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** CZECH REPUBLIC 2009 - A PROLOGUE ** | |||
Demographics and Economy |
Czech History |
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Our Autumn 2009 trip has the Czech Republic as its destination. But the flag forming the banner-heading to this Prologue edition is not intended to imply a political reunion between the Czech and Slovak Republics; its significance is that these two central European Slavic states, which went their own respective ways with the so-called 'Velvet Divorce' in 1993, had been the constituent parts of former Czechoslovakia since its formation in 1918. Prior to that and certainly throughout Czechoslovakia's 80 years existence, the two now separate states shared much common history if not culture. Having spent 10 weeks exploring Slovakia in
autumn 2008, we felt obligated to complement this with a visit this year to the
Czech Republic, to see for ourselves how
Demographics: historically, the Czech lands were a melting pot of Czech, German and Jewish ethnicities, but the Holocaust and post-WW11 forced expulsion of Sudeten Germans has resulted in one of the most ethnically homogenous regions of Europe with Czechs constituting 94% of the 10.2 million population. The country's significant Roma-Gypsy population continues to be treated as second class citizens, and with their low educational standards, pitiable living conditions, high unemployment, poor prospects and dependence on state benefits, this remains one of the country's major social problems.
Economy: thanks to the liberal capitalism of the First Republic from
1918, Czechoslovakia became one of the world's most economically advanced
countries. The post-1948 Communist period put paid to all of that, with the
country burdened by inflexible command-economy
geared to heavy engineering, military production and the Cold War needs of the
Soviet Union: industries
were nationalised, farming collectivised,
Currently playing, the Czech National Anthem (Where is my Home?) is one of the most gracefully dignified anthems we recall hearing. CZECH HISTORY:  Early history:
semi-nomadic Celtic tribes settled in this region of central Europe from around
500 BC, later building
townships along the banks of
the Danube. The Roman Empire expanded as far as the Danube which formed a
natural strategic boundary along which military settlements were founded.
Slavic peoples from east of the Carpathians
arrived in the territory of present day Czech and Slovak Republics in the 6th
century AD, and under the Frankish warrior Samo, established a short-lived empire a century later. A Slavic state, known as the Principality of Nitra,
arose in the 8th century and its ruler Pribina had
the first known Christian
church in Slovakia consecrated by 828 AD. Together with neighbouring
Moravia, the principality formed the core of the
Great Moravian Empire from 833 AD. The high point
of this Slavonic empire came with the arrival of Saints
Cyril and Methodius in 863 AD, who devised the Old Church Slavic alphabet
to assist their mission to convert the Slavs to Eastern Christianity. The new
script, better suited to Slavic speech than Greek or Latin, was known also as
Glagolitic since many of the manuscripts began with the Slavic words: U ono
vrijeme glagolja Isus ('And Jesus then said'). The conquest of the
Carpathian basin by Magyar tribes in 896 AD heralded the end of the Slavic
Moravian Empire and significant break in subsequent Czech and Slovak history:
the western Slavs (Czechs) swore allegiance to the Franks while the eastern
Slovaks became subject to the Hungarian crown for the next thousand years, one
of the major factors behind the distinct social, cultural and political
differences between Czechs and
Slovaks which culminated in the separation of the
2 nations in 1993. For the modern distribution of Slavic languages, click on the
map left.
 Medieval Bohemian history: under
the shadow of the Frankish Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia was ruled by a series of
semi-legendary dukes of the Přemyslid dynasty from 10th~13th centuries, the
most famous of whom was Václav (Wenceslas 907~35, of Christmas carol fame), later
canonised as patron saint of the Czech peoples. The Přemyslid rulers expanded Bohemia's territories to include Moravia and parts of
Silesia and assumed the title of kings of Bohemia; exploitation of gold and silver
deposits led to large-scale German colonisation and enhanced the
county's wealth. But destructive dynastic disputes
left the country without royal heirs; the Czech nobles offered Bohemia's throne
to John of Luxembourg whose son, Charles IV (1346~78) ushered in a Golden Age of peace
and prosperity in central Europe while the west was tearing itself apart in the
100 Years War.Reformation, wars of religion, the Counter-Reformation, Habsburg absolutism, and Enlightenment: opposition to the corrupt Catholic hierarchy led to the emergence of growing demands for religious reforms, led by a Czech peasant-preacher, Jan Hus (1372~1415). Hus  was a key
contributor to the Protestant movement whose teachings had a major influence on
the states of Europe and on Martin Luther himself. After his refusal to recant
his teachings, Hus was tried and burnt at the stake by the Papal authorities for heresy.
The Hussite Wars which followed between Catholics and Hus' Protestant followers wracked the
country for 15 years, ending in 1433 with the Basel Compacts which allowed for a reformed
church in the Kingdom of Bohemia, almost a century before such developments
would take place in the Lutheran Reformation. Hus' extensive writings earn him
a prominent place in Czech literary history. The Ottoman Turkish invasion of
Central Europe and death of King Louis at the fateful Battle of Mohács
in 1526 left the throne heirless. To fill the power vacuum, the Czech
nobility elected the Catholic Habsburg Ferdinand as King of Bohemia, marking the
beginning of Habsburg rule over the Czech lands which would last until 1918.
 The
subsequent Turkish withdrawal left the Habsburgs as the most powerful dynasty in Europe.
They
increasingly extended Catholic influence over the Czech lands, persecuting the
Protestant nobility and centralising their power over the Bohemian estates who saw
the Habsburgs as threat to political influence and religious freedom.
Conflict between the Catholic royalists and Protestant Bohemian estates was
unstoppable; between 1618 and 1648, Bohemia and Moravia were devastated by the
complex Europe-wide religious and dynastic conflicts known as the Thirty Years
War, which reduced the population by two thirds, and left the country decisively
under Catholic control driven home by imperial authority and the full force of
the Counter-Reformation. All forms of Protestantism were outlawed, the education
system was dictated by the Jesuits, and over 200 'witches' were burnt at the stake;
German became the language of government and scholarship, and further waves of
German colonisation reduced the Slavic language almost to extinction. Habsburg
absolutism ruled with an iron-fist for over a century, until Maria-Theresa's
accession to the throne in 1740 marked the beginning of Enlightenment across the
Empire. Her successor, Joseph II continued the reforms: his Edict of Tolerance
in 1781 brought greater freedom of worship, compulsory education, the abolition
of serfdom and freedom from discrimination for the Jewish population.
World War II: Beneš and
the Czechs could justifiably feel betrayed by their Western allies. Beneš resigned in 1938 going
into voluntary exile, and in 1941 established a provisional Czech
government in London. Hitler duly annexed the Sudetenland and
invaded the rest of
Post-war Communist rule (1945~1968): Beneš returned as
President in 1945 and remained head of state until shortly
before his death three years later.
He was succeeded by Klement Gottwald leader of the Slovak Communist
Party (KSČ) and the Party began to consolidate
The Prague Spring and Velvet Revolution (1968~1989): swept along by the wave of popular reformist enthusiasm, Dubček abolished
censorship; in early 1968 civic society, for so long repressed by the strictures
of Stalinism suddenly came alive in what became
The 'Velvet Divorce', EU
membership
and current Czech society(1990~2009):
Czechoslovakia began the new decade in a mood of optimism, with the
new democratically elected government facing the challenges of
transforming the outmoded and failing command-system
So that's the chequered and turbulent background story of the Czech Republic so far, with so much more for us to learn and to understand. We hope our travels will give the opportunity of learning more for ourselves about Czech culture, and understanding more about peoples' hopes for a politically and economically stable future. We set off in early August and as usual we shall be publishing regular updates to our web site, with news and pictures of our travels. Add the site to your Favourites and share our travels; we should welcome your companionship.
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CAMPING IN
THE CZECH REPUBLIC 2009 -
A PROLOGUE:
the two countries view one another, and
to understand how things have changed since the 1993 separation. In 1938, the
then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain inflicted on Czechs the
supreme offence: to justify his appeasement of Hitler, he refused to defend
Czechoslovakia against German aggression, despite treaty obligations, by
declining to involve Britain in "a
quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing". For
contemporary Czechs, such shoddily dishonourable treatment by Great Britain is
perhaps ancient history, as they struggle to integrate their countries into
modern Europe. For us however, it is a matter of honour that we should strive to
make good this absence of knowledge about two albeit far-away fellow EU
member-states. We leant much of Slovakian life and culture last year; we plan to do the same
for the Czech Republic this year. We set off shortly, but as is our custom, we
present this Prologue study of the Czech Republic's topographical, economic,
cultural and historical background as a foretaste of our Autumn 2009 host
country.
Geography:
situated in the very heart of central Europe, the land-locked Czech Republic
(Česká republika) shares all its 2,000 kms of border with fellow EU states - Poland, Germany,
Austria and Slovakia. With almost 79,000 square kms of territory, it is about
the same size as Austria. The country is divided into Bohemia in the west made
up of rolling plains and wooded hills, and Moravia in the east, hillier and
criss-crossed with broad flood plains. Framed by a protective ring of mountains
creating natural borders, the country sits astride one of Europe's major
watersheds, with Bohemia drained northwards to the North Sea via the Rivers Elbe
and Oder,
and Moravia southwards into the Danube via the River Morava. With such a
drainage area, the country's major natural hazard is regular flooding. The deep
continental climate means bitterly cold, snowy winters and stiflingly hot
summers. Industrial and mining exploitation during the Communist period left the
new Czech Republic with appalling environmental problems post-1989, and as part
of the programme of reducing the pollution threat of acid rain from burning
lignite, the decision to activate the Temelin nuclear power station in South
Bohemia prompted fierce opposition from neighbouring Austria.
enterprise stifled, and absurd
five-year plans were forced through with scant regard for environmental impact
or the wider needs of the population. Post-1989 democratic governments embarked
on an initially successful process of switching to market economy, and until
1997, the
Czech Republic was seen as the economic success story of the former
eastern bloc with healthy foreign investments, new businesses flourishing and
revived tourism bringing in much-needed revenue. But the economic downturn of
the late 1990s has produced severe economic hardship: unemployment runs at 10%
and the country labours under an ever-increasing budget deficit. The country
produces industrial machinery, vehicles, beer, chemicals, glass and cement, and
its main trading partners are neighbouring Germany, Austria and Slovakia, with
newer markets opening up since EU entry. Škoda cars, once ridiculed in the west,
have become a more attractive consumer durable since the company's take-over by
Volkswagen. The Czechs still retain their own currency, the Czech Koruna
(current exchange rate around 30 CZK to the pound sterling), but the
Czech government plans to meet the criteria for joining the Euro-zone around 2012. 
The 19th century Czech National
Revival: this more enlightened and reformist rule provided the
basis for the economic and social changes of the Industrial Revolution which
fuelled the 19th century Czech National Revival, the národní obrození.
The emergence of Czech nationalism developed into increasing awareness of Czech
culture and demands for political autonomy, led by the Moravian Protestant
historian and politician, František Palacký (1798~1876). Pan-Slavic and
virulently anti-German, Palacký wrote the first history of the Czech nation
promoting an increased awareness of Czech language and culture. He was not
initially anti-Habsburg, but advocated a federal state which acknowledged the
identity of individual Slav nations. Defeat of the Hungarian 1848 revolutionaries
however and absolutist Habsburg
arrogance left Czech nationalistic aspirations unfulfilled.
Military setbacks forced the new Emperor, Franz Joseph, to sign the
1867 Compromise (Augsleich) which established the
Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy giving Hungary greater autonomy, but blocking
similar demands for Czech recognition. This Austrian failure to reflect the
Czech's true position within the Empire further underlined the frustration and
disillusionment felt by the Czechs: Bohemia possessed three-quarters of
Austro-Hungary's industry, a well-developed political awareness, flourishing
arts and literature. It was clear that the Czechs would certainly not be content with their
inferior status within the Empire for much longer.
World War 1 and after:
WW1 was the final step which led to the creation of nation states in
central Europe. Czechs and Slovaks refused to fight alongside their old enemies, the Austrians and
Hungarians,
against brother Slavs and many defected to form the Czechoslovak Legion to
fight on the Eastern
Front. In 1915, the Czech
nationalist leaders Tomáš Masaryk and Edvard Beneš
campaigned
tirelessly with the Allies to
win support for an independent Czechoslovak state. The collapse of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October 1918 brought firm commitment
from the Allies to the immediate
creation of the new state, Czechoslovakia, with recognition
of Masaryk as head of the Provisional Czechoslovak
government. In 1920 he was elected Czechoslovakia's first
President. The Treaty of Trianon, imposed by the victorious Allies
at Versailles in 1920, honoured the commitment to an independent
Czechoslovakia by confirming the controversial Slovak-Hungarian
border along the Danube. The carve-up of former Greater Hungary left
some ¾ million ethnic Hungarians in the new Czechoslovakia and a
similar number of Slovaks stranded in the now much reduced Hungary.
population which in 20 years would prove its downfall: along
with 6 million Czechs and 2 million Slovaks were 3 million
Sudeten
Germans, ¾ million Magyars, together with other minorities such as Ruthenians, Jews and Poles. The survival of Czechoslovakia's
First Republic was due to Masaryk's political skill and standing. His vision of
social democracy characterised the nation's new constitution, one of the most
liberal of the time, aimed at reducing ethnic and class tensions with universal
suffrage, land reform and respect for minority languages. By the end of the
1920s, the republic was enjoying an economic boom, cultural renaissance and
ethnic harmony. The 1929 Wall Street Crash plunged the country into economic
crisis and political instability. Slovak nationalists campaigned for greater autonomy, and
the Sudeten Germans, encouraged by the
rise of Hitler, demanded outright independence.
Having been twice re-elected, Masaryk resigned as President in 1935
due to ill-health. He died in 2 years later, to be succeeded by the
less capable Edvard Beneš who at the end of WW1 in 1918 became
Masaryk's Foreign Minister. Beneš refused to bow to Sudeten demands
for secession to the German Reich. French and British policy of
appeasement attempted to satisfy Hitler's demands for German
Lebensraum, and in one of the most treacherous betrayals of
modern diplomacy, Chamberlain and Daladier signed the Munich
Agreement with Hitler in September 1938. Despite the British Prime
Minister's assertion that his infamous piece of paper supposedly
brought "peace in our time", Hitler now had carte blanche for the
annexation of the Sudetenland and subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Czech territory, setting up the Nazi
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia with Emil Hácha as puppet
president. The Germans immediately began a programme of repression: opponents
were arrested and Jews subjected to discrimination and later deportation to death
camps. Life in German-occupied Czechoslovakia was horrific: most of the
population was cowed into passive submission, but a few joined the resistance.
Following the 1941 assassination in Prague of SS Reichsprotektor
Rienhard Heydrich, brutal reprisals culminated in the destruction of the
villages of Lidice and Ležáky and slaughter of their civilian population. The
'final solution' was systematically meted out on the country's remaining Jews who were interred in the ghetto of Terezin for deportation to
extermination camps, and there were few acts of active resistance in the Czech
lands until the Prague Uprising of May 1945. The Red Army finally 'liberated'
Czechoslovakia in May 1945 and the country was again united as a centralised state governed from
Prague. Liberation was followed by violent reprisals against
suspected collaborators, and 3 million ethnic Germans were declared
'enemies of the state' and forcibly
expelled from the country.
its control of both the
country and society. As the Cold War
intensified, Communist Party membership initially soared and the
most popular
Communist coup in Eastern Europe was achieved without bloodshed or
direct Soviet intervention. A new constitution confirmed the
leading role of the Communist Party in heading the 'Dictatorship of
the proletariat'. A concerted programme of Stalinisation followed
with 5-year plans, collectivisation, nationalisation of industry,
arrests, show-trials and gulags for political opponents. In the
aftermath, thousands more Czechs and Slovaks fled abroad. Gottwald
died in 1953 soon after Stalin's death, but despite popular demonstrations, the regime's
hard-line rule persisted; the purges,
arrests and show-trials continued. The authoritarian Party First
Secretary, Antonin Novotny, became President in 1957, but despite
some cultural thaw and attempts at reform, worsening economic
stagnation led to more generalised protests against Communist
hard-line leadership. Opposition against
Novotny united to replace him as First Secretary with the young Slovak
leader Alexander Dubček.
known as the Prague Spring. The reform movement gathered momentum,
but the programme of political liberalisation, freedom of expression,
assembly and travel (dubbed 'socialism with a human face') provoked
a reactionary backlash from hardliners in Moscow: Warsaw Pact forces
invaded Czechoslovakia and TV pictures showed Soviet tanks crushing street protests
in Prague. The short-lived Spring was over; the broken Dubček was expelled from the Party, forced from office and
reduced to a demeaning job. The conservative Gustáv Husák became President in 1969 and
reversed almost all of Dubček's reforms. The KSČ
reasserted its absolute control over the state and society,
infamously known as 'normalisation', and a further wave of emigrants
fled the country. During the 1970s, Husák's security apparatus quashed all forms of dissent
but managed to appease the outraged civil population with
relatively satisfactory living standards. The 1980s however brought
greater levels of dissent, particularly among the young,
against the ruthlessly harsh regime. The impact of perestroika on
Soviet politics under Mikhail Gorbachev
heralded change:
with declining economic performance, the KSČ faced increasing opposition despite continued
attempts to suppress dissent. The protest movement gathered
momentum; with the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989, one-party Communist rule collapsed in Czechoslovakia amid riots and demonstrations calling for democracy and
restoration of civil liberties and human rights. Husák resigned as
president and died almost forgotten in 1991. Following the bloodless
Velvet Revolution which toppled Communism, 1990 saw the first democratic elections in
Czechoslovakia since the 1948 Communist coup. The Czech
playwright Václav Havel, who had lead the human rights Charter 77 movement,
was elected President of the new republic.
culture into a market economy which could compete with its EU neighbours.
Following the Velvet Revolution however, Slovak nationalistic
feeling ran high with demands for autonomy from federation with the Czechs,
and in 1993 the two countries went their separate ways in what became known as
the 'Velvet Divorce'. Under Václav Klaus and Civic
Democrat government, post-Communist life has been easier for the Czechs than the
Slovaks. Klaus' economic policies
seemed to be successful: foreign investment flowed in, businesses were
privatised, environmental issues addressed, and there was greater affluence for
people who for the first time were able to travel abroad. Politically however,
the Czech Republic has not been quite as stable: elections held in1996, 1998 and
2002 always produced precarious coalitions and unpopular power-deals between the
parties, a situation which continues today. In 2003, Václav Havel was replaced
as President by his long-standing rival Václav Klaus, the
former Prime Minister. The governing Social Democrats have become deeply
unpopular because of their social and economic reforms and the general apathy
and cynicism of the electorate and disillusionment with politics in general.
Despite weak political leadership, ineptitude and corruption, the Czechs joined
NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004, opening up a new
chapter in the country's history. For many Czechs, this was the
culmination of all they had fought for in 1968 and 1989, a final
exorcism of the enforced isolation of the Communist period.
