Dr Ondřej Vojtěchovský

October 2020 - April 2021
Mail: ondrej.vojtechovsky(at)ustrcr(dot)cz

Ondřej Vojtěchovský works at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, currently holding a position of the head of the Institute of World History. He also works also as a researcher in the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague. His research covers the history of socialist Yugoslavia and Yugoslav-Czechoslovak relations. Previously, he has written on the phenomenon of Yugoslav anti-Titoist émigrés in Czechoslovakia. He has participated also in the projects focused on the development in the post-Yugoslav space since the break-up of the common state or the history of Yugoslav idea. At present he serves as a co-editor in chief of the Prague-based journal Securitas Imperii. Journal for the Study of Modern Dictatorships.

Research project at the Kolleg

Yugoslav Workers in Socialist Czechoslovakia, 1960s–1980s: A Socialist Contribution to European Labour Migrations

The aim of this project is to explore to what extent Yugoslav workers working in European socialist countries, in particular in Czechoslovakia (mainly in the construction industry), were part of the Yugoslav transnational community. The main questions the project aims to answer are as follows: In what way were the conditions of their work and life in the countries of the Soviet bloc different from and in what way were they similar to the situation in Western Europe? To what extent were the two worlds interconnected in the life of Yugoslav migrant workers and how did they themselves participate in contacts between the West and the East as intermediaries? Further, the project focuses on the issue of government labour migration policies. What were the reasons Czechoslovakia as a recipient country employed workers from Yugoslavia and whether in doing so the country sought inspiration in Western European countries? What prompted Yugoslavia to send its citizens to work in a Soviet bloc country, whose development it viewed with criticism and scepticism? The project also wants to analyse the place of Czechoslovakia in the “mental map” of the Yugoslav population and in the geographical area of Yugoslav labour migration. Hence, the project aims to look into the extent to which Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and other European socialist countries participated in shaping the phenomenon of labour migration in the European or global context, what their local specifics were and what determined these specifics.

Main areas of research

Modern and Contemporary History of South Eastern Europe
History of Socialist Yugoslavia
State Socialist Dictatorship in Czechoslovakia
History of Socialism and Communism
Political and Labour Migration

Positions and memberships

Head of the Institute of World History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague
Co-editor in chief (with Adéla Rádková), Securitas Imperii. Journal for the Study of Modern Dictatorships, Prague

Monographs

Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Z Prahy proti Titovi! Jugoslávská informbyrovská emigrace v Československu [From Prague Against Tito! Yugoslav Cominform Emigration to Czechoslovakia] (Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta, 2012). Translation into Croatian: Iz Praga protiv Tita! Jugoslavenska informbiroovska emigracija u Čehoslovačkoj (Zagreb: Srednja Europa, 2016).

Jan Pelikán, Tomáš Chrobák, Jan Rychlík, Stanislav Tumis, Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Ondřej Žíla, Státy západního Balkánu v uplynulém čtvrtstoletí a perspektivy jejich vývoje [The States of Western Balkans in the last 25 years and the Perspectives of their Development] (Praha: Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta, 2016).

Jan Pelikán, Lubomíra Havlíková, Tomáš Chrobák, Jan Rychlík, Miroslav Tejchman, Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Dějiny Srbska [History of Serbia], 3rd Edition, (Praha: NLN, 2019).

Articles

Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Jan Pelikán, ‘A Bridge to the West: Yugoslavia as a Transit Country for Czechoslovak Emigrants from the 1960s to 1980s’, Střed/Centre. Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies of Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries, no. 2 (2019): 61–86.

Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Boris Mosković, Jan Pelikán, ‘Hlavní vývojové tendence jugoslávství v průběhu 20. století’ [The Main Tendencies in the Development of the Yugoslav Idea throughout the 20th Century], in Čechoslovakismus, edited by Adam Hudek, Michal Kopeček and Jan Mervart (Praha: NLN, 2019), 394–420.

Borut Klabjan, Ondřej Vojtěchovský, ‘Incorti comunisti. Solidarietà internazionale e interessi nazionali fra Trieste e Praga ai tempi della guerra fredda’, Rivista di storia contemporanea XLV, no. 1 (2017): 101–121.

Ondřej Vojtěchovský, ‘Jugoslávští dělníci v normalizačním Československu. Východiska bádání’ [The Yugoslav workers in the “Normalization” Czechoslovakia. The Basis for the Research], in Studia Balkanica Bohemo-Slovaca VII (Brno: Moravské zemské muzeum – Ústav slavistiky Filozofické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity, 2017), 473–487.

Ondřej Vojtěchovský, ‘Soudruzi nebo vetřelci? O životě emigrantů do Československa na příkladu jugoslávské emigrace’ [Comrades or Aliens? On the Life of Émigrés in Czechoslovakia on the Example of the Yugoslav Exile Group], Paměť a dějiny XI, no. 3 (2017): 24–32.

Reviews

Review of Boris Mosković, Mezi Titem a Tudjmanem. Chorvatsko v letech 1989–1990 [Between Tito and Tudjman. Croatia in 1989-1990] (Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta, 2017), in Tokovi istorije. Časopis Instituta za noviju istoriju Srbije, 1 (2018): 235–237.

Review of Mihad Mujanović, Muslimové, a ne mohamedáni! Ke kořenům bosňáckého národního hnutí v letech 1878-1918 [Muslims, not Mohamedans! Toward the Roots of the Bosniak National Movement in 1878-1918] (Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta, 2018), in Tokovi istorije. Časopis Instituta za noviju istoriju Srbije, 3 (2018): 226–229.

Review of Milan Sovilj, Československo-jugoslávské vztahy v letech 1939–1941: Od zániku Československé republiky do okupace Království Jugoslávie [Czechoslovak-Yugoslav Relations 1939–1941: From the Death of Czechoslovakia to the Occupation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia] (Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta, 2016), in Časopis za Suvremenu Povijest 3 (2018): 689–692.

Review of Marica Karakaš Obradov, Novi mozaici nacija u „novim porecima“. Migracije stanovništva na hrvatskom području tijekom drugoga svjetskog rata i poraća [New Mosaics of Nations under the „New Orders“. Migrations of the Populations on the Croatian Territory during the World War Two and the Post-War Period] (Hrvatski institut za povijest, 2014), in Securitas Imperii 2 (2017): 269–275.

Review of Václav Kaška, Neukáznění a neangažovaní. Disciplinace členů Komunistické strany Československa v letech 1948–1952 [Undisciplined and Not Engaged. A Disciplination of the Members of Communist party of Czechoslovakia, 1948–1952], in Časopis Matice moravské 1 (2015): 276–279.