Name
Class
READING
38
Date
Eastern Europe
GOVERNMENT
Czechoslovakia: The Velvet Divorce
On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia formally divided into two nations—the
Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia. A journalist present for the
event describes how Czechs and Slovaks feel about the split.
In the chill waning hour of 1992, the winding back streets of Bratislava
were dim and strangely quiet on this momentous evening. At midnight
Bratislava would become the capital of Europe’s newest small nation, the
Slovak Republic. . . . I drifted with the gathering crowd toward Slovak
National Uprising Square. . . .
Shortly before midnight the crowds parted for a platoon of goosestepping Slovak soldiers bearing the new white-blue-and-red striped flag
emblazoned with the Slovak cross. Fireworks banged and skyrockets
swooshed to light the sky with bursts of color.
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
Then church bells and the boom of a distant cannon marked the birth
of a new year—and a new country. The republic’s prime minister, Vladimír
Mec̆iar, mounted a small stage. “Skovakia is yours!” he shouted, as the
jubilant crowd of some 50,000 cheered approval. . . .
Not all Czechs and Slovaks reacted so enthusiastically to the dissolution [break up] of their country, I learned during my visits there before and
after the split. “We’re a sovereign nation now—for better of worse,” a
Slovak friend said, with a shrug. “At least the parting was peaceful; that’s
something.”
Czechs and Slovaks are products of the same central European geography and similar in language and culture. “The nation was cobbled together
after World War I from provinces of the defeated Austro-Hungarian
Empire,” explained Martin Bútora, a Slovak sociologist who teaches in the
Czech capital, Prague. “Slovakia had been occupied by Hungarians for a
thousand years. The Czechs were influenced more by Austria and the
West.”
Recently they rejoiced in the same victory over 41 years of communist
rule, a nonviolent triumph led by intellectuals from both lands: the 1989
Velvet Revolution. Barely two years later, they had sued for a “velvet
divorce.”
“The split is mad,” an economist told me in Prague. “All of Europe is
straining for unity, and we’re dividing ourselves in two. Slovakia, smaller,
less developed, will suffer the most.”
A Bratislava psychologist disagreed. “The Czech population is ten million, twice that of Slovakia; the Czechs are richer, more industrialized—
and they have always lorded this over us. It is time to step out of Prague’s
shadow,” he insisted. “Let them go,” said a Czech bookseller. “It will
avoid bloodshed. Look what happened to our neighbors in Yugoslavia.”
Eastern Europe • Readings
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Reading 38 continued
Many in both regions of Czechoslovakia prepared for the split in
advance. A young Slovak I met at Charles University had already applied
for her Czech passport—one of some 40,000 to do so before the separation. “Prague is where the future will happen,” she said. . . .
And what of the future? Taking the long view, some political leaders
are not surprised by the split-up of Czechoslovakia; look at the once united
Sweden and Norway, they say. Like them, the new republics share many
common interests and a powerful ancient kinship that augers [promises]
close alliance even under separate flags.
In any event, other fracturing nations can only envy the ease of the
Czechs and Slovaks in coping with history’s caprice [unpredictable turns].
“Look, I was born in Austria-Hungary,” said . . . a man in his 80s. “I grew
up in Czechoslovakia, suffered from Germans, spent 40 years in a colony
of Russia—without ever leaving Prague. Now we’re Czechs again, like
we’ve been for a thousand years. What’s so bad about that?”
From “The Velvet Divorce,” (retitled “Czechoslovakia: The Velvet Divorce”) by Thomas J.
Abercrombie from National Geographic, September 1993. Copyright ©1993 by National
Geographic Society. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Understanding What You Read After you have finished reading the selection, answer the following questions.
2. To what situation was the Czech bookseller referring in his remarks to
the author?
3. What is the likelihood that the Czech Republic and Slovakia will exist as
peaceful and friendly neighbors? Explain why.
Activity
Imagine that you work for a Slovak newspaper. Write an editorial
or create an editorial cartoon expressing your position on dividing Czechoslovakia.
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
1. Why is Czechoslovakia’s overthrow of communism known as the Velvet
Revolution? Why was its division called the “velvet divorce”?
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cultural influences and people behind.
Russian migration policies when Estonia
was part of the Soviet Union are a major
factor. One of four residents was born
somewhere else. This history would likely
make ethnic Estonians extremely nationalistic and protective of their culture.
3. Ethnic Estonians tend to live in the rural
areas while the ethnic minorities dominate
Estonia’s cities. Estonian individualism
and love of solitude probably contribute to
this pattern of settlement.
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
Reading 38
1. Both have this designation because they
were accomplished without violence.
2. to the ethnic unrest that plagued parts of
the former Yugoslavia—such as Croatia,
Bosnia, and Serbia—in the 1990s
3. Answers will vary, but most students
should point to the common history and
cultural heritage of Czechs and Slovaks—
also pointed out by political leaders in the
reading—to suggest that the two nations
will probably enjoy good relations. Some
students may point to the underlying hostility and jealousy between Czechs and Slovaks
that is evident in the in the reading’s quotes
and come to another conclusion.
Reading 39
1. wool, milk, and cheese
2. To have grass for their sheep they must
spend most of their time in summer and
winter pastures, and in traveling back and
forth between these locations.
3. In mid-May the women—and the children
after school is out—leave the village and
go to the summer sheepfold to help with
the milking and cheese making.
Reading 40
1. Responses might mention the attempted
coup, the comments on the bus about
Gorbachev, the strikes, and the difficulties
people are experiencing.
2. Answers will vary but should suggest that
Ilya did not previously conceive of the full
range of freedoms—and their implications—beyond freedom or speech.
3. Answers will vary but should be supported
by evidence and reasoned arguments.
Reading 41
1. Life has become more difficult for most
Muscovites in many ways. Many have to
work harder by taking second and third
jobs in order to survive. More people are
homeless than before.
2. Answers will vary, but students should
realize that the picture the author paints of
Moscow is of a city of the indulgent rich
and the struggling poor, where everything
is based on how much money one has.
Reading 42
1. The town’s main industries formerly produced military goods for the government.
Now, because there is no longer such production, over half their workers are laid
off. Even people who have jobs may not
be paid regularly or may not be paid
enough to keep up with the rising prices of
things they need.
2. Answers will vary, but students should
realize that communism provided security
for Russians in the form of a job and basic
minimal living assistance. Now that safety
net is gone. However, the author suggests
that attitudes in Russia are such that
Russians will likely never wish to return
to their former system.
Reading 43
1. His greatest joy was working the farm and
being with its animals. Most unsettling
was the memory of and hearing the voice
of his dead sweetheart.
2. Answers will vary but should reflect the
Hutsuls’ attachment to agriculture, nature,
and the land; the simplicity of their life;
and their belief in the occult.
Answer Key • Readings 171
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