“Dal diario di una piccola comunista”. Ricostruzione della vicenda umana nella Cecoslovacchia di Husák

Abstract

This article aims to present Dal diario di una piccola comunista (From the diary of a young communist girl), the first novel by the Slovak writer Michaela Šebőková. Through the main character’s voice, the eleven-year-old Alžbeta, Šebőková portrays Czechoslovakian society in the years of “normalization” and also offers a deeper understanding of children’s ideological manipulation under the regime of Gustav Husák through to the Young Pioneers Organization. Growing up as a member of this organization, Alžbeta, initially driven by strong Communist ideals, ends up realizing the undeniable contradiction between Communist rhetoric and its actual behaviour. She will reach awareness that lies and pretence are the only values underpinning the communist system of those years.