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This week's topics: Volhynia Czechs. Benes decree restitution claims. RP listener's wedding ceremony. Listeners quoted: Terence Foiler, Zack Charter, COSMOS CLUB.
"I met a very charming elderly lady a few weeks ago here in Manchester and she told me she was Czech but was born in Ukraine, which once was Czech. I didn't quite understand what she meant but did not ask further as I did not want to openly doubt her. I have never heard of Ukraine once having been Czech but remember once hearing a Radio Prague programme about some sort of a connection between the two countries."
I think I know what programme you are referring to. We first thought of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, which was part of Czechoslovakia after WWI but became part of the Soviet Union after WWII. But from what you continue to say in your letter, the lady you spoke to must have been born in a region in northern Ukraine called Volhynia. And now we have to go way back to the second half of the 19th century to explain. At the time, a large number of Czechs settled in Ukraine because they were good farmers and the Russian Czar invited them to come, offering them cheap land to attract them.
Most of the Czechs who moved east never lost the Czech culture and their language. Of course, after the fall of the Czar, the World Wars, and Communist take over, the living standards of the Czechs in Ukraine worsened significantly, in most cases becoming worse than that in Czechoslovakia. Furthermore, they lived close to the Chernobyl nuclear power station and after the disaster in 1986, and the fall of Communism, the Czechoslovak government offered the descendants of the Czech settlers to return to the land of their forebears. In April 1991, they began to return home, receiving social benefits and citizenship from the Czechoslovak government.
We continue now with a question from Zach Charter, who listens to us in New Zealand:
"In your news this week you reported that the Czech government has to return a castle, I think you called it the Opocno castle, to its original owners. In reaction, your culture minister said the court's decision would trigger more restitution claims, bringing the Benes decrees into question. Could you explain this statement in more detail please?"
But the problem is much more complicated. The region close to the Czech-German border where most of the ethnic Germans lived was called the Sudetenland and now houses Czechs, most of whom live in houses confiscated from the Sudeten Germans. If their property were to be returned, many Czechs would loose their homes.
And one must not forget that it is a historical fact that all the Allies in World War II against Hitler's Germany agreed to the expulsion of the Germans and some of them took drastic post-war measures themselves to ensure that ethnic Germans would never be able to rise to power again. So, there have been numerous discussions over the legitimacy of the Benes decrees. But to get back to the Opocno castle case. The Czech state argued that the noble family which owned the castle when WWII broke out had tried to become citizens of Hitler's Third Reich. They had therefore betrayed Czechoslovakia and according to the Benes decrees no longer have a right to their property. The court's decision to return it to them could result in other Sudeten Germans taking legal steps to get their property back. If the court is then not convinced that the plaintiffs had betrayed Czechoslovakia, more problems could arise.
We received an e-mail from the COSMOS CLUB in India which wrote to inform us about, and invite us to a very special occasion:
"Hello from Muzaffarpur. We solicit your gracious presence on the occasion of the marriage ceremony of Mr. Ravi Ranjan Chaudhary with Savita on May 18 2003. Mr. Ravi has been associated with our club as a member for a long time. He is very fond of the radio programs aired from your station."
Well we regret not to be able to come to the wedding but wish you all the best in the future and hope you're having a wonderful celebration!
