Programme

Sunday, 5 June 2005

17:30–20.30

Opening session at the Prague Crossroads Arts Centre (Pražská křižovatka), Zlatá Street, Prague

Monday, 6 June 2005 (Czernin Palais)

8:45 Registration

9:00 Opening

9:15–10:45

Panel 1: The Communist East and Principle VII: East-European Governments implementing the Helsinki provisions

Svetlana Savranskaya (National Security Archive, Washington): The KGB Efforts to Monitor and Suppress Dissent.

Wanda Jarząbek (Insitute of Political Studies, Warsaw): Helsinki - The Approach of the Polish Government

Paweł Machcewicz (Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw): Détente and the Communist Struggle against “Foreign Political-Ideological Diversion”

Csaba Békés (Centre of Cold War History, Budapest): Hungary and the Helsinki Process

10:45–11:00 Coffee break

11:00–12:30 (cont. Panel 1)

Stefan Wolle (University, Frankfurt on the Oder): The Helsinki Conference and the GDR

Kimmo Elo (University of Turku): The Impact of the Helsinki Process on the Room for Manoeuvre in GDR Foreign Policy, Especially Its Intra-German Dimension

Jan Pešek (Institute of History, Bratislava): The Churches in Slovakia under the Pressure of the Communist Regime

Jan Rychlík (Charles University, Prague): The Helsinki Process and the Freedom to Travel Abroad for Czechoslovaks

12:30–13:30 Lunchtime

13.30–15.00

Panel 2 Principle VII: Western approaches

Keith Hamilton (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London): Czechoslovakia Remembered: British Diplomacy, the CSCE and East/Central Europe, 1972-75

Michael Libal (German Ambassador, Prague): The CSCE Process in the Context of “Ostpolitik” in the 1970s and 1980s. Recollections of a Diplomat

Heikki Larmola (University of Helsinki): Kekkonen, The Helsinki Process, and Eastern Europe

Jana Starek (Institute of East European History, University Vienna): Solidarity with Czechoslovak Dissidents and Émigrés in Austria

Rodger Potocki (National Endowment for Democracy, Washington): The NED and the East European Dissidents

15:00–15:20 Coffee break

15.20–17.00

Panel 3 Helsinki from below: Dynamic processes and social mobilization in East-bloc states

Rainer Eckert (Zeitgeschichtliches Forum, Leipzig): The Helsinki Final Act and the Civil Rights Movement in the GDR

Oldřich Tůma (Institute for Contemporary History, Prague): Helsinki and the Emergence of Charter 77

Michal Kopeček (Institute for Contemporary History, Prague): The Helsinki Process and the “Politics of Freedom” in (East-)Central Europe.

Manfred Wilke (Freie Universität, Berlin): Why Was There No Charter 77 in the GDR? Comments on a Paper Given in Florence, 25 Years Ago

Tomáš Vilímek (Charles University, Prague): The Impact of Helsinki on the Opposition in the ČSSR and the GDR

19:00–21:00

The Czech Museum of Music (Karmelitská Street 2, Malá Strana)

Meeting of Eye Witnesses: with guests from the former Czechoslovakia and GDR, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Belorussia, and their advocates from the West

Tuesday, 7 June 2005 (Czernin Palais)

9:00–10:45

cont. Panel 3 Helsinki from below: Dynamic processes and social mobilization in East-bloc states

Petr Blažek (Institute for Contemporary History, Prague): A Parallel Mini-congress on Peace, held at the Hvězda Hunting Lodge (June 1983)

Christian Domnitz, (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam): Human-rights Activists and “The Dream of Europe” in East Germany and Czechoslovakia

Juraj Marušiak (Institute of Political Sciences, Bratislava): The Hungarian Minority in the Slovak Struggle for Human Rights

10:45–11:00 Coffee break

11:00–12:30

Panel 4 Cooperation across the Iron Curtain

Mojmír Povolný (USA): The Czechoslovak Exile Movement in the Helsinki Process

Barbara Day (Prague Society for International Cooperation): Supporting the Independent Culture in Czechoslovakia (Jan Hus Educational Foundation, London)

Júlia Kalinová-Sherwood (London): Amnesty International's Work on behalf of Prisoners of Conscience in Czechoslovakia and Other Communist Countries, 1972-89

Joanna Weschler (Human Rights Watch, USA): US Helsinki Watch and Dissidents in Eastern Europe

András Mink (Open Society Archives, Budapest): The Soros Foundation Hungary

12:30–13:30 Lunchtime

13:30–15:10

General discussion

15:10–15:30 Coffee break

15:30–15:50

Petr Pithart: The Helsinki Process, Discontinuity Czech Style: A Comment on Czech Politics Today

16:00–17:30

Closing panel discussion: The Helsinki Effect: Myth or Reality?

Jacques Rupnik (Paris), Otto Pick (Prague), Vilém Prečan (Prague)

Conference organizer

The Czechoslovak Documentation Centre
Cyril Svoboda, Czech Foreign Minister, is the patron of the conference

Partners and co-organizers