relations
amongst the Czechs, Germans, and Slovaks in the course of the 140 years from
the Year of Revolutions, 1848, to another year of revolutions, 1989. The reviewer
praises the ability of the historians, who come from the three nations under
discussion, to write history together and to hold up mirrors of interpretation for
each other. They have, he states, thereby created a publication that is in step with
current trends in European historiography.
A Revealing Book about the Post-war Lives
of the Czechoslovak Airmen of the RAF
Jan Michl
Kudrna, Ladislav. Jeden ze zapomenutých mužů: Plukovník letectva Petr Uruba, pilot
311. československé bombardovací perutě, jako průvodce ‘krátkým’ 20. stoletím.
Prague: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2008, 302 pp.
Taking a biographical approach, the author of the book under review, which tells
the story of a Czechoslovak airman in the Royal Air Force, uses this publication as
an opportunity to depict the broader historical panorama. Though he presents the
pre-war and wartime events concisely, he manages, the reviewer argues, to present
a comprehensive analysis of the situation in the Czechoslovak Armed Forces and,
partly, also in society in the post-war period. The reviewer considers the book’s
greatest contribution to be the information it provides about collaboration between
the former RAF airmen and the Czechoslovak State Security Forces (StB) and the
airmen’s rehabilitation in the 1960s.