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Current AffairsCzech Legion Project rediscovers glorious story of Czechoslovak independence
There are many military clubs and associations in the Czech Republic
honouring the Czech soldiers who fought in the wars of the 20th century,
but only a few are active outside the country. A US-based project is now
trying to revive the memory of the Czechoslovak legions from the First
World War, whose contributions were purposely overlooked in communist
Czechoslovakia.
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Current AffairsExhibition looks at work of two greats as members of Czechoslovak Legions during Great War
Frantisek Kupka and Otto Gutfreund are two of the most important Czech
artists of the first half of the 20th century; Kupka was a great painter
and graphic artist, while Gutfreund is best known for his sculptures. Both
men studied in Paris and both fought for France in the first world war, as
members of the Czechoslovak Legions. An exhibition of their work from the
period 1914 to 1918 has just opened at Prague's Kampa Museum. More
Czech BooksThe strange tale of the Czechs in Siberia, as told by a British novelist
The award-winning recent novel, "The People's Act of Love", by
the British writer James Meek, has an amazing cast of characters. It is
set in the vast isolation of Siberia in 1919. At the height of the Russian
Civil War, it brings together an escapee from a prison somewhere in the
far
north, a small fundamentalist Christian sect, who believe in castration as
a liberation from the temptations of this world, and a company of Czech
and Slovak soldiers, marooned thousands of miles from home by the dramatic
events of the time; and the backdrop is one of revolution and civil war.
For James Meek, this strange constellation of events and characters was
irresistible. More
Current AffairsThe graves of hundreds of "White Czechs" restored in Vladivostok
In September 1920, the last Czechoslovak legionnaires, who fought alongside
the Allies in Russia during the First World War, and then found themselves
caught up in the Russian Revolution, left
Russian soil for France after months of travelling through harsh Siberian
tundra. As the European front had been blocked by the Civil War, the White
Czechs, as they were called, were forced to travel via
the Pacific port of Vladivostok and the United States. More
Current AffairsOldest Czech legionnaire was never able to clear tarnished reputation
The oldest Czech soldier to fight in World War I, Alois Vocasek, died at
the age of 107 on Saturday, the last survivor of the battle of Zborov in
Ukraine. He was one of thousands of Czechs and Slovaks who broke with the
Austrio-Hungarian monarchy to fight for the dream of a future Czechoslovak
state. But, later the soldier tarnished his hero's reputation when he
joined a Czech fascist organisation in the 1930s. Jan Velinger reports now
on the controversial life and times of Alois Vocasek - the man - and the
legionnaire.
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Current AffairsWith war the main topic in world headlines, an exhibit opens in Prague commemorating sacrifices in battle from an earlier period
With all eyes on the war in Iraq and growing apprehensions over the number
of casualties on both sides, the Czech Republic is resolute on one thing:
to provide humanitarian aide the length of the conflict and beyond. The
country has also pledged its elite nuclear, biological, and chemical unit
to come to the US-led coalition's assistance if Saddam Hussein were to
resort to weapons of mass destruction. Though in their hearts many Czechs
are against the war overall there is no question over their NBC troops'
necessity in the Gulf, and most applaud their dedication and courage. And,
strong commitment by Czech soldiers is nothing new: to remind the public
an exhibition now underway in Prague commemorates an equally difficult
period in which the conflicts and sacrifices were no less, the First and
Second World Wars, the time of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires, who fought
in some of the world's bloodiest battles for democracy and freedom.
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