Földvári Books

The Black Book of the Prague Spring

Sedm prazskych dnu. / Sedm pražských dnů. 21.–27. spren 1968. Dokumentace. Studijní materiál – pouze pro vnitřní potřebu. [Seven Prague Days.]

[Prague]: [Historickym ustavem CSAV v Praze], 1968. First edition. In publisher’s wrappers, with the original black dust jacket. [Complete:] (6), IV, (1)–35, 37–54, (1 [blank]), 55–494, and 56 unnumbered pages with photographic reproductions scattered in 8-page gatherings. DJ chipped at the head of spine. The book is in fine condition.

A contemporary collection of documents concerning the first week of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

An invaluable compilation of primary sources related to the occupation of Czechoslovakia which was published in only 3,000 copies by the Institute of History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences a month after the invasion in September 1968. Besides the documents, it also contains about a hundred of photographic images also taken in the first seven days of the invasion that put an end to the Prague Spring, the period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia.

Although the book was published strictly as “study material, only for internal use” (Studijní materiál – pouze pro vnitřní potřebu), the news of it has immediately found its way to the broader public and very soon samizdat reprints started to circulate all over the country, despite the diligence of the authorities to destroy them and their spreader just as the 800 possible masterpieces, the original copies that were sent out to libraries and institutions. The book couldn’t be kept behind the Iron Curtain and its English and German translation were published already in 1969.

Scarce, we could trace only three copies in European and three in North-American institutional holdings (British Library, International Institute of Social History - Amsterdam, National Library of the Czech Republic, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library - Toronto, NYPL, Ohio State University Libraries)

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Price: €1,500.00