The Obituary
Czechoslovakia was born in 1918 from the ruins of Austria-Hungary, uniting Czechs and Slovaks in a single democratic republic. It thrived between the wars before the Western powers abandoned it at Munich in 1938, handing its borderlands to Hitler; the rest was occupied the next year. After the war it fell under Soviet domination, briefly thawed during the 1968 Prague Spring, then was crushed by Warsaw Pact tanks. Communism collapsed in the peaceful 1989 Velvet Revolution. Within a few years Czech and Slovak leaders agreed to part ways, and on the last day of 1992 the country dissolved amicably into two nations.
Worth remembering
- Between the wars it was one of the few functioning democracies in central Europe and a major arms manufacturer.
- The 1989 Velvet Revolution, led by playwright Vaclav Havel, ended communist rule without bloodshed.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.