Is the legacy of dissidence, rather than the legacy of communism, driving the current illiberal turn in some East Central European states' politics? In this episode moderated by Rosamund Johnston (RECET), our guest Michal Kopeček (Institute of Contemporary History, Prague/ Imre Kertész Kolleg, Jena) discusses how dissidents shaped political discourse in the region both before and after the revolutions of 1989. Following the "legacies of dissidence" to the present, Kopeček considers how dissident ideas provide the fuel for culture wars ongoing in East Central Europe today.

 

Michal Kopeček is a historian, co-director of Imre Kertész Kolleg in Jena and, since 2003, the head of the Late- and Post-Socialism Studies Department at the Institute for Contemporary History in Prague. He is the co-author of A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe (Oxford, 2018).