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Czech BooksCzech history through a glass darkly
Hello and welcome to Czech Books. This week we're discussing the novel The
Glass Room, by Simon Mawer, one of this year's nominations for the
prestigious Man Booker prize. The novel, which has already been translated
into Czech and had a very positive local reception, is inspired by the
functionalist masterpiece, the Tugendhat Villa in Brno, and covers over
half a century of Czech history, focusing mainly on the fates of the Jewish
industrialist Victor Landauer and his wife Liesel. I met with a professor
of English Literature at Charles University's Education Faculty, Dr. Anna
Grmelová, to discuss in particular the book's depiction of the rich and
diverse cultural life of the First Czechoslovak Republic.
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Current AffairsDispossessed Czechs win compensation battle for Subcarpathian Ruthenia property
A small group of Czechs who have been seeking justice for almost 70 years
have now been promised they will be compensated for property lost before
and after WWII. The Czechs lost out when the Hungarians and then the Soviet
Union took over Subcarpathian Ruthenia – formerly the most eastern tip of
Czechoslovakia. After many setbacks, Czech lawmakers have now given the
final go-ahead for compensation.
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SpecialThe legacy of Czechoslovakia’s inter-war republic
Exactly 90 years have passed since the founding of Czechoslovakia on
October 28 1918, a date that is still celebrated as a national holiday in
the Czech Republic. In this programme we look at the legacy of
Czechoslovakia’s “First Republic”. It survived for just 20 years,
brought to an abrupt end with the Munich Agreement of September 1938,
followed six months later by the German occupation of what remained of the
Czech Lands. During the 40 years of communist rule, the pre-war republic
and its founding father, President Tomáš Masaryk, were virtually a taboo
subject. The First Republic was portrayed as a period of capitalist
exploitation and weakness, culminating in Czechoslovakia’s failure to
stand up to Hitler in 1938. With the fall of communism the pendulum swang
the other way, and the republic came to be seen as a golden age of
democracy and prosperity. More
Current AffairsMPs want exiled Carpathian Czechs compensated
Czech lawmakers have recommended that people forced to abandon their homes
in Carpathian Ruthenia, when this part of Czechoslovakia was ceded to the
Soviet Union at the end of WWII, be compensated. Estimates suggest that
this may cost the Czech government as much as 1 billion crowns.
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From the ArchivesNessie sighted on a Czech breakfast table
Recent editions of this programme have been rather full of doom and gloom,
as we have approached the Second World War in our archives. So this week we
look at something a bit more cheerful. Here is a Scottish visitor to Prague
in 1938. After singing the praises of Czechoslovakia, he suddenly changes
tone – making a rather curious observation.
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Czechs in HistoryThe life and death of Jan Masaryk
Jan Masaryk was the son of Czechoslovakia's first president T.G. Masaryk.
Like his father, he would come be defined by his service for his country,
working as both a diplomat and later as foreign minister during some of
Czechoslovakia's darkest days. Following the Second World War he witnessed
the 1948 Communist coup that ended hopes of a return to democracy in
Czechoslovakia and paved the way for forty years of oppressive rule. More
