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Czech HistoryPresident Gustáv Husák, the face of Czechoslovakia’s “normalisation”
The last communist president of Czechoslovakia Gustáv Husák became the
symbol of the spineless regime that ruled the country after the Soviet-led
invasion of Czechoslovakia. Himself a political prisoner in the 1950s, he
oversaw the persecution of opposition activists in the 1970s and 80s – an
intellectual who supported the reforms of the Prague Spring turned into the
Soviet Union’s lackey. We look at the life of Gustáv Husák on the 99th
anniversary of his birth. More
From the ArchivesA Proustian moment in 1960s Czechoslovak Radio
By the mid 1960s political control over many aspects of cultural and social
life in Czechoslovakia had relaxed considerably. This was the height of the
“New Wave” in Czechoslovak cinema, in theatre socialist realism had
long gone out of fashion and in music the swinging sixties were well under
way. But it wasn’t just through the music it was playing that
Czechoslovak Radio tried to keep pace with the changes. One programme that
broke the traditional mould was launched in 1966 and was called “The 33
Questions of Marcel Proust”. These were questions that the French
novelist had compiled in the belief that by answering them you could better
understand your inner self. In the programme, a well known personality
would answer questions based on Proust’s list. More
From the ArchivesYuri Gagarin: to Prague via the stratosphere
Even after the death of Stalin in the Soviet Union and Klement Gottwald in
Czechoslovakia the 1950s remained a period of high political tension
between East and West. The Cold War was at its height; with it came the
arms race and the space race. Here is Czechoslovakia’s president Antonín
Novotný, in a New Year radio address on January 1 1958: More
Current AffairsMuscovites faced with powerful 1968 invasion testimony
Czech born Magnum photographer Josef Koudelka’s unique collection of
photographs documenting the 1968 Russian-led invasion of Czechoslovakia
opened at the Lumiere Brothers Gallery in Moscow on Friday. At the
exhibition’s opening the photographer said he hoped the unique testimony
would help dispel the myth that the invasion of Czechoslovakia was an act
of solidarity with its people. More
From the ArchivesAfter 1945: something like normality
In From the Archives this week we carry on where we left off at the end of
August in our chronological journey through the Czech Radio archives. We had
reached the point just after the end of World War Two; after the initial
euphoria, the hard work of rebuilding the country began: not least at the
Czechoslovak Radio building itself, which had been shot to pieces in the
Prague Uprising and received a direct hit from a German aerial torpedo. More
From the ArchivesJiří Dienstbier remembers a fateful day
Because August 21 is the fortieth anniversary of the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the radio played such a central role in the
events of those dramatic days, in this edition of From the Archives we
shall be hearing the memories of one of the key journalists involved in
those dramatic events. Jiří Dienstbier was one of Czechoslovak Radio’s
star reporters at the time. Later he was to become one of the best-known
dissidents of the ‘70s and ‘80s, and after the Velvet Revolution he was
the country’s first post-communist foreign minister. On the morning of
August 21 1968, he was one of several radio journalists, playing a
cat-and-mouse game with the Soviet occupiers, as the Soviets tried to
silence the radio station. In some of the recordings that survive, you can
hear quite distinctly tanks and machine-gun fire in the background. More
From the ArchivesOlga Szántová: the voice of Radio Prague
It was five years ago this week that our much-loved colleague, Olga
Szántová, died at the age of 71. As a child she had spent most of World
War II in New York, which was where she picked up her perfect East-Side
English. Olga became one of the most familiar voices of Radio Prague’s
English broadcasts during the political thaw of the 1960s, and she was also
among the radio journalists who managed to carry on broadcasting secretly
during the Soviet invasion of 1968, as several recordings from the time
still bear witness. More
MailboxMailbox
Today in Mailbox we read from our listeners’ comments on Radio Prague’s
75th anniversary and reveal the identity of our August mystery lady.
Listeners quoted: Tracy Andreotti, Harold Yeglin, Stan Schmitt, Colin Law,
Hans Verner Lollike, Mary Lou Krenek, Ian Morrison, Richard Chen, Charles
Konecny, Henrik Klemetz, Jayanta Chakrabarty, David Eldridge.
More
SpecialRadio Prague marks 75 years on air
Set up in 1936 primarily as a tool to counter propaganda from Nazi Germany
and the Soviet Union, Radio Prague itself long served as a mouthpiece for
communist propaganda. Since the 1990s however, the station is the only
Czech public news service, providing information about the Czech Republic
in six languages to audiences around the world. Marking Radio Prague’s
75th anniversary, the Czech-born, UK-based writer, and former Radio Prague
reporter Benjamin Kuras and Radio Prague’s own David Vaughan discuss the
most interesting moments in the station’s history. More
Current AffairsAdapting to change: 75 years of Radio Prague broadcasts
In the 75 years of its existence, Radio Prague has seen many changes –
among them, unfortunately, the end of our shortwave broadcasts. On
Wednesday, the station presented some of its programs live from a tent in
the heart of the city, in an effort to propagate the international service
locally. Sarah Borufka was at the site and spoke to Miroslav Krupička, who
has served as Radio Prague’s director since 1998. She asked him about the
important changes he had witnessed over the years.
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