Vortrag
Crime Behind Bars: The Functioning of the Illegal Economy and Hierarchies in Czechoslovak Prisons

Klára Pinerová will be presenting at the 34th Annual Liberec Seminar for History and Civics Teachers, Historians, Archivists, and Others Interested in History, which will take place from 18 to 20 August 2025 at the Technical University of Liberec.

Her paper, titled “Crime Behind Bars: The Functioning of the Illegal Economy and Hierarchies in Czechoslovak Prisons” will be delivered on Tuesday, 19 August. Drawing on archival research and oral testimonies, the presentation explores how informal economies and inmate hierarchies operated within the Czechoslovak prison system under state socialism. It offers insights into the everyday social practices, power dynamics, and survival strategies that shaped prison life in this period.

Special attention is devoted to the role of political prisoners, whose involvement in (or resistance to) illegal economic structures shifted depending on the decade. The paper compares the situation in the 1950s, when political prisoners formed a majority in some prison camps, with the 1970s and 1980s, when they were a marginalized minority. It further draws on sociological theories by Erving Goffman, Donald Clemmer, and Gresham Sykes, as well as more recent prison studies, to interpret these historical phenomena in light of broader discussions about power, adaptation, and resistance in closed institutions.

The Liberec Seminar is organized by the Department of History, Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education at the Technical University of Liberec, the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the National Archives, the Jan Hus Educational Foundation, and the Regional Research Library in Liberec, under the patronage of the Czech-Slovak Commission of Historians and the Deputy Mayor of Liberec, Ivan Langr.