Small-town drama: The Search for Identity in Dvůr Králové nad Labem in the period of the Great War and the Revolution

Submitted work aims on studying changes of life, identity, and loyalty of citizens in Dvůr Králové nad Labem during World War I. The first step is to describe economy, self-governance, and state administration in a town which was developing dynamically in the last pre-war decade thanks to significant industrialization. Self-governance and state administration, which cooperated to maintain order even during the coup days in 1918, tried to reduce war and economic difficulties, poverty, and supply shortages. District National Council was able to enforce the dismissal of the district governor, but then the administrative continuity of the district governor office was maintained. The democratisation of the right to vote changed the distribution of political power in the town, but the victory of the Czechoslovak Socialists and the second place of the National Democrats (contrary to national results) demonstrate maintaining the dominance of voters' national feelings. The second step is the analysis of contemporary press. Two newspapers gradually closed (one in the meantime published a Russian manifesto), but the third survived the entire war and witnessed changes in censorship and propaganda. The third step is research into local education, which reflects state propaganda, "mobilization" of the background..