http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/czechoslovakia/ en-us Tue, 2 Sep 2008 16:06:14 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2073038/posts August 2008:"The crisis was sparked earlier this week when Georgia sent troops into the breakaway province of South Ossetia to quell a Russian-backed separatist uprising. Russia responded by sending its troops into Georgia and the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali." http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Russia-On-Verge-Of-All-Out-War-As-Troops-Clash-In-Georgias-South-Ossetia/Article/200808215074261?lpos=World%2BNews_4&lid=ARTICLE_15074261_Russia%2BOn%2BVerge%2BOf%2BAll-Out%2BWar%2BAs%2BTroops%2BClash%2BIn%2BGeo Source for these photos:http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Georgia-South-Ossetia-Conflict---Missiles-Soldiers-Tanks/Media-Gallery/200808215074059 ______________________________________________________ May 2008: "Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's new president, delivered a coded rebuke to the West yesterday as Russia paraded its nuclear missiles through Red Square in a show of force not seen since Soviet times."http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1942177/Russia-puts-on-a-Soviet-show-of-might.html "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union... "World democratic... several sources http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2073038/posts#comment Tue, 2 Sep 2008 16:06:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2066993/posts Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968) The general dissatisfaction within the Czechoslovak military became increasingly evident. In 1966 Czechoslovakia, following the lead of Romania, rejected the Soviet Union's call for more military integration within the Warsaw Pact and sought greater input in planning and strategy for the Warsaw Pact's non-Soviet members. At the same time, plans to effect great structural changes in Czechoslovak military organizations were under discussion. All these debates heated up in 1968 during the period of political liberalization known as the Prague Spring, when CSLA commanders put forward plans to democratize the armed forces, plans that included limiting... GlobalSecurity.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2066993/posts#comment Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:06:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2065778/posts This August 21st marks 40 years since the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, an invasion meticulously planned by the Soviet Union to crush the period of economic and political reforms known as the Prague Spring. Within hours of late August 20th and early August 21st some 2,000 tanks as well as an estimated 200,000 troops had poured in. It was the beginning of the occupation which changed the course of Czechoslovak history. Marta Hubscherová – a former radio reporter - witnessed the arrival of the first tanks in northern Bohemia; in an interview for Radio Prague in 2004... Radio Praha http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2065778/posts#comment Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:14:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046719/posts In a townhall meeting held Tuesday in Albuquerque, N.M., John McCain mistakenly referred to current events in Czechoslovakia, a country that ceased to exist in 1993 after separating into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. McCain expressed “regret some of the recent behavior that Russia has exhibited…including reduction in oil supplies to Czechoslovakia.” Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046719/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:49:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028071/posts In these decadent times when powerful people in the West cannot conceive of any response to totalitarian jihad other than rank appeasement, and when the name of Che Guevara, a bloodthirsty Stalinist and enemy of freedom, is synonymous with heroism, it is vital that free people be familiar with — and honor — the examples of those valiant few who, living under totalitarianism, have stood up to it with a courage that todayÂ’s appeasers of Islam could hardly imagine. Among the greatest of these heroes is Vaclav Havel. Born in 1936, Havel spent his early years under the two major... PajamasMedia http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028071/posts#comment Sun, 8 Jun 2008 23:35:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1942281/posts Archaeologists have uncovered parts of Prague's oldest ramparts, dating back to the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, thus verifying the then Jewish globetrotter Ibrahim ibn Jaqub's description of Prague as "a town made of stone and lime," the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote Monday... The archaeologists uncovered the remnants of wall in the cellar of the Academy of Performing Arts building, 5 metres underground. A thousand years ago the walls were part of one of Prague's main entrance gates, though which the town was entered from the western and souther directions... Prague, including its ramparts, attracted Ibrahim... Prague Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1942281/posts#comment Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:44:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1901117/posts jdkf dkPRAGUE, Czech Republic: Codex Gigas, also known as the Devil's Bible — a medieval manuscript said to have been written 800 years ago with the devil's help — has returned to Prague after an absence of 359 years. And Czechs were eager to see it, officials said Friday.The priceless piece, considered the biggest medieval book, was taken from the Prague Castle by Swedish troops at the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. It is in Prague on loan from Sweden's Royal Library in Stockholm. It was put on display under high security at the Czech National Library.Its... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1901117/posts#comment Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:38:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1885801/posts Czech Parliament Unlikely to Legalize Euthanasia By Hilary White PRAGUE, August 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Czech Chamber of Deputies, the equivalent of the House of Commons, are unlikely to pass a measure that would legalize physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Of 186 deputies from the 200-seat Chamber, 92 said they did not want physician-assisted suicide to become legal with sixty deputies supporting legalization and 34 undecided. The daily paper, Mladá fronta Dnes, reported in July that the highest support for euthanasia (70 percent) is among the followers of the rightist Civic Democrats (ODS) of Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. ODS Deputy, Boris... LifeSiteNews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1885801/posts#comment Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:22:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1883453/posts A Date Worth Remembering: August 20, 1968 by Krzys Wasilewski On August 20, 1968, the forces of the Warsaw Pact crossed the borders of Czechoslovakia to provide “fraternal help,” or rather, reinstate a hard-line communist regime. In a matter of two weeks, 200,000 soldiers from Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union quenched the liberal rebellion, burying the hopes of easing the Soviet grip in Central Europe for decades. Although it lacked the geographic importance of Poland or East Germany, Czechoslovakia still remained an important place on the map of the USSR’s influence. Shortly after the end of... The Student Operated Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1883453/posts#comment Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:46:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1835935/posts Czechs remember Russians abducted by Soviet secret police 18.5.2007 - Rob Cameron In Prague last week there was a brief ceremony to commemorate the thousands of Russian émigrés illegally abducted by the Soviet secret police at the close of World War Two. The abductions began as soon as the Red Army began to liberate Czechoslovakia in 1944, and continued long after the Soviets arrived in Prague in May 1945. It's one of the most mysterious chapters in Czechoslovakia's 20th century history, but the fate of those abducted has not been forgotten. A military band played and the wind blew through... ICE http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1835935/posts#comment Fri, 18 May 2007 19:48:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771808/posts WARSAW, Poland - The United States has entered a decisive phase in a plan to set up missile defense sites in Eastern Europe — a system Washington says is aimed at protecting itself and its allies against potential attacks from the Middle East. But the prospect of sophisticated U.S. radar and interceptor systems in formerly communist Eastern Europe has led Russian military leaders to warn of a new arms race. The system "would create a clear threat for Russia," Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin, the chief of Russia's Space Forces, warned Monday. The United States told Polish leaders it wants to... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771808/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:57:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771187/posts Jan Palach's suicide remembered 38 years on [16-01-2007] By Rob Cameron Tuesday marks the 38th anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach, the young student whose suicide transformed him into a symbol of Czechoslovak resistance following the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. Jan Palach would have turned 59 this year he not taken his own life. His legacy, however, lives on. On January 16th, 1969, a 20-year-old student from Prague's Philosophy Faculty set off for Wenceslas Square, the city's busiest thoroughfare. The country was still under occupation by Soviet troops five months after the invasion. The purge of reformers within the ranks... Radio Praha http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771187/posts#comment Sun, 21 Jan 2007 17:59:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1733408/posts Stories of Injustice - those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it [02-11-2006] By Rob Cameron It's just a few weeks now before November 17th, the seventeenth anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution, when peaceful demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of people brought the country's communist regime to its knees. Seventeen years on, coming to terms with the past is still difficult. One problem is the country's schoolbooks, which give only the briefest glimpse of the indignities and cruelties of the communist era. But the Czech NGO People in Need is trying to change all... Radio Praha http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1733408/posts#comment Mon, 6 Nov 2006 19:33:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1727685/posts The Czech National Day: celebrating a state that no longer exists 27.10.2006 - David Vaughan The 28th October is an unlikely date for Czechs to be celebrating their national holiday. After all, it commemorates the founding of a state that no longer exists. Czechoslovakia was established in 1918 with the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of World War I, and was relegated to the history books 74 years later, when Czechs and Slovaks - or rather their political leaders - decided to go their separate ways at the end of 1992. While Slovaks quickly forgot their old... ICE http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1727685/posts#comment Sat, 28 Oct 2006 21:14:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1690097/posts Soviet Ghosts Haunt the World Council of Churches By Mark D. Tooley FrontPageMagazine.com | August 25, 2006 As one of his formative spiritual experiences, a top official in the World Council of Churches (WCC) fondly recalls attending a Soviet-front group’s conference in the old Czechoslovakia. In a recent official WCC news report, the Swiss-based ecumenical council interviews Rev. Walter Altmann, a Brazilian Lutheran theologian, former head of the Latin American Council of Churches, and the new moderator the WCC's totalitarian-sounding "central committee." Currently, he also heads the 700,000 member Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil. "As a young... FrontPageMag http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1690097/posts#comment Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:59:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688126/posts Warsaw Pact invasion commemorated TOP Slovak officials including MPs and President Ivan Gasparovic commemorated the 38th anniversary of the invasion of the former Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces on August 21, 1968. Gasparovic laid wreaths at SNP Square and Šafárikovo Square in Bratislava. Two people were killed by the invading troops at these locations - Peter Legner on SNP Square and Danka Košanová on Šafárikovo Square. "This event was a black day in the history of the Slovak nation and of the former Czechoslovakia," Gašparovic said. MPs from the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) were also among the politicians paying... The Slovak Spectator http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1688126/posts#comment Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:54:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1686885/posts This Day In History SOVIETS INVADE CZECHOSLOVAKIA: August 20, 1968 On the night of August 20, 1968, approximately 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring"--a brief period of liberalization in the communist country. Czechoslovakians protested the invasion with public demonstrations and other non-violent tactics, but they were no match for the Soviet tanks. The liberal reforms of First Secretary Alexander Dubcek were repealed and "normalization" began under his successor Gustav Husak. Pro-Soviet communists seized control of Czechoslovakia's democratic government in 1948. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin imposed his will on Czechoslovakia's communist leaders, and... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1686885/posts#comment Sun, 20 Aug 2006 14:49:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1646553/posts WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A one-legged piano and a chorus was all Jewish prisoners at the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia needed to express their defiance of the Nazis. Sixty-three years ago, Jewish prisoner and conductor Rafael Schachter gathered 150 fellow Jews in a basement at the camp to perform Giuseppe Verdi's "Requiem" for the Nazis in Latin. Throughout the piece was a plea for liberation. The prisoners felt safe singing it because the Nazis did not get the meaning the Jewish people put behind it, said Natalie Pyle, a music student who will be a junior at The Catholic University... Catholic News Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1646553/posts#comment Fri, 9 Jun 2006 23:14:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509058/posts The struggle over Palestine, with contradictory promises made by Britain to both Jews and Arabs, fueled four Arab-Israeli wars, brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, contributed to the use of oil and terrorism as political weapons, and was used as a pretext (amongst others) for Islamists dedicated to Israel's and the West's destruction. World Defense Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509058/posts#comment Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:52:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467848/posts Strongman sorry for Prague Spring From correspondents in Prague August 22, 2005 FORMER Polish communist strongman, Wojciech Jaruzelski, has apologised to the Czech Republic and Slovakia for Poland's role in the Soviet-led invasion in August 1968 that crushed a pro-democracy movement. "I have felt bad, I have been tormented by that," said Jaruzelski during a broadcast on Czech public television, 37 years to the day after the invasion of then Czechoslovakia. Troops from the Soviet Union and four former Warsaw Pact countries squashed the so-called "Prague Spring", a movement led by Slovak reformer Alexander Dubcek that tried to put "a... The Australian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467848/posts#comment Sun, 21 Aug 2005 21:33:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1427194/posts Back in the days of the Hapsburg Empire, there was a town in Bohemia called Budweis. The people in that town were called Budweisers and the town had a brewery which produced beer with the same name -- but different from the American Budweiser. Like many communities in Bohemia during that era, Budweis had people of both Czech and German ancestries, speaking different languages, though many were also bilingual. They got along pretty well and most people there thought of themselves as Budweisers, rather than as Czechs or Germans. But that would later change -- for the worse -- not... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1427194/posts#comment Tue, 21 Jun 2005 11:19:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1427188/posts Back in the days of the Hapsburg Empire, there was a town in Bohemia called Budweis. The people in that town were called Budweisers and the town had a brewery which produced beer with the same name -- but different from the American Budweiser. townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1427188/posts#comment Tue, 21 Jun 2005 10:46:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1423119/posts On Sunday Aung San Suu Kyi will celebrate her 60th birthday, which in a Buddhist culture marks an important milestone in one's life. I would like to meet her and give her a rose like the one she is seen holding in a photograph in my study. Such an ordinary wish, however, in the case of such an extraordinary woman as Aung San Suu Kyi may seem a silly idea. The last time I wrote about her in The Post [op-ed, Oct. 12, 2003] was shortly after "unknown" assassins tried to deprive her of her life and Burmese generals put... washingtonpost.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1423119/posts#comment Wed, 15 Jun 2005 08:50:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420218/posts An American Traitor: Guilty As Charged By Henry Mark Holzer and Erika HolzerFrontPageMagazine.com | June 10, 2005For three decades Jane Fonda obfuscated, distorted and lied about virtually everything connected with her wartime trip to North Vietnam: her motive, her acts, her intent, and her contribution to the Communists’ war effort.  With the aid of clever handlers, she so successfully suppressed and spun her conduct in Hanoi that many Americans didn’t know what she had done there, and, more important, the legal significance. Three years ago, our book, “Aid and Comfort”: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam (McFarland & Co.), laid bare... Frontpagemagazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420218/posts#comment Fri, 10 Jun 2005 12:48:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421459/posts Based on what you'll read in this report, we can clearly establish that not only Havel was privileged to receive certain favors from the communists [his frequent visits of the capitalist West Germany, Austria and so forth - ordinary people would not be allowed to travel there during the openly communist era], but also Havel was glad to co-operate with these communist criminals... Anti-CommunistAnalyst.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421459/posts#comment Sun, 12 Jun 2005 18:50:04 GMT