Czechast: Complexities of Czech National Identity in Time And Space

People in what is now Czechia could actually live in several different countries with different names and constitutions during one lifetime without moving anywhere at all. Their official nationality, citizenship and social status, official identity, could change quite dramatically, without their having any say in it.

Border stone in Jihlava marking the Bohemia in the west and Moravia in the east|Photo: Irena Šarounová, Czech Radio

I've decided to at least try to give you an authentic sense of why even Czechs sometimes struggle to explain where they're from. That's why I recorded the introduction to this episode of Czechast standing by a quite busy road just outside my hometown of Žďár nad Sázavou, so you may hear passing cars from time to time. In front of me is a very old border stone marking the divide between Bohemia in the west and Moravia in the east, the two regions that historically formed the bulk of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown that now largely constitute present Czechia.

Standing by this historic border stone, you cannot help to realize that the present system of Regions in 21st-century Czechia doesn't recognize this centuries-old border at all. Officially, I'm standing in the Vysočina or the Highlands Region, which was established in 1997 and straddles both sides of the historic border. This is mainly due to the insensitive approach of the Communist authorities in the second half of the 20th century, who divided the country into regions and districts without respecting historic boundaries.

The historical border of Moravia|Photo: Moravian national municipalities

However, it would be wrong to blame only the Communists. So, let me illustrate how people in this country could live in several different countries with different names and constitutions during one lifetime without moving anywhere at all. Their official nationality, citizenship and social status, official identity, could change quite dramatically, without their having any say in it.