Comments by "michal devetsedm" (@michaldevetsedm1882) on "TimeGhost History"
channel.
-
Very good and informed summary. Thank you.
Just a few notes. I don't at all think russophilia was the mainstream amongst the Czechs of the 19th century and pre-WW1 times. If something, there was some naive panslavism present but even this wasn't anything strongly felt. (it was always rather an argument and threat in the times when the germanisation pressure was increased)
Also, it should be at least briefly mentioned that having their own state wasn't an entirely new thing for the Czechs as there had been a more or less independent Czech state for 700 years until the Bílá hora battle in 1618 and the following open oppression of the winning Habsburgs.
As for the clash of the Czechoslovak army with the German protesters in Kadaň, it was indeed most unfortunate, but it definitely wasn't anything purposedly ordered or even planned. About 10 000 Germans surrounded a small Czech military unit and started throwing stones at them and otherwise attack them. As the last warning, soldiers fired into the air and one of them had the bad idea of firing a machine gun burst to the cobblestone floor of the town square. The reflected bullets caused the unfortunate bloodshed.
Also, German demonstrators were anything but peaceful. They were destroying Czech state symbols, demolishing state offices, attacking Czech state officers, trying to disarm soldiers, German crowd even killed a few czech soldiers. At some places it was rather a regular armed fight (Most, Kaplice, Šumperk..)
Anyone who looks at the map of the Czech lands quickly realizes that it can only be everything or nothing. The country is encircled by a thick string of high mountains and removing the border regions would make it immediatelly helpless. This strange and fortunate geographical setting is the main reason something like the Czech lands (and Czech language) has survived until today, while other Slavic nations to the north (and to the south) were repelled or swallowed.
What Czech Germans resented most in 1918 was loosing the long held position of the privileged nation in the Czech lands within the Austrian Empire. (Or as they themselves put it, they didn't want to become "servants of the servants"). Anyway, after some time Germans realized no harm is being done to them in the new state and in a few years (in 1926), they drop their boycott and took part in the regular parliamentary life. The newly formed Czechoslovakia proved to be the only true democratic state in the central Europe and equal rights were guaranteed for everyone by the law and by the authority of president Masaryk himself. Of course, in the thirtees, as the hostility of the German neighbour became more and more pronounced (and so did the hostility of the Czech Germans towards Czechs), they were less trusted and their engagement in the strategic areas (like the army) was limited.
3
-
1