This volume has been published to coincide with the anniversaries of two significant milestones in Czech and Slovak history - the establishment of communist rule in 1948 and the Prague Spring of 1968 - and in anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 'Velvet Revolution'. Given the ultimate failure of the communist system, these events and their legacy for Czech and Slovak society and politics merit continued study, particularly given the wealth of new data made available when state and Party archives were finally opened in the 1990s. The essays in this volume, by witnesses, historians...