Between Simplification and Absurdity: The Czech Protestant Milieu, "New Orientation" and the Secret Police
Abstract
The chapter aims to offer a better understanding of the (mis)uses of the label "New Orientation" (NO) by the Czechoslovak secret police (StB) between the 1960s and the 1980s. It analyzes the development of the StB position towards this generational group inside Czech protestant milieu.
This position evolved from the original confusion and helplessness of the StB vis-a-vis complexities of Protestant milieu in the 1950s through its progressive activization against (and thus with the help of) a clearly contoured critical challenger inside this confessional group towards the, sometimes absurd, generalizing use of the label NO in the 1970s and 1980s (related to the agendas and operational patterns of the StB). The chapter thus makes more explicit some of the risks of too heavy reliance on secret police archives in the study of religion during communism.