183 Studie / Articles “Quid Pro Quo”: The Czech Folklore Revival Movement in the Light of Totalitarian Cultural Policy Martina Pavlicová – Lucie Uhlíková DOI: 10.21104/CL.2023.2.03 Abstract Te paper deals with the transformation of society and culture in totalitari- anism through the example of the Czech folklore revival movement between 1948 and 1989. While describing the main objectives of communist cultural policy, the paper observes the reasons for the mass development of folk ensembles in the 1950s, the gradual transformations to their activity, and the philosophy behind it. Te degree of cooperation between folk ensembles and political power, as well as the exploitation of these troupes to promote the communist regime, was varied. Politically-engagé performances by such ensembles and their participation in events organized by the totalitarian state apparatus have resulted in many Czech people adopting a negative attitude towards the folklore revival movement as a whole. In the fact most members of these ensembles were not motivated by politics – for many of them, this leisure activity was an escape from reality to the romantically viewed world of folk tradition. Key words Folklore revival movement, folk ensembles, totalitarianism, communist cultural policy, transformation of tradition, leisure, Czech Republic Contact prof. PhDr. Martina Pavlicová, CSc., Ústav evropské etnologie, Filozofcká fakulta, Masarykova Univerzita, Arna Nováka 1, 602 00 Brno, Czech Re- public; e-mail: pavlicov@phil.muni.cz. ORCID iD 0000-0002-4716-8850 PhDr. Lucie Uhlíková, Ph.D., Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i., Veveří 97, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic; e-mail: uhlikova@eu.cas.cz. ORCID iD 0000-0002-7633-8695 Jak citovat / How to cite Pavlicová, Martina – Uhlíková, Lucie. 2023. “Quid Pro Quo”: Te Czech Folklore Revival Movement in the Light of Totalitarian Cultural Policy. Český lid 110: 183–210. https://doi.org/10.21104/CL.2023.2.03