The Roma as Agents of the “G*psy Question”

The story of Romani people in communist Czechoslovakia has long been framed by a discriminatory policy of assimilation, and thus by fatal interventions into Romani family ties and their broader socio-cultural systems. Paradoxically, such a narrative failed to satisfactorily integrate the perspective of the Roma themselves, who often associated the same period with an unprecedented experience of social inclusion and material security. In his book, Jan Ort examines the state policy that in the mid-1960s aimed at the definitive elimination of “G*psy backwardness” through the placement of thousands of Roma families in non-Roma society, thus becoming a symbol of the social engineering interventions of the communist regime in the lives of Czechoslovak Roma. In contrast to the predominant focus on the perspective of state authorities, the author seeks to map the practice of this policy in specific places, with an emphasis on the experiences and agency of the Roma themselves, especially those who had their homes in eastern Slovakia. In the empirical richness of a microhistorical approach, the book uncovers the diverse stories of ordinary Roma who were able to incorporate various aspects of state policy into their own life strategies without necessarily giving up their distinctive cultural identity.