All Things Czech

Three common myths about the Czech Republic

1) Czech Republic is in Eastern Europe

This is not true. Historically, culturally, and geographically, the Czech Republic lies in Central Europe. Yes, we suffered under a Communist government for forty-one years. This eroded our economy and status - before Communism the Czech lands were equal to Germany and Austria in wealth and quality of products, for example. But can less than half a century of being in the Eastern Bloc outweigh thousands of years of Central European history? No. Sadly, people in other countries are often confused about the Czech Republic’s geographical and cultural position. We are surrounded by Germany, Austria, and Poland. Prague is west of Vienna. What exactly are we calling “Eastern Europe”…?

According to the CIA World Factbook:

Central Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia

Eastern Europe: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine

South-eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Republic, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia and part of Turkey

2) The Bohemians are bohemians

The word “bohemian” (lowercase) signifies, as a noun, “a person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices”, and as an adjective, “pertaining to or characteristic of the unconventional life of a bohemian” or “living a wandering or vagabond life, as a Gypsy” (source: Dictionary.com). Bohemian (uppercase) refers to “a native or inhabitant of Bohemia” (n.) or describes things “of or pertaining to Bohemia, its people, or their language” (adj., Dictionary.com). Note the difference.

The use of the word “bohemian” to denote “a gypsy of society” dates back to 19th century France, from the French “bohemién” (1550s), which in turn comes from the 15th-century French assumption that their gypsies had come from/through Bohemia (this assumption was mistaken). “The bohemian” as an arty, nonconformist type became fashionable in France, popularised by such works as Henri Murger’s 1845 short story collection “Scenes de la Vie de Boheme” and Puccini’s “La Bohème” based upon it. Usage in English dates back to 1848, when Thackeray included it in “Vanity Fair”.

“Bohemian” with a Capital B should always refer to the people or customs of Bohemia (even though this is not necessarily always the case). Bohemia itself is only one of the main regions of the Czech Republic (others being Moravia and Silesia), not the Czech Republic as a whole.

And while there may be bohemians in Bohemia, you’re far more likely to find them in Paris. 

3) “I’m from Prague.” “Oh, you live in Czechoslovakia then!”

Czechoslovakia peacefully split into Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, following the successful return to democracy through the similarly peaceful Velvet Revolution of 1989. Historically, what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia share little in common. Upon the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I, the formerly disparate Czech lands and Slovakia merged to form a single country, the Czechoslovakia that confuses so many people. Before that, however, the Czechs had always had more in common with the German lands, while Slovaks were under Hungarian influence. The differences between the Czechs and the Slovaks did not disappear when they were united into a single state, but rather escalated - rather like two quite different people realising just how different they are after marriage, when forced to live with each other. And although there are cursory similarities between the Czech and Slovak languages, they remain fundamentally distinct, with dramatically dissimilar vocabularies  (e.g. “blueberry” in Czech is “borůvka”, in Slovak “čučoriedka”) and even different alphabets. In short, unless you are living between 1918 and 1993, “Czechoslovakia” is equally incorrect as “Czechopoland” or “Czechorussia”. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are, and until 1918 always were, as geographically and culturally distinct as any two countries can be.