Introduction to Archaeology of the Communist Era

Abstract

In most part,the book presents histories of archaeologies in countries where a system recognized as Marxist was introduced by the armies liberating these countries from the Nazi occupation at the end of WWII. Marxism, as it is assumed, was a forced official “faith” and, by association, archaeologists were labeled as Marxist by colleagues from outside of the Warsaw Pact, who in their countries had communist parties and also applied historical (dialectical) materialism in their studies. Paradoxically, in the Warsaw Pact countries the term “communism” was not used (except the USSR) in official nomenclature to describe the existing political reality; instead euphemisms such as “socialism,” “people’s democracy,” or “progressive country,” etc. have been common. Communism, if it was mentioned at all, was presented as the future and better reality to which people should aspire. At the same time, communist or socialist (these terms have different meanings) parties existed in Western democracies and some participated in local governments.