Investigator: Joseph Grim Feinberg Ph.D.

Provider: Czech Science Foundation

Programme: Standard

Duration: 2026-2028

The rise of nationalism in the post-socialist societies of Central and Eastern Europe has been widely discussed, but explanations of the phenomenon vary widely. Some analyses emphasize socialist governments’ promotion of nationalism, while others emphasize socialist governments’ radical internationalism, to which post-socialist nationalism is allegedly a reaction. Our project sets out from the premise that neither explanation should be taken in isolation. Persistent nationalism in the region can best be understood in light of an ongoing tension between national and international orientations, both of which long coexisted in socialist thought as it responded to concrete problems that arose from the challenges of organizing transnational political movements, consolidating state power, and managing complex imbrications of class and national identity in a context of uneven industrialization. Our project compares the dynamic between nationalism and internationalism in discourse in theoretical debates in state-socialist Poland and the Czech Lands in the post-Stalinist period.