Author Archive

A concise history of Czech studies in Italy The study of Czech language in Italy has faced a complex path overwhelmed by the typical bureaucracy of Italy. The person to whom it is possible to attribute the merit of first Czech scholar is certainly...

30 years ago Václav Havel president of Czechoslovakia Initially reluctant to accept the post, Václav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989, thus making history as the first president after the end of communism, and as a guide during the country’s difficult...

The non-profit organization world in the Czech Republic: from bedrock of democratic life to the target of the media and politicians The Velvet Revolution was driven and supported by those groups which are usually referred to as civil society (a perhaps slightly impolite term...

50 years ago Josef Sekyra, the first Czechoslovakian at the South Pole Between 1966 and 1967, the Czech geologist, speleologist and explorer Josef Sekyra participated in a scientific expedition of the Soviet Union conducted on the Queen Maud and Enderby lands, on the Antarctic...

The destiny of this Prague industrial zone, symbol of the Czech 1900s Large abandoned warehouses, with broken glass and collapsed roofs, in the middle of which (and within which) trees grow. During the day, the ČKD industrial area which towers over Kolbenova street in...

130 years ago The first Czech public power plant The engineer and inventor František Křižík, the “Czech Edison”, as he was called, is the creator of the first public power plant on the Czech territory. Although the first power plants appeared in the region...

Czech media outlets, which in the past were owned mostly by foreigners, are now nearly entirely in the hands of local tycoons An oligarchization of the market is taking place, with prominent “impure” editors having political ambitions and the goal of reaching stronger influence...

Prague. A man and a woman meet on tango notes in a local night pub in the city. He, Martin Romano, is an Argentinian stating to be in the Czech capital for an important business trip. She, Karin Dayan, is a charming Georgian woman...

“Nabarvené ptáče”, a grisly and unconventional film, with a gloomy and grey atmosphere. It has been a long time since Czech cinema showcased such an original and daring product The wait was long, but after years marked by conventionality and little risk-taking, Czech cinema...

80 years ago The assassination of Jan Opletal In 1939, the twenty-four-year-old Jan Opletal was a young student of The Faculty of Medicine in Prague. On October 28 of that year, on the anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic, he was demonstrating...