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The widening divide

Czechs, Slovaks suffer cultural drift, 15 years after break-up

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 9th, 2008 issue

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Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Matěj Vrtil, Daniel Bartošek, Anežka Špačková and Andrea Štěpánková
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Matěj Vrtil, 15, couldn't name the Slovak president or prime minister but knows that Czechoslovakia split in 1993.


Daniel Bartošek, 15, says Slovakia is "closer" to the Czech Republic than are other foreign nations


Anežka Špačková, 15, considers Slovakia more "something like Moravia" than a true foreign country


Andrea Štěpánková, 14, says she can understand only "some things" in Slovak

Anežka Špačková was one of the newest citizens of the Czech Republic when the country was born in 1993. Two weeks after Czechoslovakia split in two, the girl’s life began.
Today, as a 15-year-old student at Prague 1’s U svatého Štěpána school, Anežka obviously has no memory of the former federation. But how she and her peers regard Slovakia suggests that a bond between the two countries persists, even as the cultural divide widens.
“For me, it’s something more like Moravia,” Anežka says while on break from her biology lesson. Her friend, Andrea Štěpánková, 14, nods in agreement.
A recent nationwide survey indicates that Anežka and Andrea are typical in this regard. When asked whether, 15 years after the split, Czechs view Slovakia as a “real foreign country,” many said they did not.
Vladimíra Dvořáková, head of the political science department at the University of Economics in Prague, says Czechs tend to regard Slovaks as something more like a best friend, Dvořáková notes.
Despite these kindred feelings, Dvořáková concedes, actual knowledge of Slovak language and culture among Czech youth seems to be deteriorating.
The Velvet Divorce
Of the three federations under the Soviet bloc — the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia — none survived the democratization process, Dvořáková points out. Some splits were easier than others. Today, the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia still reverberates as Kosovo moves toward independence. Countries that once belonged to the Soviet Union continue to struggle to achieve fully democratic governments. But here the so-called Velvet Divorce has left no real animosity between the two countries, Dvořáková says.
Although she says the divorce was not inevitable and other alternatives could have been found, and although the result has not been bad, “it’s very difficult to say whether it’s a good thing.”
At the time, the Slovak side of the federation was struggling with economic reforms as the country was trying to piece together a democratic republic from communist remains. What would become Slovakia had relied on heavy industry and large factories. When those started to close, entire regions were devastated. Bohemia, on the other hand, predominantly had midsize industries that fared the transition much better. At the same time, the Czechs were heavily subsidizing the Slovaks. The reforms left Slovaks with an unemployment rate of 13 percent in 1991. At the same time, Czechs had an unemployment rate of 3 percent.
Although most people in both nations supported the idea of staying together, “it was very difficult to find a common solution,” Dvořáková says. Czechs wanted a strong, centralized federation whereas Slovaks wanted more of a confederation.
Furthermore, however, Slovaks needed to feel independent. “It was important for Slovaks’ own identity to be responsible for their own development,” she says. Still, it’s important to remember, Dvořáková says, that the two countries remain ultimately in the same geopolitical state — the European Union — and both belong to NATO.
Language barrier
One area in which the two nations most appear to be drifting apart is language. Close enough to be mutually intelligible, both languages are readily understood by older generations.
“For us it was quite normal to read in Slovak,” Dvořáková says, adding that “The Slovak language is not as common [in the Czech Republic] as it was before.”
Since the split, younger generations, have had more difficulty understanding their neighbors. In a recent test conducted by the daily Mladá fronta Dnes, Czech children scored five out of 16 points when it came to their comprehension of Slovak. Some Czech children say they cannot understand Slovak — a phenomenon virtually unknown in their parents’ generation. However, Slovak children scored 11 of 16 in their understanding of Czech; and Slovaks say they do not need Czech television shows dubbed despite a new Slovak audiovisual law that requires all new programs to be broadcast in Slovak, according to the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
Although Anežka, Daniel and Andrea say they understand Slovak sometimes, their knowledge about other aspects of the country is a bit hazy. For example, they couldn’t name the current Slovak prime minister (Robert Fico) or president (Ivan Gašparovič). And though two of them were aware Czechoslovakia split in 1993, one guessed that the year was 1989.
Slovak children knew significantly more about Czech history and politics, according to the Mladá fronta Dnes report.
Robert Pejša of Charles University’s Institute of Slavistic Studies says the Czech school system, lack of interest in Slovak developments and weak promotion of Slovak culture are to blame. Dvořaková says she misses Slovak culture and literature. “Some of this is unfortunate,” she says of the separation.
“One group [Czechs] pretends they know enough about one another and do not need to know more. The result is reflected in the younger generation,” Pejša told ČTK.
When asked what comes to mind when she thinks of Slovakia, Anežka mentions the singer Miroslav Žbirka and the traditional dish halušky s bryndzou (potato gnocchi with sheep cheese).
— Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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