Czechmatediary

Igracek was a communist classic line of plastic toy figurines, which in the past could be found in every Czech/Slovak child’s toy basket. Supposedly a knock-off of the famous German Playmobil brand, Igracek was meant to educate kids about real-life professions, creating plastic figurines of doctors, nurses, mailmen, chimney man (no offense, but how many chimney men are still out there? I think I have seen like one in my whole life…) and so forth.

After the Velvet Revolution the Igracek company (Igra) went bankrupt since the Czech market was flooded with new and enticing foreign-made toys and only until recently Igracek became simply an expensive collectible. The new company Efko bought the rights to the brand, including the actual chemical recipe to make the mold used to make the original figurine.

Today’s updated Igracek is not bigger but it is definitely better: “The main change of the figurine was to give it new arms, with movable wrists. The arms used to be connected to the hands of the figurine, now the hands can be moved. (more…)

I have been lately into listening to Karel Kryl’s songs. This guy was such an interesting person! He died quite young at the age of 49  but his songs are going to be cherished by the Czechs and Slovaks forever. By the way, his music skills are just one slice of the Kryl-pie. He was a great poet and a painter as well.

CZ: Posledni dobou se mi nejak zalibily Krylovy pisnicky a dosti casto je ted posloucham. Nic moc jsem o Krylovi pred tim nevedela, pouze ty zaklady, tudiz jsem se rozhodla udelat jakysi Krylo-vyzkum, co se tyce jeho zivota a dila. Pro zmenu to byla opravdu velmi zajimava a dobrodruzna osubka. Nejen ze byl nadany na poezii a hudbu, byl take vybornym malirem. Zbytek textu je v anglictine, protoze na cesky preklad uz jsem nemela cas ani silu. Sorac.

Karel Kryl was born and raised in a Moravian town called Kromeriz, where his grandfather established a printing business, one of the best ones in pre-communist Czechoslovakia. Thanks to this book-friendly surrounding Karel was in love with literature ever since he was a little boy. When he was just 5 years old the communist party won the elections and few months later he was forced to watch, while the communist army destroyed all of his family’s printing machines. That was the end of prosperous times at the Kryl family. His father had to start working at the local factory and Karel later followed his footsteps. (more…)

It has been 25 years since the most beautiful railway station in Central Europe was shamelessly destroyed by the Czech communist government. The Tesnovske station (formerly called Denisova station) was replaced by a horrendous highway which now runs right through Wenceslas Square – the heart of the historical center of Prague (see image below). How could the communists be so insensitive? Well, the railway station was not as productive as the very functional planned freeway – that is why. It fits perfectly with the communist ideology. “The communists considered historical buildings to be a backsliding architectural style. Such structures were symbols of bourgeoisie and the communists hated them,” explains Zdenek Lukes, the architectural historian. (more…)

It is a Czech tradition to watch specific fairy tales on TV during Christmas and the New Year holidays. When I was a little girl, our country was rulled by communists so we were ‘prescribed’ to watch the Russian fairytale  “Mrazik” (see the YouTube video bellow). It was pretty much on all the time and all of the kids knew the movie monologues by heart. Do you keep this tradition even though you live abroad now?

CZ: Tak co, divate se o Vanocnich prazdninach na ceske pohadky nebo jste tuto tradici v zahranici uz vzdali? Doufam, ze ne! Volte a pak si pripomente pohadku Mrazika v nasledujicim YouTube videu:

(more…)

Karen’s blog Empty Nest Expat led me today to a very nice article commemorating today’s date – November 17th. On this date – exactly 20 years ago – Velvet Revolution broke us free of communism. I was there, on my dad’s shoulders, but besides the shouting crowds and people shaking their keys, I don’t remember much. Tomas Etzler on the other hand, the CNN producer now based in Benjing, remembers  this historical event very well and narrates it to his readers  in a very entertaining tone. Enjoy (click here for the article)!

CZ: Karenin blog zvany Empty Nest Expat me dnes privedl k velmi zajimavemu clanku o vyroci sametove revoulce (17. listopadu 1989). Ja jsem na Vaclavaku v ten den sice byla, ale  jeste jako docela maly prcek, bazlive sedici na tatovych ramenou. Nic moc si z demonstrace nepamatuji, jen ten zastup napumpovanych lidi a zvoneni klicu. Tomas Etzler, ktery v soucasne dobe pracuje pro CNN, si toho pamatuje mnohem vic. V jeho clanku ctenarum shrnuje historii teto doby a to ve velmi zabavne podobe (clanek si prectete zde).

What words should you stay away from when you go to the Czech Republic? In other words, what words could get you there into a big trouble? According to the results of Readers Digest these sentences are a BIG no-no:

1. If you say: “Things were better during communism” (the winner)
2. Young people hate being asked what time they get home
3. Men hate hearing negative comments about their driving (universal law I think..)
4. Women hate being told to calm down

CZ: Pred jakymi slovy byste si meli davat pozor, kdyz budete travit nejaky ten cas v Cechach? Podle Readers Digest toto jsou ti nebezpecni ‘vyherci’:

1. Veta typu “Za komunismu nam bylo lip”
2. Mladi lide nesnasi, kdyz se jich rodice zeptaji v kolik budou vecer doma
3. Muzum se nelibi, kdyz nekdo okomentovava jejich rizeni
4. Zeny nenavidi, kdyz jim nekdo rika, aby se uklidnily

Source: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/120846

This one will make you laugh. The attachment bellow is a short article taken from a Czech magazine for children, written in 1960 (during  deep communism). Here is the translation:

“When you, my little pioneer, are going to be 30 or 35 years old, you will wake up into the world which will be completely different from today. The communist comrades in the USSR and in our country will have available many automated factories, agricultural jobs will be done through various industrial ways and we will work 6 hours a day. At this time our discovery crew will be reaching the deepest parts of space. All these great things will have a great impact on our everyday life: 250 million tons of steel, the abundance of all appliances, free public transportation, free food at the school and factory cafeterias, living in huge appartments free of charge, free or very inexpensive vacation trips and so on. This in not a beginning of some science fiction story in our magazine, it is a realistic 20-year program of the Communist party, something which is talked, written and thought about all over the world. The capitalist fame is quickly fading. After all, in 10 years the USSR will exceed the United States 2 and half times and in 1980 we will be ahead of the US in 10-folds. It is so beautiful to live in such world! (more…)

Have any of you -frugal people – tried to return recyclables at the recycling center? You should, it’s an experience of a lifetime! First of, it is not this orderly deal like when we used to return glass bottles during communism (to get the feel about what was it like, watch Return Bottles by Zdenek Sverak). Your mom sent you out with a bag of empty Mattonis and usually very unhappy lady in a grocery store exchanged them for couple of crowns and then you went home. Let me fill you in a bit on why did I decide to be this frugal while living in America. Our landlord (let’s call him Mike) has been digging through our trash for quite some time, claiming that one can make a ‘pretty good money’. Mike digs through our trash on a regular basis, especially after he hears us emptying our recycling containers into the main recycling bin. Mike is also not ashamed of this – he does it in the middle of the day or in the middle of the night. He also does some other strange things but that’s another story.

As I have been watching him day after day, digging through our trash, I decided I would give it a try myself. “Heck, who does not need some extra cash in these days?”, I thought to myself. (more…)

My Czech friend Pavla recently prompted me to write about the times when we had a yearly gas mask training at school. It was mandatory, so that we would know what to do in case some capitalist ‘pig’ decides to use the mushroom cloud on us. I don’t remember about it much since I was still kind of young (and my memory is terrible). I do have a vision in my head of putting those weird things on and then walking in the school hallways, feeling like a fool (especially if some cute boy walked right by). Since my story is not that interesting I called on to my Czech friends to help me write these memoirs . This is what they remember about those weird days:

CZ: Moje kamaradka Pavla mi nedavno poradila, abych napsala memoar o tom, jak jsme ve skole cvicili s plynovymi maskami (nebo-li tzv. branne cviceni). Nebyly to proste blaznive casy, kdyz si na to ted vzpomenete? Ja si toho z te doby moc nepamatuju (jenom to, ze jsme ten den tise chodily s dlouhymi choboty po chodbach nasi skoly), ale par mych kamaradek si toho vybavuje vic. Posudte sami – je to fakt zabava:

1. ‘Well, I don’t remember too much just that we had a gas-mask exercise once a year. The teachers handed us our masks which we had to wash with alcohol as a type of disinfection before we put them on. Of course, everyone had to have his own personal mask, which was fitted specifically for his skull. Before the correct mask was chosen for us, our face was measured with a specific measuring tool which kind of looked like pliers. (more…)

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Here is yet another great recommendation from one of the Czechmate Diary readers. Martina sent me a link of the ‘Project S.P.A.D.’ website, which is an on-line simulation of the most dreadful times in the history of formal Czechoslovakia, back when it was called the Czechoslovak Socialistic Republic (CSSR). One can find himself back in the 70′s, watching black-and-white video clips of Marta Kubisova, Karel Gott or Neckar. You can also listen to the communist radio! Check it out, it is well worth your time!

Project S.P.A.D. gallery

PS: English translation is coming soon!

CZ: Tohle proste musite omrknout! Jedna z vas, bezvadnych ctenaru a ctenarek Czechmate Diary (Martina), mi poslala vyborny link. Projekt S.P.A.D. je on-line simulace komunistickych casu, kdyz se nase chudak rodna zeme jeste nazyvala CSSR. Za casu, kdy si sousede zavideli nos mezi ocima a kdy vsichni ridili bud Skodovku 100 nebo zigulika; za casu, kdy se z radia linuly noty pisne “Kavu si osladim” a v televizi jsme se vecer divali na Televariete s Jirinou Bohdalovou a na Vanoce jsme pak meli ‘svatecne’ Mrazika. No, vy ten pribeh dobre znate…Dobre se bavte!

Galerie projektu S.P.A.D.