The Czechs and Their History: A Contribution to the Study of Historical Consciousness

This article aims to provide the first complete overview of the nature and content of the historical consciousness of the Czech population on the basis of sociological methods. Historical consciousness is understood not only as a body of knowledge, impressions, and images of the past, but, above all, as an awareness of certain connections between the past (stored in collective memory), present and future; as a consciousness which has contributed to people's attitudes to the present and the future. The issue of historical consciousness is examines with the tools provided by sociological methods, in particular, quantitative methods. First, the size of the population interested in the history of the Czech Republic as such is assessed; then the focus is shifted to some general aspects of historical consciousness, particularly the ideas of people concerning the importance of the forces shaping the course of history, and their assessment of the general importance of history. In conclusion, the authors present the evaluations by the Czech population of their national history, its key stages and major events. In the final discussion there is a comprehensive interpretation of the empirical data in terms of the existing theoretical research models. In this discussion attention is paid to patterns of historical changes in people's perception of their past, as well as the selectivity of historical consciousness and its influence on the political situation, social changes and personal life experience.