90 years since the foundation of the independent Czechoslovak state

Exactly 90 years have passed since the founding of Czechoslovakia on October 28th 1918, a date that is still celebrated as a national holiday in the Czech Republic. It was the creation of the Czechoslovak state independent from the Austria-Hungary which Czechs and Slovaks were part since 1526.

Czechoslovakia’s “First Republic” survived for just 20 years, brought to an abrupt end with the Munich Agreement of September 1938. On the night of 29 to 30 September 1938, four men - Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini and Daladier, deliberated the fate of Czechoslovakia without it. The resultant agreements let Hitler annex the Czechoslovak border regions - the Sudetenland. The Czechoslovak government finally accepted in the hope that peace in Europe could be saved. But six months later the German occupation of what remained of the Czech Lands started. In fact, Hitler never abandoned its plans of destruction. On March the 14th 1939, its decision to occupy the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia is taken. The next day, at dawn, Nazi troops enter Prague.

During the 40 years of communist rule, the pre-war republic and its founding father, President Tomáš Masaryk, were virtually a taboo subject. The First Republic was portrayed as a period of capitalist exploitation and weakness, culminating in Czechoslovakia’s failure to stand up to Hitler in 1938. But with the fall of communism the pendulum swang the other way and the republic came to be seen as a golden age of democracy and prosperity.

So today, we are commemorating the founding of a state that no longer exists…

Source: Radio Praha