{"title":"Milan Simecka","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"restoration-of-order-book-milan-simecka-9780860917861","title":"The Restoration of Order","description":"For most Czechs and Slovaks the Prague Spring was an exciting experiment in socialist democracy. For conservative apparatchiks throughout Eastern Europe, it represented a frightening slide into the politics of disorder and chaos - the bureaucrat's Babylon. The dramatic Soviet invasion of August 1968 was but the first small step towards 'normalization' - the restoration of order.  This process, which was begun in 1969, involved one of the most extensive social and political purges ever undertaken in post-war Eastern Europe. Having experienced their methods himself, Milan Simecka has been able to dissect the work of the 'normalizers' as they single-mindedly eradicated the last traces of independent thinking from the Party and conducted a ruthless onslaught against the cultural intelligentsia. Simecka's account will not only be of use to students of Czechoslovakia: it also invites comparison with Poland and other East European Countries, focusing as it does on the relationship between state and intellgentsia.  For the English edition Zdenek Mlynar, author of Night Frost in Prague and the highest-ranking Czechoslovak Communist Party official to emigrate to the West, has written a special introduction.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50332567470353,"sku":"GOR006123609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51151183151377,"sku":"GOR006403909","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/086091786X.jpg?v=1751170790"},{"product_id":"restoration-of-order-book-milan-simecka-9788024658421","title":"The Restoration of Order","description":"This collection of Cold War essays and reflections enthralls any reader seeking a pointed dissection of the Soviet style of government and thinking.   In an engaging style, not lacking in irony and detachment, Milan Šimečka describes the process of restoring order and its result—so-called real socialism—in a brilliant analysis of the “normalization” regime in Czechoslovakia that came to power after the Soviet-led invasion that crushed the Prague Spring of 1968. These poignant reflections and essays coincided with Šimečka’s first-hand experience of the consequences of the time’s political and cultural purges.    This second edition of Cold War classics, first written between 1975 and 1977, with a new preface from Martin Šimečka and afterword from Jonathan Bolton, highlights chilling parallels with contemporary political developments and current civic and ethical questions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51629657293073,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51629657948433,"sku":"NGR9788024658421","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/8024658429.jpg?v=1779962913"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-milan-simecka.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}