A complete text (all in Czech) of a book survey of Czech exile literature between 1971 and 1989 was made available by the author on the University of Glasgow's Slavonic Studies Department website.  read more »

Záchytka is a wonderful  Czech word that stands for the institution for the collection of drunken (and possibly disorderly) individual wondering city streets occasionally referred to in English as 'drunk tank' or ' read more »

Listen to what it was like to be a Velvet Revolutionary in this discussion between Bohemica's Dominik Lukeš and Eamonn Burgess on Future Radio 96.9FM. This discussion was part of the Community Chest programme guest-hosted by Dominik on 16 November 2007.

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Czech communists but doubtless others are remembering the great October revolution of 1917 in Russian celebrated on 2 November (due to discrepancies in calendar systems).  read more »

Ludmila Brožová Polednová was among the prosecutors who were involved in sending Milada Horáková and others to the gallows in the 1950s. Now, she is on trial for judicious murder. This Czech interview with a historian explains why the case against her is strong even after all those years.  read more »

Czech Unconvinced About Their Politicians: Angus Reid Global Monitor
Many adults in the Czech Republic are disappointed with their current public servants, according to a poll by STEM. 72 per cent of respondents believe today’s politicians are not more honest than those from the communist era.

Of course, in most countries people don't have particularly high expectations of politicians' honesty. It might be dispiriting, though, that Czechs don't think theirs are any better now than when they were representing a totalitarian regime. But, on the other hand, there's a good chance that public representatives then were no more mendacious and self-serving as people and dismissive of their electorate then they are likely to be anywhere. Only, they were operating in a totalitarian context.  read more »

Vesnické obchody se spojí proti Teskům a Lidlům - iDNES.cz
České obchody Jednota, Konzum a Coop, kterých je 3074 po celé zemi, se chtějí jako protiváha k nadnárodním řetězcům zviditelnit pod jedním názvem. S největší pravděpodobností to bude Coop.

Two names that were known to Czech shoppers for decades may soon disappear. Jednota (Unity) and Konzum (Consuming) were two state-run (or at least state controlled) cooperatives covering thousands of shops and restaurants all over Czechoslovakia.  read more »

The Electric New Paper, Singapore - The Electric New Paper Sports
LIKE Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vaidišová is a product of the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida and has developed an American accent.

But she bristles at suggestions she is no longer a true Czech.

Unlike Sharapova, who was born in Russia but hasn't lived there for years, Vaidisova still resides in Prague and says it will always be home.

'I think in every single sense I am Czech. Deep down, I'm Czech. Czech Republic is home for me,' she said.  read more »

Mayor Šulc’s Astounding 2010 Directive is the title of a short story that has just won a prize of £300 in a writing competition run by the British Czech & Slovak Association. The author is Adam Daniel Mezei.

The story set in a Prague in 2010, which secedes from a Czechia which is controlled by a Communist revisionist government, and which in turn is part of an imperial Euro superstate. It explores the extraordinary consequences of political changes in the far from distant future – where Language Police patrol restaurants, and where Prague (Mayor Šulc’s ‘Inner District’) resorts to a helicopter airlift to take passengers to the airport to avoid the random searches and hefty tolls imposed by the Communist authorities. It’s one of several stories Adam submitted to the competition that tackle rather different, often unsettling subjects. (From BCSA Press Release)  read more »

„Estébák“ musí vrátit medaili, rozhodla Akademie - iDNES.cz
Akademie věd vymazala jméno teologa Františka Jindřicha Holečka ze seznamu osobností, které získaly medaili profesora Jana Patočky.

Even though Charter 77 commands much less respect today than it did 15 years ago, some subjects are still sore. A theologian F. J. Holeček was asked today to return a medal awarded to him 2000 for achievements in theology and the study of Jan Hus. Unfortunately, it appears (the facts are as usual a little fuzzy) that he cooperated with StB (Státní bezpečnost - State police) in the early 1980s. And given that the award bears the name of Jan Patočka (a philosopher, the first signatory of the Charter, and the first victim of the subsequent prosecution) Holeček was asked to return it. This is still a sore subject for many Czechs and although revelations of somebody's communist past are not as common as they were not long ago, they still crop up at least once every few months.  read more »

Czech press survey Prague- Not much has be left of the Charter 77 human rights movement that was launched 30 years ago, Bob Fliedr writes in Lidove noviny today, and adds that only few signatories have succeeded in politics.

The group, headed by later president Vaclav Havel, who took over power in late 1989, has practically disappeared from public life, he says.

The few Charter signatories who have succeeded in politics. "were not much good in team work in managing public affairs, the less so in the power struggle," Fliedr writes.  read more »

Schwarzenberg a Klausovo čecháčkovství - www.lidovky.cz
Samozřejmě, že by byl schopen, kdyby chtěl. Avšak o smyslu Klausova výroku vypovídá jeho pokračování: „Každý člověk (...) se na to díval s pootevřenou pusou. Myslím, že to je všeobecný názor v této zemi, žádné specifikum Václava Klause.“ Kdo je ten „každý člověk“, který vyjadřuje „všeobecný názor v této zemi“? To je přece známý činitel českých dějin, pro kterého literární historik Václav Černý vymyslel název „Čecháček“: Ten, kdo se umí vždy včas přikrčit a včas kopnout do holeně a včas podat přihlášku do správné strany; kdo poměřuje své „my“, „my, kdo jsme Češi“, svojí „žabí perspektivou“ - do které se mu nevejde nikdo, kdo ji jakýmkoliv směrem překračuje: ani šlechtici, ani Němci, ani Židé, ani Cikáni, ani kněží, ani homosexuálové, ani disidenti. „Čecháček“ je rub české národní povahy, nad kterým zoufají národní buditelé - ale kterého umějí geniálně využívat demagogové.  read more »

Tradice koled pochází ze středověku - www.lidovky.cz
V dnešní době jsou koledy synonymem pro vánoční písně. Ve středověku tomu tak nebylo.

Koledy (Carols) are as indispensable for a Czech Christmas as carp and Christmas trees. In fact, they have a long history, going all the way to +šth century. Originally, they were associated with small gifts from householders to roving singers (trick-or-treat - Czech verb: koledovat) and were not limited just to Christmas. Now, they can be heard in homes around the country, they come on radio and appear in shopping malls and elevators.  read more »

Ruský novinář: Vím, kdo zabil Jana Masaryka - www.lidovky.cz
(Foto: Hynek Glos, Lidové Noviny)
MOSKVA 17. prosince 2006 | 11:29 Syna prvního československého prezidenta a poválečného ministra zahraničí Jana Masaryka zabil Michajl Iljič Bělkin, který zemřel v roce 1980. Tvrdí to ruský publicista Leonid Paršin

A new development in a 60-year-old murder. Jan Masaryk, the son of the Czechoslovakia's first president T. G. Masaryk, and a minister of foreign affairs in the exile government during WWII as well as the post-war government, died under suspicious circumstances in 1948. He was found dead at the bottom of the ministry building presumably having jumped to his death out of his bathroom window.  read more »

MF DNES Pražská tramvajová síť je jedna z nejhustších na světě a měří přes 140 kilometrů.

One of the icon's of life in Prague are its trams. Prague has one of the "densest tram networks" in the world and many more are planned to revitalize suburbs.

Unfortunately, but inevitably, Prague is also planning to replace its current stock of trams so the iconic 'tramvaje' will be gone from Prague streets in 7 years.

Tramvaje dříve sloužily dokonce jako sanitky. Nebo jako pohřební vozy. Po vypuknutí první světové války, kdy byla většina koní z Prahy odvezena na bojiště, svážely raněné vojáky z nádraží do nemocnic.  read more »

Czechs, in a political impasse, suddenly find democracy a puzzle - Europe - International Herald Tribune
This small Central European country — which 17 years ago, while still part of Czechoslovakia, slid so softly from communism to capitalism that its transition was called the Velvet Revolution — is suddenly finding democracy something of a puzzle. The combination of a backstabbing political culture and a parliamentary system that provides no tie- breaker in the case of an evenly divided legislature has left the country on autopilot since national elections in June.  read more »

Another political popularity poll showed that the last two presidents are considered the most important politicians of the last 16 years by the Czech populace:

Havel, Klaus, Dostál most respected Czech politicians -- poll
Prague- Former president Václav Havel, current President Václav Klaus and former culture minister Pavel Dostál, who died last year, have contributed to the country most of all during the past 16 years since the collapse of communism, according to a poll conducted by STEM and released to ČTK today.

For some reason it reminded me of this line from an old poem by Bob Holman:

Bob Holman: Poems 1989

It's 1990  read more »

28. říjen - Wikipedie, otevřená encyklopedie
# Státní svátek: Den vzniku samostatného československého státu
# Socialistický kalendář:

* Vyhlášení samostatnosti Čechů a Slováků (1918)
* Den znárodnění (1945) – významný den Československé socialistické republiky
* Schválení zákona o československé federaci (1968)

As this short extract from Czech Wikipedia shows, the 28th of October has played a significant role in recent Czech history. These days it is a státní svátek - meaning a day off work (unless it falls on a weekend) - in memory of the 1918 founding of Czechoslovakia (dissolved in 1939 and then again in 1993) and gaining independence of the crumbling Austrian Hungarian Empire (perceived partly as German).  read more »

Number of suicides drop in Czech Republic - Prague Daily Monitor
Prague, Oct 14 (CTK) - The number of suicides has been gradually
dropping in the Czech Republic and now makes up 1.5 percent of all
deaths, according to statistical data released by the Czech Statistical
Office (CSU) on its website.

The number of suicides is higher that the number of traffic accident victims, CSU says.

Last
year, 1,564 people committed suicide in the Czech Republic, which was  read more »

One Country, One Language - Worldpress.org Following the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989, Russian was abolished in Czechoslovakia as the first foreign language, marking a turning point in foreign language teaching. Learning a foreign language is compulsory in today's Czech schools and students learn two or three languages in secondary school.

German is the second foreign language although students can also choose French, Spanish, or Italian. In areas near the German border, however, German is even taught as a first foreign language.  read more »