CZECH REPUBLIC

Relief The Bohemian Massif occupies the major portion of the Czech Republic. It consists of a large, roughly ovoid elevated basin (the Bohemian Plateau) encircled by mountains divided into six major groups. In the southwest are the umava Mountains, which include the Bohemian Forest. In the west are the Berounka River highlands. The Ore Mountains (Czech: Krun hory; German: Erzgebirge) in the northwest form the frontier there with Germany and contain the lowest point in the country (384 feet [117 metres]), where the Elbe (Labe) River breaches this range. The Sudeten Mountains in the northeast form most of the border with Poland west of the city of Ostrava and contain the country's highest elevation5,256 feet (1,602 metres) at Mount Snezka in the Krkonoe (Giant) Mountains. Farther to the east is the Oder (Odra) River lowland, a small fringe along the Polish border. Finally, south of the Bohemian Plateau is the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, which includes the spectacular Moravian Karst. In the east the Outer Carpathian Depressions, known to geographers as the Moravian-Silesian Beskids, include the valleys of the upper Oder and Morava rivers and the headstreams of the Dyje. Along the Czech-Slovak border rise the Little Carpathian (Czech: Bl Karpaty) and Javornky ranges, the westernmost of the Western Carpathian Mountains that dominate Slovakia. Drainage and soils The Czech Republic lies in the headwater area of the central European watershed. The Elbe River rises near the Czech-Polish border and sweeps southwestward across Bohemia, receiving the Jizera, the Vltava, and Ohre rivers before flowing northward into Germany. The Morava River, flowing south toward the Danube (Dunaj) River, drains most of Moravia in the east. The Oder River rises in the northeastern Czech Republic and flows northward into Poland. There also are many smaller rivers of little economic importance. The greatest flows generally occur in spring, when the rivers are swollen by melting snow, and the lowest in summer. The country is rich in mineral springs, and groundwater reserves are extensively used. The soil profile of the Czech Republic consists of rich, black chernozems and good-quality brown soils in the drier and lower areas, podzols in the wet districts, and stony mountain soils at high elevations. Alluvial soils occur in the river basins, and heavy clay soils are found in the eastern ridges. Czech Cesk Republika, landlocked country in central Europe. It comprises the historic lands of Bohemia and Moravia (collectively often called the Czech Lands) and the southwestern corner of Silesia. The modern Czech nation was inaugurated on Jan. 1, 1993, when the union with Slovakia, dating from 1918, was dissolved; the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia controlled the federal government from 1948 to 1989. The Czech Republic is bordered by Poland to the north and northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest. It has an area of 30,450 square miles (78,864 square kilometres). The capital is Prague (Praha). Czech Cesk Republika, landlocked country in central Europe. It is bordered by its former federal partner, Slovakia, to the east, and by Austria to the south, Germany to the southwest and northwest, and Poland to the north. The Czech Republic comprises the historic lands of Bohemia and Moravia (commonly called the Czech Lands) and the southwestern portion of Silesia. Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia were united in the independent nation of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1992. A separate, independent Czech Republic came into being on Jan. 1, 1993, when the federal union with Slovakia was peacefully dissolved. The nation's capital is Prague. Area 30,450 square miles (78,864 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 10,339,000. For current history and for statistics on society and economy, see Britannica Book Of The Year. Ethnic groups Czechs make up roughly 95 percent of the population, although the Moravians consider themselves to be a distinct group within this majority. A significant Slovak minority remains from the federal period. A small Polish population exists in northeastern Moravia, and some Germans still live in northwestern Bohemia. The Gypsies (Roma) constitute a small, distinct minority. Languages The majority of the population speak Czech as their first language, while Slovak is the first language of the largest minority. These mutually intelligible languages belong to the West Slavic language group, which uses the Roman rather than the Cyrillic alphabet. Czech as a literary language dates to the late 13th century. Hungarian, Polish, German, Ukrainian, Romany, and Russian are among the other languages spoken in the republic. Additional reading General works As yet, there are few works that discuss the Czech Republic and Slovakia independently of the historical region of the former Czechoslovak federation. General descriptive information on the region is available in Ihor Gawdiak (ed.), Czechoslovakia: A Country Study, 3rd ed. (1989); David W. Paul, Czechoslovakia: Profile of a Socialist Republic at the Crossroads of Europe (1981), a brief survey; Sharon L. Wolchik, Czechoslovakia in Transition: Politics, Economics, and Society (1991); and two collections of essays: Hans Brisch and Ivan Volgyes (eds.), Czechoslovakia: The Heritage of Ages Past (1979); and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (ed.), Czechoslovakia Past and Present, 2 vol. (1968). The land and the people Basic geographic information is discussed in Jaromr Demek et al., Geography of Czechoslovakia, trans. from Czech (1971); and Vlastislav Hufler, Ekonomick geografie Ceskoslovenska, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (1984). Works with sections on Czechoslovakia include Dean S. Rugg, Eastern Europe (1985); Andr Balanc, Pierre George, and Henri Smotkine, Les Rpubliques socialistes d'Europe centrale, 2nd ed. (1975); and Roy E.H. Mellor, Eastern Europe: A Geography of the COMECON Countries (1975). G.Z. Fldvary, Geology of the Carpathian Region (1988), includes coverage of much of Slovakia. Useful atlases are Jozef cipk and Jindrich Svoboda (eds.), Atlas CSSR, 8th ed. (1984); Emil Mazr (ed.), Atlas Slovenskej socialistickej republiky (1980), the text of which is available separately in English in Emil Mazr and Jozef Jakl (eds.), Atlas of the Slovak Socialist Republic (1983); Antonin Gtz (ed.), Atlas Ceskoslovensk socialistick republiky (1966); and Atlas Zivotnho Prostred a Zdrav Obyvatelstva CSFR (1992), in English and Czech, a survey of environmental conditions and the health of the population. One segment of the population is addressed in Otto Ulc, Gypsies in Czechoslovakia: A Case of Unfinished Integration, Eastern European Politics and Societies, 2(2):306332 (Spring 1988). Vladimr Hajko et al. (eds.), Encyklopdia slovenska, 6 vol. (197782), is a regional encyclopaedia stressing Slovak and Czech topics, personalities, and events since 1968; while Vladimr Prochzka (ed.), Prrucn slovnk naucn, 4 vol. (196267), is a concise Czech encyclopaedia. The economy, administration, and social conditions A historical overview is Alice Teichova, The Czechoslovak Economy, 19181980 (1988). The history of economic reform proposals from 1948 to 1982 is treated in John N. Stevens, Czechoslovakia at the Crossroads: The Economic Dilemmas of Communism in Postwar Czechoslovakia (1985); and Martin Myant, The Czechoslovak Economy, 19481988: The Battle for Economic Reform (1989). Also useful are the relevant sections in M.C. Kaser (ed.), The Economic History of Eastern Europe, 19191975, 3 vol. (198286); Frank W. Carter, Czechoslovakia: Geographical Prospects for Energy, Environment, and Economy, Geography, 75(328):253255 (July 1990); and two articles in Communist Economies and Economic Transformation, vol. 4, no. 1 (1992): Milica Zarkovic Bookman, Economic Issues Underlying Secession: The Case of Slovenia and Slovakia, pp. 111134; and Joshua Charap, Karel Dyba, and Martin Kupka, The Reform Process in Czechoslovakia: An Assessment of Recent Developments and Prospects for the Future, pp. 322. Jaroslav Krejc, Social Change and Stratification in Postwar Czechoslovakia (1972), is a socioeconomic study of Czechoslovak life in the communist period. Karel Joseph Kansky, Urbanization Under Socialism: The Case of Czechoslovakia (1976), is an urban geography and social history. Francis William Carter Cultural life Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (ed.), The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture (1964), is a collection of essays on all aspects of intellectual life, with an extensive bibliography. Czech and Slovak writers and their works are discussed in Robert B. Pynsent and S.I. Kanikova (eds.), Reader's Encyclopedia of Eastern European Literature (also published as The Everyman Companion to East European Literature, 1993). Specific studies of music and folk art include Vladimr tepnek and Bohumil Karsek, An Outline of Czech and Slovak Music, trans. from Czech, 2 vol. (196064); Rosa Newmarch, The Music of Czechoslovakia (1942, reprinted 1978); and Vera Hasalov and Jaroslav Vajdi, Folk Art of Czechoslovakia, trans. from Czech (1974), on the art and architecture of both Slovaks and Czechs. Z.A.B. Zeman Administration and social conditions Government Constitutional framework On Dec. 16, 1992, the Czech National Council adopted a new constitution establishing the Czech Republic as a parliamentary democracy. This document reflects the Western liberal tradition of political thought and incorporates many of the principles codified in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which was adopted by the former Czechoslovak Federal Assembly in January 1991. The constitution provides for a bicameral Parliament consisting of a Chamber of Deputies (200 members elected on a proportional basis for four-year terms) and a Senate (81 members elected on a district basis for six-year terms). At the time of independence, the Chamber of Deputies consisted of the former Czech National Council, while the Senate had yet to be elected. Executive power is vested in a president, who is head of state and is elected by a joint session of Parliament to a five-year term. The president, in turn, appoints a prime minister, who heads the government and advises the president on the appointment of other members of the government. The electoral system is one of universal direct suffrage. There are several prominent political parties, some of which represent particular interests such as environmentalism and farmers' concerns. Local government The republic is divided administratively into seven regions (kraje)Jizn Cechy, Jizn Morava, Severn Cechy, Severn Morava, Stredn Cechy, Vchodn Cechy, and Zpadn Cechyplus the capital city of Prague. The regions are subdivided into districts (okresy), and these, in turn, are subdivided into numerous local communities (obce). Cultural life The territory of the Czech Republic traditionally has been between the German and Slav lands, and Czech cultural traditions derive in part from the extreme western location of this Slavic people. Influences from farther afield also have been strong. Visually the most striking influences are Italianin Renaissance and Baroque architecturewhile literature, music, the visual arts, and popular culture also are indebted to a variety of external influences. Most of the Western cultural influences on the Czech Lands have passed through a German filter, and for this reason Czech cultural traditions are marked by a strong sense of national identity. Literature Czech literature can claim a remote ancestry in the vernacular writing connected with the mission sent to Moravia in AD 863 by the Byzantine emperor Michael III. Christianity had reached the Slavs of Moravia from the west under the political aegis of the Frankish empire. In order to counter Frankish influence, Rostislav, prince of Great Moravia, sought help from the Byzantine east. The mission was led by an experienced scholar and diplomat, Constantine (better known as Cyril), and his brother Methodius. The brothers translated the greater part of the Bible and the essential liturgical texts into a Slavonic literary language of Cyril's devising, based on the Slavonic vernacular of his native Salonika (modern Thessalonki, Greece) but enriched from other sources, notably Greek and the Slavonic of Moravia. The most noteworthy literary monuments of this language (now known as Old Church Slavonic) are the Lives of the two brothers, which were almost certainly written before 900 (though they are preserved only in later copies). It is not known for certain whether these texts were written in the territory where the brothers carried on their mission. Other Old Church Slavonic texts, however, can be assigned to the Czech era, notably the Legends about St. Wenceslas (Vclav), prince of Bohemia (ruled 921929), and his grandmother Ludmila, probably from the 10th century. Similar hagiographic works in Latin from this period bear witness to a notable level of literary culture in the monastic centres of the early Bohemian state. The Old Church Slavonic language ceased to be used after 1097, when Latin was established as the liturgical language of the country. Robert Auty Z.A.B. Zeman Writing in the Czech language emerged in the late 13th century, establishing a generally continuous tradition of vernacular literature. Chivalrous romances and chronicles, legends of the saints, love lyrics, satires, translations of the Bible, and religious prose were written in the 14th and 15th centuries. During the Counter-Reformation there was a serious decline in the social and administrative use of Czech, though the Baroque period brought fresh impulses to poetry and influenced equally Roman Catholic and non-Catholic writers. There was a renewed flowering of Czech literature in the 19th century, which drew on works from the end of the 18th century. Indeed, the national revival of the Czechs started as a cultural enterprise before it acquired, during the mid-19th century, distinctly political overtones. For the Czechs to become full-fledged members of the 19th-century community of European nations, their language had to be codified and developed for modern use and their history constructed. Josef Dobrovsk, a Jesuit priest and scholar who wrote in German, published an outstanding systematic grammar of the Czech language. Frantiek Palack, a historian who turned to politics, published the first volume of an ambitious history of the Czech nation in German in 1836. The volumes that were published after 1848 appeared both in German and in Czech. Meanwhile, Western literary trends began to affect the emerging Czech literature at about the time of the Romantic literary movement. The Czech Romantic school of poetry of the early 19th century is best represented by Karel Hynek Mcha and Karel Jaromr Erben. In Bohemia the Romantic movement gave way in the 1840s to a more descriptive and pragmatic approach to literature. Bozena Nemcov's novel Babicka (1855; The Grandmother) became a lasting favourite with Czech readers, while the journalist and poet Karel Havlcek Borovsk tried to acquaint the Czechs with some of the stark facts of political life. Jan Neruda, in his poetry and short stories, domesticated literary sophistication within a familiar Prague framework. Toward the end of the 19th century, the historical novels of Alois Jirsek began to claim a wide readership, while poetry moved through Parnassian, Symbolist, and Decadent phases. The making, and breaking, of the Czechoslovak state between the two world wars was reflected in its literature. Jaroslav Haek's sequence of novels Osudy dobrho vojka vejka za svetov vlky (192123; The Good Soldier Schweik) made a mockery of authority, especially that of the former Austro-Hungarian regime. Karel Capek wrote popular plays, novels, and travel books, many of which have been translated into English. Vtezslav Nezval, Frantiek Halas, Vladimir Holan, Josef Hora, and Jaroslav Seifert were among other writers who came to prominence during the first half of the 20th century. As World War II and German-imposed censorship closed in, poetry became even more popular than in peacetime: the brief life and work of Jir Orten is an outstanding example of his tragic generation. Before the destruction of Czech Jewry during the war and the expulsion of the German minority at the end of the war, Bohemia and Moravia had a strong German literary tradition. About the mid-19th century, Adalbert Stifter's descriptions of nature and the common people inspired local followers in southern Bohemia. The German-Jewish group of writers in Prague in the first half of the 20th centuryFranz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Werfel, and Max Brodachieved international recognition. Among the postwar generation of writers, Bohumr Hrabal has become well-known for assembling bizarre patterns of memory, usually in haunting short stories (he also wrote the story of the highly acclaimed film Closely Watched Trains). Before and after 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, Czech writers were in the forefront of the communist reform movement. They paid a high price for their political commitment: a number of writers, including Milan Kundera and Josef kvoreck, were forced to live and work abroad. Ludvk Vaculk, a writer of the same generation and of similar conviction, was among those whose novels were circulated in Prague as unofficial publications. Since 1989, Czech writing has undergone a change in terms of its place in society. Censorship has been lifted, and state control of publishing and distribution has disappeared.