A/ READING

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History of the Czech Republic

A/ READING

The First Republic and the World War II

With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ________ World War I independent Czechoslovakia was established _______October 28, 1918. Prague became the capital of the country and the Prague Castle became the seat of the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomбљ Garrigue Masaryk. The time between WWI and WWII is now called "the First Republic". Czechoslovakia had a parliamentary democracy, concentrated 70% of the industry of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, and had an economy that was among the strongest in the world. Prague became close to Paris then, the great Czech-French art-nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha is just one example of this development.

______the mid-1930s, the German inhabitants of the Czech border areas called the Sudetenland began calling for autonomy. Masaryk resigned_______ his post of president in 1935 due to illness and was replaced by Edvard Beneљ. In September 1938, Germany, Britain, France and Italy signed the 1938 Munich Agreement, giving Hitler the right to invade and claim Czechoslovakia's border areas, despite the fact that France had a treaty with Czechoslovakia promising help in the event of military aggression. “O nбs bez nбs” (about us, without us) has become a phrase bitterly remembered by all Czechs. On March 15, 1939, Czechoslovakia was invaded _______ Hitler's army. The period between the Munich Agreement and the beginning of the World War II is called “the Second Republic” The border territories were seized by Germany and the rest of the country was occupied by Nazi Germany until the end of World War II in 1945. Under the Nazi invasion the country was called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Approximately 390,000 Czechoslovak citizens, including 83,000 Jews, were killed or executed, while hundreds of thousands of others were sent to prisons and concentration camps or used ______ forced labour. A Nazi concentration camp existed at Terezнn, to the north of Prague. There was Czech resistance to Nazi occupation, both _____ home and abroad, most notably with the assassination of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich in a Prague suburb on 27 May 1942. The Czechoslovak government-in-exile and its army fighting ___________ the Germans were acknowledged by the Allies; Czechoslovak troops fought in the United Kingdom, North Africa, the Middle East and the Soviet Union. The end of the war came with the Prague Uprising on May 5, 1945 and the subsequent liberation of Prague by the Soviet Red Army on May 9. The western territories of the Czech Republic, including Plzeт, were liberated by the American army lead by General Patton.

• Fill in the gaps with the following prepositions

against as from on after in by at

The Communist Era

Soon after WWII, the power in the country went largely to the hands of the Communist Party and the first wave of nationwide nationalization of the industry and other areas of the economy took place. At the same time, some two million Germans were expelled from the country and their property was confiscated.

The Communist Party seized power after the coup d'йtat on February 25, 1948. This event marked the start of the Communist totalitarian regime that lasted until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. A second wave of nationalization took place and 95% of all privately owned companies became the property of the state. There were a number of political trials and executions in the following several years. The economy went steadily down under the socialist regime. Basic human rights were suppressed.

The 1960s were a time of greater political and cultural freedom and changes were made in the Communist Party itself. Alexander Dubиek, secretary of the Communist Party, attempted to create a more humane version of socialism, "socialism with a human face", that would guarantee people's basic rights and reduce the amount of political persecution in the country. The changes culminated in the spring of 1968 (known as "Prague Spring") when changes reached the government. The Prague Spring inspired music and literature such as the work of Vбclav Havel, Karel Kryl, and Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being.The growing political freedoms in Czechoslovakia were seen as a threat by the Soviet Union. On August 21, 1968, five Warsaw Pact member countries invaded Czechoslovakia and Soviet troops continued to occupy the country until 1989. A large wave of emigration followed the invasion as well as non violent protests, including a protest suicide of Jan Palach, a student of the Charles University, who set himself on fire on Prague's Wenceslas Square in January 1969.

The period from 1968 to mid-1980s was the period of "normalization", the purpose of which was to put things back to the way they were before the attempted Prague Spring reform. Any sign of disapproval of the regime was persecuted and opposition moved underground. Dissidents published Charter 77 in 1977 (human right movement) and the first of a new wave of protests were seen in 1988.

• Decide if the following statements are true or false:

The communists were in control for more than forty years.

People were sent to prison and sentenced to death for their political opinions.

In 1968 people wanted to get rid of socialism completely.

Normalisation was a period when human rights were guaranteed.

The Velvet Revolution and Beyond

The Russian perestroika that was introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s marked the last years of communism in Czechoslovakia. The late 1980s are characterized by public demonstrations. A week after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the Velvet Revolution brought an end to communism. Vбclav Havel, former dissident, was elected president during the country's first democratic elections in January 1990.

On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two independent countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia (Velvet Divorce), and Havel was elected the first president of the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and was approved to become a member of the European Union in 2002. On May 1, 2004 the Czech Republic joined the EU along with 10 other nations.

• Discuss the following questions:

What do you know about the Velvet Revolution?

What is the Velvet Divorce?

Since when is the Czech Republic a member of the EU and the NATO

source: www.myczechrepublic.com

B/ LANGUAGE WORK: WORD PLAY: fill in the following table as shown in example:

C/ REVISION: Discuss the following events and personalities:

Ø 1918 – Czechoslovakia

Ø TGM

Ø 1938 Munich Agreement

Ø 1939 The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Ø 1942 Heydrich, resistance

Ø 1945 liberation, uprising

Ø 1948 coup d’etat, communism

Ø Dubиek, the Prague Spring

Ø 1968 the Warsaw Pact troops

Ø normalization, Jan Palach, Charter 77

Ø 1989 Velvet Revolution

Ø 1993 Velvet Divorce

Ø 1999 NATO

Ø 2004 EU

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 917