Perceptions and assumptions

The point of that (rather droll) history of the Czech Republic was that because I was being forced to challenge all of my assumptions and preconceptions about Eastern Europe, I needed to understand the historical context.  What I found was that I even had assumptions about my assumptions that needed to be challenged!

I grew up learning about western culture, but hardly anything about Eastern culture.  Partly this was because I was a product of the western culture, and so that was my heritage; but I suspect mostly because at the time, Eastern Europe was communist, and of course as a child in the States, I was constantly being told that Communism was evil, and the "Godless" Soviets were the enemy who would destroy the world.  It's amazing how much crap you subconsciously adopt without ever challenging it.

My first assumption was that Prague was different because it was part of Eastern Europe.  The reality is that it's always been part of Western Europe!

Although never conquered by the Romans and settled by the Slavs (probably from the Ukraine), Charlemagne captured Bohemia around 806 CE, just a few hundred years after Slavs had settled there. From 1002 to 1918, they were vassals to the Holy Roman Empire, and it's successor the Austrian Empire!  They adopted Roman Catholicism, inj the 14th century the Czech king Charles IV became head of the Holy Roman Empire, and they even had Catholic-Protestant wars 100 years before the West did!  Czechoslovakia firmly considered itself part of western Europe...until the western leaders signed the Munich agreement in 1938 allowing Hitler to invade without opposition.  If it hadn't been for that, Czechoslovakia probably would not have joined the Soviets after World War II.

The second assumption was that life there was defined by Communism.  The reality is that not only was there a thousand years of architectural history, but the Communists were (accidentally) very good stewards!  Even Hitler preserved the synagogues in Prague -- the "old-new" synagogue dates from 1270 -- because he thought they would make nice museums about the "extinct" Jewish race.  The churches survived because the Communists couldn't figure out another use for them.  Communism may have dominated the country from 1948 to 1989s, but that accounts for about 3% of its history!

My third assumption -- and this is just a natural conclusion from the first two assumptions -- is that all Eastern Europeans are all the same--fat, heavy smokers, heavier drinkers, and wearing funny hats.  Prague is quite fashionable, and while they do drink, their beverage of choice is beer, not vodka.  In fact, reading about the history of the Slavs, they had already split into three groups by the 6th century CE -- Eastern Slavs took over Russia, Southern Slavs were in the Balkans (formerly Yugoslavia), and western Slavs in Poland, Czech, and Slovakia. Although there are many similarities, such as language, the western and southern Slavs have been interbreeding with Europeans for so long, you can't make an ethnocultural distinction.

That said, Hitler did not make any distinctions and, along with Jews, Gypsies, homeosexuals, people with disabilities, freemasons, and Jehovah's Witnesses, Hitler planned to exterminate eastern and  western Slavs. He actually killed twice as many Slavs as Jews, but still fell far short of his aim: Today there are about 200 million eastern Slavs, 78 million western Slavs, and 46 million southern Slavs.

And my final -- and probably most pejorative -- assumption was about the Eastern Orthodox church, but that was because I really didn't know a thing about it.  I knew Constantinople (now Istanbul) had been established in 330 CE as the "co-capital" of the Roman Empire, but after that it was a complete mystery.  Reading about, I found that the founding of Constantinople effectively split the empire in two, with western Europe dominated by Rome and the Catholics, and eastern Europe (or the Byzantine empire) by Greece and the Eastern Orthodox Church. While the western Slavs became part of the Roman empire, the eastern and southern Slavs were under the Byzantine emperor.  I read an interesting description of the differences here (albeit from an Eastern Orthodox perspective).  I also learned "orthodox" means "correct" -- as in the correct way to worship.  Eastern Orthodox felt Roman Catholics had gone astray, and they were practising the "one true way" to worship.  And I found out that an uneasy truce lasted until 1054, when at a meeting members of both churches tried to excommunicate the others, resulting in a permanent split.

.However, and more relevant, I learned that I hadn't learned a thing about Eastern Orthodox, because I was in Catholic chuirches!  So I've had to uncheck eastern Europe from my to-do list, and one day I will actually explore the area.  (Here is one way to see it.)