Czech Republic – Czechoslovakia 100 Years – Birth of Ivan Olbracht 1982 Silver 100 Korun 28mm (9.08 grams) 0.500 Silver (0.1447 oz. ASW) Reference: KM# 106 ČESKOSLOVENSKÁ SOCIALISTICKÁ REPUBLIKA 100 KČS , Czechoslovak Socialist Coat-of-Arms. IVAN OLBRACHT 1882 1982, Portrait of Ivan Olbracht left.
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Ivan Olbracht, born Kamil Zeman (6 January 1882, Semily, Bohemia – 20 December 1952, Prague) was a Czech writer, journalist and translator of German prose.
The son of writer Antal Stašek and Jewish-born Catholic convert Kamila Schönfeldová, Olbracht studied law and philosophy in Prague and Berlin. He left before graduation, however, choosing the career of a journalist. In 1905, he first began editing a social-democratic workers’ newspaper in Vienna (Dělnické listy [cs], Historical Papers), where he worked until 1916. When he first began publishing fiction, he primarily focused on stories and novels with a psychological theme. This phase of his writing life coincided with the First World War. His works after the War are an experimentation in blending fiction with real events.
Later, he became an editor in Prague (Právo lidu [cs], The People’s Right). In 1920, he spent six months living in the Soviet Union. The following year, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and began working for Rudé právo. He was twice imprisoned due to his communist views, first in 1926 (in Slezská Ostrava) and later in 1928 (in Pankrác Prison).
In 1929, together with six other writers, Olbracht signed a protest statement against the new leadership of the Communist Party. This resulted in his expulsion from the party and loss of his editorial post. Without political obligations or a job, he turned his attention entirely toward writing. The ensuing years were some of his most productive. Beginning in 1931, he started to travel regularly to Carpathian Ruthenia, in the east of Czechoslovakia. The region, which was inhabited mostly by Rusyn peasants and Jews, created a deep impression on him. His experiences there inspired some of his best works. His novel, Nikola Šuhaj loupežník (Nikola Šuhaj, Outlaw), published in 1933 was based on a real person. The story spoke of a peasant Robin Hood who robbed the rich to provide for the poor. The book eventually acquired the status of a folktale.
In 1934, he co-wrote the screenplay for Marijka nevěrnice (Marijka the Unfaithful). The following year, he published Hory a staletí (Mountains and Centuries), which was a combination of political ethnography and criticism of what he perceived as the Czechoslovak government’s colonialist policies in Podkarpatská Rus. In 1937, his book Golet v údolí (Golet in the Valley) was published. The book consisted of three interwoven stories about Orthodox Jews. The longest, and best, of the stories was “Smutné oči Hany Karadžičové” (The Sad Eyes of Hana Karadžičová), a sad tale of a Jewish girl who is ostracized by her village for marrying an atheist Jew. “Golet in the Valley” was the last of his works. His books set in Carpathian Ruthenia are regarded as his best, reflecting his gift of combining documentary realism and fictional drama.
Fear of persecution drove him to the small town of Stříbřec during World War II. There he once again joined the Communist Party and was active in the resistance. He worked for a while in the Ministry of Information after the war. His writings during that period were limited to adaptations, including the retelling of Bible stories for children.
Selected Works
- Anna the Proletarian (Anna Proletářka)
- The Strange Friendship of Jesenius the Actor (Podivné přátelství herce Jesenia)
- Nikolai Schuhaj, Highwayman (Nikola Šuhaj loupežník)
- Grilled mirror (Zamřížované zrcadlo)
The Czech Republic also known by its short-form name, Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres (30,450 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate. It is a unitary parliamentary republic, with 10.6 million inhabitants; its capital and largest city is Prague, with 1.3 million residents. Other major cities are Brno, Ostrava, Olomouc and Pilsen. The Czech Republic is a member of the European Union (EU), NATO, the OECD, the United Nations, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
It is a developed country with an advanced, high income export-oriented social market economy based in services, manufacturing and innovation. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development. The Czech Republic is a welfare state with a “continental” European social model, a universal health care system, tuition-free university education and is ranked 14th in the Human Capital Index. It ranks as the 6th safest or most peaceful country and is one of the most non-religious countries in the world, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance.
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Coat_of_arms_of_the_Czech_Republic.svg/85px-Coat_of_arms_of_the_Czech_Republic.svg.png" align="left" the="" czech="" republic="" includes="" historical="" territories="" of="" bohemia,="" moravia,="" and="" silesia.="" state="" was="" formed="" in="" late="" 9th="" century="" as="" duchy="" bohemia="" under="" great="" moravian="" empire.="" after="" fall="" empire="" 907,="" centre="" power="" transferred="" from="" moravia="" to="" přemyslid="" dynasty.="" 1002,="" formally="" recognized="" an="" imperial="" holy="" roman="" along="" with="" kingdom="" germany,="" burgundy,="" italy,="" numerous="" other="" territories,="" becoming="" 1198="" reaching="" its="" greatest="" territorial="" extent="" 14th="" century.="" beside="" itself,="" king="" ruled="" lands="" bohemian="" crown,="" holding="" a="" vote="" election="" emperor;="" prague="" seat="" periods="" between="" 17th="" hussite="" wars="" 15th="" driven="" by="" protestant="" reformation,="" faced="" economic="" embargoes="" defeated="" five="" consecutive="" crusades="" proclaimed="" leaders="" catholic="" church.=""
Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Protestant Bohemian Revolt (1618-20) against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years’ War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, eradicated Protestantism and reimposed Catholicism, and also adopted a policy of gradual Germanization. This contributed to the anti-Habsburg sentiment. A long history of resentment of the Catholic Church followed and still continues. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Bohemian Kingdom became part of the German Confederation 1815-1866 as part of Austrian Empire (1804 to 1867) and the Czech language experienced a revival as a consequence of widespread romantic nationalism. In the 19th century, the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and were subsequently the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, which was formed in 1918 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I.
Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in this part of Europe in the interwar period. However, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, while the Slovak region became the Slovak Republic; Czechoslovakia was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. Most of the three millions of the German-speaking minority were expelled following the war. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections and after the 1948 coup d’état, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence. In 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed and market economy was reintroduced. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
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