Head of the Academic Platform: PhDr. Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Ph.D.
The research platform builds on a long tradition of Balkan studies at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts and in Czech historiography in general. The research focuses mainly on the South Slavic countries, which for most of the 20th century formed a common state, Yugoslavia. However, it also focuses on the Albanian ethnic area, both in the context of the Yugoslav state and Albania itself, which is closely linked to its history. The research is also potentially open to other Southeast European countries, such as Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece.
The research focuses on various historical processes, especially in the modern and contemporary era. Emphasis is placed on a comprehensive, yet thematically diverse and methodologically broad approach to the issues under investigation, where, in addition to traditional political history (diplomatic relations, activities and the mental horizon of members of the ruling elite), attention is also focused on other social and cultural phenomena (political and labour migration, changes in public space in the context of socialist modernity, the development of mentalities, etc.). The key is a focus on basic research based on the study of a wide range of sources, including intensive and regular work with archives in the region under investigation. However, a great asset of our research is also the opportunity to work with extensive archival collections on Balkan topics located in the Czech Republic.
An important aspect of the scientific and popularization activities of this platform is the multi-layered relationships between the Czech environment and the Balkan region, their mutual interaction and influence, as well as various forms of encounter. This is not only a phenomenon of migration, but also a wide range of social, cultural, and intellectual interactions with an emphasis on the broadest possible scope of actors, including their mutually created cultural and discursive images, such as the image of the other or various stereotypes and their overcoming. Rather than the traditionally conceived “history of relations,” the relevant topics are examined from a perspective that shows the interconnection of both spaces within European and global phenomena and processes.
Chronologically, the research focuses primarily on the history of the 20th century, but the platform is also open to potential expansion to earlier periods.
Areas of research
The following research projects are currently being conducted within the framework of the platform:
The breakup of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in mutual reflection. Stereotypes – interpretations – comparisons
Czech Science Foundation, standard project no. 25-17190S), duration 2025–2027. Principal investigator Ondřej Vojtěchovský, team members: Boris Mosković, Matěj Křepinský.
The project focuses on a parallel reflection of the breakup of the Yugoslav federation in the Czech environment and the demise of Czechoslovakia in the Croatian environment. It thus directly responds to the fact that, despite some partial treatments, there is still a complete lack of a more comprehensive, chronologically extensive, and source-based analysis of how the Czech and Croatian debates intertwined the perception of the breakup of their own common state with the parallel and closely watched disintegration of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, respectively. The project does not focus solely on public debates, but thanks to newly accessible documents of institutional and personal provenance, it also follows this process at the level of political, social, and intellectual interactions. It covers the period from 1989/1990 to 1995, i.e. from the collapse of the socialist regimes to the end of the conflict in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which marked the end of one phase of the wars accompanying the breakup of the Yugoslav federation.
Czechoslovak-Albanian relations in the fields of culture, education, and science (1945–1968)
Doctoral project. Resolved since 2020/21. Matěj Křepinský
This doctoral research focuses on the development and transformation of contacts between two so-called minor actors during the Cold War period. Relations between Prague and Tirana developed during the 1950s in the spirit of socialist alliance under the tutelage of the Soviet Union, only to undergo a significant transformation in the context of the Soviet-Albanian split in the early 1960s and a sharp decline. The research focuses primarily on the area of cultural and social contacts, both in the context of the political and economic framework of relations between Tirana and Prague, and in the broader context of the internal dynamics of the Eastern Bloc and the functioning of its system of cross-border exchange. It examines efforts to transfer knowledge, ideas, and ideological and propagandistic constructs between socialist allies whose relations were marked by a significant disproportion in terms of economic development. Attention is paid to the course of meetings and cooperation between representatives of two Eastern Bloc societies that were significantly different from a cultural, historical, and economic point of view. The research is primarily based on the study of Czech and Albanian archival sources. Its ambition is to expand knowledge about Czechoslovak-Albanian relations, which have been little explored to date.
Interim research results:
Křepinský, M. (2025). Albanian Studies at Charles University in Prague as Part of Czechoslovak-Albanian Cultural Relations in the 1950s. In: Zbornik radova sa naučnog skupa povodom 101. godišnjice albanologije na Univerzitetu u Beogradu, 144-160. ISBN 978-6153-760-8
Křepinský, M. (2024). Nová Albánie, nebo kus socialistického Orientu? / Propaganda a takzvaní přátelé Albánie v kontextu československo-albánských vztahů na přelomu 50. a 60. let. Czech Journal of Contemporary History, 31(1), 89-137. doi: 10.51134/sod.2024.004
Between the cult of weapons and their control. The Austro-Hungarian administration’s approach to the possession of firearms by civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1878-1914)
Doctoral project. Solved from 2021/22. Amir Krpić.
This doctoral dissertation examines how the arrival of modernity in Bosnia and Herzegovina was reflected in traditional culture from the perspective of Austro-Hungarian power, using the example of gun ownership and carrying. The aim is to show what kind of “weapon culture” existed in Ottoman Bosnia and whether and how it changed under Austro-Hungarian rule. In this sense, this dissertation addresses several key questions: how was the culture of weapons manifested in Ottoman Bosnia, were there differences between confessional and social lines, what was the symbolic meaning of weapons in this specific cultural context, how did the Austro-Hungarian authorities initially respond to manifestations of this culture, did the new authorities introduce a new legal framework, how did it develop, and how did it respond to specific events at the turn of the century? It also attempts to determine the extent to which the new framework was open or restrictive, which statistical data confirm or refute this, and what this reveals to us in terms of general Austro-Hungarian policy towards the possession of firearms by civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The dissertation also seeks to determine whether the Austro-Hungarian authorities ultimately achieved their goals in this regard. The work is based on research of archival materials and contemporary professional literature and journalism.
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