September 10, 2020

Czechoslo-who-what?

Happy Thursday guys!

This week I wanted to talk about Czechoslovakia. I was in Prague for a few weeks and realised that I knew next to nothing about its history. I'd heard of Czechoslovakia but always in passing or lumped in with other talk of the Cold War. But I wanted to investigate and find out more about this nation's brief existence.

Enter this week's edition of History Tapas all about this nation which endured 75 of Europe's most turbulent history... let's get learning.

Origins

Our tale begins in 1918. World War I is coming to an end and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is just falling to bits. Out of this huge empire springs Czechoslovakia.

The Czech and Slovak people had good relations. They shared a common language, religion and were quite culturally similar. Romantic ideas of the nation's independence had been bubbling up in the region since the late 1800s and was achieved on 28th October 1918.

And everything was going pretty well for Czechoslovakia in its early days... the Czech region of Bohemia had been an industrial and economic powerhouse for the Austro-Hungarian empire and was reaping the benefits. It was actually the 4th strongest economy in Europe for a time.

 Nazi Occupation

Hitler came to power in Germany and the significant German minority in the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia were largely supportive of the NSDAP's ideals. This led the Nazis to occupy the territory in 1938. Hitler went on to occupy more of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.

Czechoslovakia remained under German occupation until the end of WWII when it was liberated by Soviet soldiers. Their actions helped solidify the positive feelings towards socialism and by 1948 Czechoslovakia was a fully socialist state under the influence of the Soviet Union.

Socialist Czechoslovakia

In these times, the Czech people were subject to the socialist norms of intimidation, interrogation, surveillance by secret police.Purges of catholics, jews, democratic politicians and military leaders were also carried out. The richer members of society were stripped of their property and provided with new accommodation in the country, tradesmen were chosen as heads of industry and members of the "intelligensia" were given menial jobs as cleaners etc. The economy was stunted.

It was this way for 20 years before our man of the hour, Alexander Dubcek, showed up on the scene and became the First Secretary of the communist party in Czechoslovakia in 1968. He promised "socialism with a human face" and introduced sweeping reforms in April of that year. These provided greater political freedom and restored a number of civil liberties. This period of renewal is known as the "Prague Spring".

However, this new wave of reform was short lived and Dubcek, whose actions were seen as "counter-revolutionary", was swept off to Moscow as Warsaw Pact troops (the alliance of eastern bloc military powers) rolled into Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and restored the norms of the bloc.


The stifling of political dissidents continued into the 1970s and 80s with less severe purges which resulted in people losing their jobs and being expelled from the party rather than being hanged.

Freedom

With the fall of the Berlin wall and a series of uprisings against the socialist regime in Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia too experienced its own political upheaval. A peaceful revolution known as the "Velvet Revolution" led to the formation of a coalition government in December 1989. Former political dissident and writer Vaclav Havel was made president of the country.

However, from early into the country's new freedom, there was trouble in paradise. Political divisions emerged as the historically less wealthy portion of the country - the Slovak regions - were opposed to the rapid privatisation of industry and resented the view of the region as a "money pipeline". The election of 1992 led to two strongly opposed forces in power for the Czech and Slovak sides and deepened tensions.

Divorce

Very soon talks of separation were in full flow and led to the "Velvet Divorce" even though the majority of the population if asked would have wanted to remain one country. Czechoslovakia was peacefully split into the two nations, the Czech Republic (or Czechia) and Slovakia as the clock struck midnight on 1st January 1993.

The Czechoslovakian national anthem was played on the national TV station before midnight, and after the change became official, they played the new Czech anthem. The same song but with only the verses in the Czech language remaining.

The countries maintained a common currency, open borders and good relation after their separation with many people continuing to live their lives between the two sides of the border. There was even a ski resort where the lodge was in one country and the slopes in another. A train station where the station itself served a town which was technically in another country.

All in all, this short-lived nation had seen some shit but I think it's place in 20th century history is overlooked. It offers quite an acute summary of the forces at play in that time from post WWI Europe, to the Nazis to the Eastern Bloc, it saw it all first hand.

So I hope you enjoyed this week's edition of History Tapas. See you again next week!

Hannah