Editing Oral history (section)

==== Czech Republic ====
Czech oral history began to develop beginning in the 1980s with a focus on social movements and political activism.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} The practice of oral history and any attempts to document stories prior to this is fairly unknown.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} The practice of oral history began to take shape in the 1990s. In 2000, The Oral History Center (COH) at the Institute of Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic (AV ČR) was established with the aim of "systematically support the development of oral history methodology and its application in historical research".<ref name="Czech Institute of Contemporary History 2018">{{Cite web |url=http://www.usd.cas.cz/en/research-units/oral-history-center/ |title=Oral history center – Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i |website=Czech Institute of Contemporary History |access-date=22 February 2018}}</ref>

In 2001, [[Post Bellum]], a nonprofit organization, was established to "documents the memories of witnesses of the important historical phenomenons of the 20th century" within the Czech Republic and surrounding European countries.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.postbellum.cz/english/ |title=About |website=Post Bellum |language=cs-cz |access-date=22 February 2018}}</ref> Post Bellum works in partnership with [[Czech Radio]] and [[Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes]]. Their oral history project ''[[Memory of Nation]]'' was created in 2008 and interviews are archived online for user access. As of January 2015, the project has more than 2100 published witness accounts in several languages, with more than 24,000 pictures.

Other projects, including articles and books have been funded by the Czech Science Foundation (AV ČR) including:
* "Students in the Period of the Fall of Communism – Life Stories" published as the book ''One Hundred Student Revolutions'' (1999) by M. Vaněk and M. Otáhal;
* "Political Elites and Dissidents during the Period of So-called Normalization – Historical Interviews" which resulted in ''Victors? Vanquished'' (2005), a two-volume collection of 50 interviews;
* A compilation of original interpretive essays entitled ''The Powerful?! or Helpless?!''
* "An Investigation into Czech Society during the 'Normalization' Era: Biographic Narratives of Workers and the Intelligentsia" and
* A book of interpretations called ''Ordinary People...?!'' (2009).
These publications aim to demonstrate that oral history contributes to the understanding of human lives and history itself, such as the motives behind the dissidents' activities, the formation of opposition groups, communication between dissidents and state representatives and the emergence of ex-communist elites and their decision-making processes.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

Oral history centers in the Czech Republic emphasize educational activities (seminars, lectures, conferences), archiving and maintaining interview collections, and providing consultations to those interested in the method.<ref name="Czech Institute of Contemporary History 2018" />