Many know the life and legacies of Tomáš Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, two Czechs who helped to found Czechoslovakia. However, there was a third person who played a very important role in the founding of the country: a Slovak named Milan Štefánik. Before he participated in the founding of Czechoslovakia though, he was first an astronomer and aviator.
Radio Revolution
Karel Zeman: Czech Film Director and Animator
Tomáš Masaryk and the United States
Warsaw Pact
Oldřich Kulhánek and the Czech Koruna
A History of Czech Feminism
The once egalitarian, agrarian society of Bohemia became ruled by the Hapsburg Dynasty, causing a regression in women’s rights until Christianity helped improve their lives. The National Revival brought the creation of Czechoslovakia and greater rights for women. When communism came, rights improved in some ways and did not in others. The change to a capitalistic democracy brought further changes.
Karlovy Vary Film Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, or KVIFF, hosts about 200 films from around the world and is the oldest film festival. Located in Karlovy Very, Czech Republic, the film festival is held annually in July and is the most prestigious festival in Central and Eastern Europe, boasting a popular feature film competition.
Gender Roles under Communism
Czech Cubism (Cubo-Expressionism)
Dagmar Šimková (1929-1995)
Meda Mladkova
The Forced Exile of Refugees
Hana Podolska: The "Coco Chanel" of Czechoslovakia
Jaroslava Brychtova (18 July 1924 – 8 April 2020)
Jaroslava Brychtová and Stanislav Libenský’s partnership of almost 50 years birthed some of the defining sculptural and architectural installations of the 20th century. They used their art as a form of political resistance and were inspired by early 20th-century Czech Cubism and metaphysical philosophy to work with abstraction.