Czechs Today | All stories

Czech archaeologists are best-known for their work in Egypt, spanning five decades, but some specialists have begun making headlines for excavation work in a different part of the world: Mesopotamia – the cradle of ancient civilisation that is now present-day Iraq. Recently an eight-member team headed by Karel Nováček of the University of West Bohemia, returned from northern Iraq after having uncovered Stone Age tools that were used by either our ancestors or our distant relatives (Homo neanderthalensis). The tools date back some 150,000 years,

Lidové noviny, or People’s Newspaper, is a leading Czech paper with a tradition going back more than a century. The liberal daily was first discontinued by the Nazis during the war, and then banned by the communist authorities in the 1950s. But in 1987, a group of dissidents in Prague decided to launch a samizdat version of the respected newspaper. In this edition of Czechs Today, we talk to one of the founders of the samizdat Lidové noviny, and its first post-communist editor-in-chief, Rudolf Zeman.

The Soviet-era Trabant – a tiny plastic car built in former East Germany that was left “by the roadside” following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, may have been consigned to the dustbin of history, but it still has a special place in many Czechs’ hearts. Among fans is a group of travellers, including a journalist and filmmaker, who have made the tiny vehicle central to their adventures. In late 2009 they conquered Africa in a Trabant - travelling all the way from Tunisia to Cape Town.

Few Czech rock bands have gained such notoriety as the Prague-based group Jasná Páka. Founded at the beginning of the last decade of communism, their music was a beacon for a generation that grew up in a Soviet-occupied country. After it was banned by the Communists in a crusade against rock music, the band reformed as Hudba Praha. The man behind both bands, Michal Ambrož, is one of the last pioneers of Czech new wave of rock still around.

Modlitba pro Martu, A Prayer for Marta, is a song that for many people will be forever associated with Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution of 1989. Performed by the 1960s Czech pop star Marta Kubišová, it had previously come to symbolise resistance to the 1968 Soviet-led invasion.

The fall of communism turned around the lives of millions of people. In a special edition of Czechs Today we talk to a father and son of the same name about how this dramatic change affected their lives. Petr Cibulka senior was born in Opava and moved to Prague in August of 1989 –less than three months before the Velvet Revolution broke out. He now owns a hotel in Lednice, Moravia. His son Petr Cibulka junior belongs to the generation which was barely touched by the communist regime. He moved to Prague at the age of 15, later went for a study stay

For many Czechs, politics is a world of its own, with its own rules and strange characters. Some back their candidates based on things that have little to do with their actual policies, or their record, and some get their ideas from the media. One of the country’s most respected, and wittiest, political commentators is Bohumil Doležal.

The Lusatian Sorbs are a small Slavic minority who can mostly be found in the East of Germany. But they have their history, and their friends, in the Czech Republic too. Petr Kaleta is in charge of the Friends of Lusatia Society – in Czech, the ‘Společnost přátel Lužice’ – I’ll let him introduce himself to you in Sorbian:

The endless sound of crickets chirping would make you think you were in a field somewhere in the Czech countryside, but in fact, this is a country attic, home to thousands of insects stored and raised by Czech businessman Vlastimil Švingr. Fourteen years ago, Mr Švingr was inspired to start a small farm to sell everything from larvae to crickets to cockroaches as food for animals in pet shops and zoos: today he has more than 1,700 clients throughout the country and his business is a big success, with an annual turnover of around 12 million crowns

If you happen to have travelled between Prague and Brno on the D1 motorway in recent years, you might have wondered why those large yellow buses running between the two cities have Student Agency written on them. If you thought that Czech students travel more frequently than in other countries, you were wrong. Student Agency, now a multi-billion business, is the Czech Republic’s most popular transport company. In this edition of Czechs Today, we talk to Radim Jančura, its founder and sole owner.