1912–2001
○ Natural causes
The Canadian political scientist who chronicled the Prague Spring
He named the Prague Spring an “interrupted revolution,” leaving the possibility of reform as a historical question.
Gordon Skilling was a Canadian political scientist and a leading scholar of Czechoslovak modern history and politics. In Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution, he interpreted the Prague Spring as a reforming revolution cut short by outside intervention rather than a doomed experiment, offering a durable framework for debate about the potential of reform communism. At the University of Toronto he helped build an institutional base for East European studies while combining scholarship with solidarity for Czechoslovak democratic forces.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1937First visited Czechoslovakia for doctoral research from the University of London
- 1938–1939Worked in Prague broadcasting and on news for NBC and CBS
- 1959Joined the University of Toronto as a political science professor
- 1960–1974Founded and directed the Centre for Russian and East European Studies
- 1976Published Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution
- 1981Received the Royal Society of Canada's Innis-Gérin Medal
- 1992Received Czechoslovakia's Order of the White Lion from Václav Havel
Related historical events
Observer in Prague, 1937-1939
Skilling first came to Czechoslovakia in 1937 while preparing his doctoral thesis at the University of London, which examined relations between Czechs and Germans in nineteenth-century Bohemia. On 4 September of that year he attended the commemoration of the Battle of Zborov at Strahov Stadium in Prague and saw Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk appear in public for the last time as president. He was then working as a broadcaster for the shortwave service Radiojournal, a forerunner of Radio Prague, and also on news broadcasts for NBC and CBS. He was in Prague in September 1938 when the Munich Agreement was signed and remained in the country the following March when the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia began. He left Prague in April 1939 to finish his doctoral research in Nazi-ruled Vienna.