Czech Republic

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Czech Republic
Czech.gif
Flag of Czech Republic
Capital Prague
Inhabitants 10.526.685
Language(s) Czech
Chzech republik.jpg

Czech Republic is a country in central Europe that became independent on Jan. 1, 1993. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west.

Prague is the capital and largest city. From 1918 until Dec. 31, 1992, the area that is now the Czech Republic was united with Slovakia in a larger nation called Czechoslovakia.

A Short Background

After World War II, Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence. In 1968, an invasion by Warsaw Pact troops ended the efforts of the country's leaders to liberalize party rule and create "socialism with a human face.

Anti-Soviet demonstrations the following year ushered in a period of harsh repression. With the collapse of Soviet authority in 1989, Czechoslovakia regained its freedom through a peaceful "Velvet Revolution." On 1 January 1993, the country underwent a "velvet divorce" into its two national components, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Now a member of NATO, the Czech Republic has moved toward integration in world markets, a development that poses both opportunities and risks.

Contents

History

The region that was to become the Czech Republic has been part of a number of empires, including the Great Moravian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg Empire. After the fall of the Hapsburgs, the Czech experience with parliamentary democracy was brief. Given over to Nazi Germany by the West as part of the 1938 Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia (the union of the Czech and Slovak Republics) underwent occupation and partition. Independence was restored with the defeat of Germany in World War II, but the country quickly fell under the dominance of the Soviet Union. Long a center for experimentation in central Europe, Czechoslovakia tried to make socialism work in the mid 1960s. Prime Minister Alexander Dubcek's reformist policies, called "socialism with a human face," ended when Soviet tanks crushed the Prague Spring in 1968. Thereafter, the country suffered under one of the most oppressive and hard-line governments in the Soviet Bloc.

When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, the Czech hard-liners lost their protector. Mass demonstrations in 1989 shook the government and finally brought about its collapse. The culmination of this Velvet Revolution, as it was called, came when playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president in 1989.

All troubles did not end with the ouster of the Communists, however. Slovaks protested against the new Czech-dominated government. The country was reorganized as the Czech and Slovak Federated Republic, but tensions remained between the two areas. They were prompted in part by personal and political differences between powerful Czech prime minister Vaclav Klaus and Slovak leader Vladimir Meciar. On 31 December 1992, the two areas officially became separate countries. Since then, Havel has twice been re-elected president of the Czech Republic.

The economic boom that continued through the mid 1990s gave way to corruption and lax financial regulation by the end of the decade. But the economy has improved in recent years, and foreign investment is bolstering regions of the country decimated by privatization of state-run industries. High-tech firms are also cropping up, turning the Czech Republic—and especially Prague—into a technology center for the region. Underlying all this revitalization is the government's push for entrance into the European Union.

Culture

The Czechs are a plain-spoken, even-tempered people, revealing a spectrum of cultural, religious and political influences that is surprisingly broad for such a small country - German and Austrian to Polish and Hungarian, liberal to deeply traditional, global-thinking to fiercely nationalistic.

Religion

The largest church is the Roman Catholic Church, though in 1991 fewer than 40% of Czechs called themselves Catholics, and even fewer attend church regularly. The next largest church is the Hussite Church and there are numerous other Protestant denominations, the largest being the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. Prague has the largest Jewish community in the republic, with about 6000 members; smaller enclaves are in Ostrava and Brno.

Architecture & Art

Most travellers are impressed by the Czech Republic's architectural splendours, which include some of the finest Baroque, Art Nouveau and Cubist buildings in Europe, but Czechs have also excelled at less noticeable art forms, such as illuminated manuscripts, religious sculpture, and marionette & puppet theatre.

Music

Czech music runs the gamut from classical to jazz & punk. Apprentice butcher Antonín Dvorák is generally regarded as the most popular Czech composer. He is noted for his symphony From the New World, composed in the USA while lecturing there. Czech jazz musicians were at the forefront of European jazz after WW II but this came to an end with the communist putsch. Keyboardist Jan Hamr, who escaped to the USA, became prominent in 1970s American jazz-rock under the name Jan Hammer. Since the Velvet Revolution, the jazz scene in Prague has been especially lively. The grim industrial north, particularly Teplice, is the hub of the Czech Republic's punk movement.

Literature

The most famous Czech writer is undoubtedly Franz Kafka, who, with a circle of other German-speaking Jewish writers in Prague, played a major role in the literary scene at the beginning of this century. Internationally renowned 'modern' Czech novelists include Milan Kundera, Ivan Klima and Josef Skvorecky. Much less well-known is the Czech poet Jaroslav Siefert, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1984. The playwright Vaclav Havel now operates on a somewhat larger stage.

Food

Czech cuisine is basically central European, with German, Hungarian and Polish influences. Meat is a huge feature, along with big portions of dumplings, potatoes or rice topped with a thick sauce, and a heavily cooked vegetable or sauerkraut; the standard quick meal is knedlo-zelo-vepro (dumplings, sauerkraut and roast pork). Caraway seed, bacon and lots of salt are the common flavourings. Vegetarians and cholesterol sufferers beware!

Events

coming soon...

National holidays

  • Jan 1: New Year's Day
  • May 1: May Day
  • May 8: Liberation Day (1945)
  • Jul 5: St Cyril & St Methodius
  • Jul 6: Jan Hus
  • Sep 28: Czech Statehood Day
  • Oct 28: Establishment of Independent Czechoslovakia (1918)
  • Nov 17: Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day
  • Dec 24: Christmas Eve
  • Dec 25: Christmas Day
  • Dec 26: 2nd Day of Christmas

Embassies

 

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