Radio and the Performance of Government

Elektronická kniha Radio and the Performance of Government:Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile radio broadcasts during World War IIThroughout the Second World War, the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile broadcast over the BBC from London, hoping to reach out to their former compatriots living in a divided and occupied Europe. As the only way of projecting their authority, President Beneš and his colleagues relied on the radio as a stage on which to perform as the government they wished to be, representing a Czechoslovak state they hoped to recreate after the war. Despite a ban on listening to foreign broadcasts in the German-occupied Protectorate and Slovakia, many tuned in to hear ‘London calling’ and the broadcasts provided the strongest connection between the London Czechoslovaks and the audience at home. This work examines this government programme for the first time, making use of previously unstudied archival sources to examine how the exiles understood their mission and how their propaganda work was shaped by both British and Soviet influences. This study…