The Myth of Defending the Homeland. Combat Preparation in Conscripts’ Reflections of Compulsory Military Service (1968-2004)

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68378114%3A_____%2F21%3A00550076" target="_blank" >RIV/68378114:_____/21:00550076 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://sd.usd.cas.cz/pdfs/sod/2021/03/05.pdf" target="_blank" >https://sd.usd.cas.cz/pdfs/sod/2021/03/05.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.51134/sod.2021.051" target="_blank" >10.51134/sod.2021.051</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

The Myth of Defending the Homeland. Combat Preparation in Conscripts’ Reflections of Compulsory Military Service (1968-2004)

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

The article focuses on the conscripts’ reflections of compulsory military service in the Czechoslovak and Czech army in 1968–2004, as experienced by different generations. I pay attention mainly to the narrative representation of certain aspects of the meaning of compulsory military service, namely the conscripts’ preparedness for the defence of their country and actual deployment in combat. This is done through an analysis and interpretation of oral history interviews. On a practical level, I explore reflections of military exercises, the relation of contemporary witnesses to weapons and their potential use, evaluation of combat vehicles and effectiveness of combat alerts. In a theoretical perspective, the article is based on the cultural model of military history with an emphasis on confronting the discourse based on experience with the official model of compulsory military service, taking into account collectively shared ideas about the army. In general, what predominates in the recollections of actors is a rather negative image of the army as a more or less useless “total institution”, which, up until the 1990s – undoubtedly mainly as a result of the August 1968 occupation – de facto had no social prestige. Due to an ambivalent experience with the duality of the disciplinary order, many contemporaries gradually concluded that the essence of “real” military service was not military training (the official order), but the individual way of coping with violent repression and with the violation of human dignity by more “senior” soldiers against “junior” ones.

Název v anglickém jazyce

The Myth of Defending the Homeland. Combat Preparation in Conscripts’ Reflections of Compulsory Military Service (1968-2004)

Popis výsledku anglicky

The article focuses on the conscripts’ reflections of compulsory military service in the Czechoslovak and Czech army in 1968–2004, as experienced by different generations. I pay attention mainly to the narrative representation of certain aspects of the meaning of compulsory military service, namely the conscripts’ preparedness for the defence of their country and actual deployment in combat. This is done through an analysis and interpretation of oral history interviews. On a practical level, I explore reflections of military exercises, the relation of contemporary witnesses to weapons and their potential use, evaluation of combat vehicles and effectiveness of combat alerts. In a theoretical perspective, the article is based on the cultural model of military history with an emphasis on confronting the discourse based on experience with the official model of compulsory military service, taking into account collectively shared ideas about the army. In general, what predominates in the recollections of actors is a rather negative image of the army as a more or less useless “total institution”, which, up until the 1990s – undoubtedly mainly as a result of the August 1968 occupation – de facto had no social prestige. Due to an ambivalent experience with the duality of the disciplinary order, many contemporaries gradually concluded that the essence of “real” military service was not military training (the official order), but the individual way of coping with violent repression and with the violation of human dignity by more “senior” soldiers against “junior” ones.

Druh

J_ost - Ostatní články v recenzovaných periodicích

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

60101 - History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GA19-19311S" target="_blank" >GA19-19311S: Armáda jako nástroj socializace: Reflexe fenoménu základní vojenské služby v českých zemích (1968-2004)</a><br>

Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2021

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Czech Journal of Contemporary History

ISSN

2336-3142

e-ISSN

—

Svazek periodika

28

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

3

Stát vydavatele periodika

CZ - Česká republika

Počet stran výsledku

22

Strana od-do

726-747

Kód UT WoS článku

—

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85126116912