Conference on the Underground

In 2015 the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes organised the first of a series of conferences dedicated to the Czech underground. In 2023, the eighth conference, taking us back to the turbulent year of 1989, took place. Each edition has been held at the Václav Havel Library, which has its own unique genius loci.

After nine years (actually eight: there was a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic), we felt it was time to “stop” and look back – albeit with an eye to the future. This year’s conference, which will take place on 16 October, aims to answer the crucial question: what is our knowledge of the history of the Czech (proto)underground from the early 1960s until the fall of communism in November 1989? What do we know about the background to the emergence of this multifaceted phenomenon? Did the underground have only cultural goals? Did it have any goals at all? Did it manifest itself only in the musical sphere, with writing remaining in its shadow? How do Western historians view this Czechoslovak subculture? What was the role of women in the dissent, including the underground?

We hope that at least some of these and other questions will be answered at this year's “underground” conference, to which the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Václav Havel Library cordially invite you.