@faticake
thank you for sharing your memories, and especially for sharing this passage taken from a speech given by milan kundera in 1967 > when kundera gave that particular speech, he aimed at bureaucrats and stalinism
it is interesting that kundera places an emphasis on historical continuity in his speech: kundera had been a lifelong associate of czech structuralism, a school of thought whose whole philosophy is based upon the idea of dynamics and continuities > thereby, czech structuralism differs sharply from anglo-french structuralism: for czech structuralists, there are no clean cuts which would allow for any kind of post, as in post-structuralism or post-colonialism
rather, czech structuralists would note differences over time embedded into changing contexts > in doing so, the czech structuralists evaded the trap of french post-structuralism which in its extremes declares that everything is devoid of meaning, cutting off the role of history, thereby serving as a means to distance france from its not-so-far-away past as colonial power
I'm glad this article addresses multiple languages and is from the perspective of Europeans, which adds a different flavor.
For my family, particularly my dad's side, he was the first and second English speaker. My grandmother, though born in the US, spoke #Czech until she was seven, and the sheriff forced her into school. Before that, her Moravian father thought girls didn't need to go to school. Later, as I was a kid, she would use it only with other, older relatives, and by the time ...
"We are returning home from Türkiye and bringing our heroes home.
Ukrainian soldiers Denys #Prokopenko , Svyatoslav #Palamar , Serhiy #Volynsky , Oleh #Khomenko , Denys #Shleha . They will finally be with their relatives."
When they were captured in #Mariupol#Ukraine ’s initial agreement with #Russia stipulated that the five leaders of the #Azov batallion who were released as part of the #prisoner#pow exchange on 21 September 2022 will remain in #Turkey until the end of the war.
Judging by the video i have seen they boarded a #Czech plane to get back home
And some food for thought from Victoria #Amelina 💔, the smashing talent of a Ukranian writer who died following #Russia 's attack of #Kramatorsk this week (something i always struggled to explain to people who were not born in Central Europe - she captured it so well):
"We were Europeans under attack, but it was mainly our problem.
In November #1956 , the director of the #Hungarian news agency sent a message via telex to the world, shortly before Russian artillery wrecked his office. " (cont.)
'It read: “We are going to die for #Hungary and for #Europe .”
The #Czech writer Milan #Kundera started his 1984 essay The Tragedy of Central Europe with this message. As one of the leading figures of the #1968#Prague Spring, Kundera understood what the brave #Hungarian had meant by dying for Europe. As a #Ukrainian writer in Kyiv in 2022, I can’t stop thinking about Kundera, writing in exile after the Prague Spring failed. ' (cont.)
This social is all about Praha/Prague/Prag/Praag the Capital of the former Czechoslovakia, CSSR and Czech Republic and its citizens, and visitors, residents and fans....
#Mastodon / #Fediverse is really getting readier for newcomers with every wave. Last year there was just one #Czech public instance, others quickly started popping up, but it was total punk. Many users left, but the instances stayed and with the remainers they prepared a platform that is much catchier than half a year ago. Many people will surely leave again, but those who will stay will make it readier for the future wave.
In 1962, Czechoslovakia issued this pair of commemorative stamps
The designer was Anna Podzemna-Suchardová (1909-96) and the engraver was Jiří Antonin Švengsbír (1921-83)
🇨🇿 #Czech President Petr Pavel says security services should monitor #Russians living in the West, calling it "simply the cost" of the Kremlin's war against #Ukraine
As you enjoy a lovely spring day, think of the #Czech villagers of #Lidice who never saw another day
murdered by the Nazis 9-10 June 1942 in reprisal for the assassination of Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich by Czechoslovak paratroopers
173 adult males & several women were shot, & c. 200 women were deported to concentration camps (143 survived). A handful of the c. 100 children were given to Aryan families to be Germanized; the rest were gassed at Chełmno
"this most savage single act of repression":
Washington Post
accords the #Nazi massacre of #Czech villagers at #Lidice (9-10 June 1942) almost equal status with the great US victory at #Midway--a very good way to put these disparate #WWII events in perspective
(from #Russia. Friendly American #Telegram channel, wording is not mine)
As the Ukrainian Counter-offensive enters in its 2nd-4th day, In total, during the failed attack in the #Zaporozhye direction, the Armed Forces of #Ukraine lost:
— 4x German tanks #Leopard 2A6 MBT and Leopard 2A4 MBT (2 destroyed, 1 hit and abandoned, 2 abandoned)
— 1x T-64BV MBT (which was mistaken by a Leopard by some observers, abandoned after missing one of its tracks)
— 6x American infantry fighting vehicles M2A2 #Bradley ODS-SA (all shot down and abandoned)
— 3x US-supplied #MRAP M1224 MaxxPro (all hit and abandoned)
— 1x #Dutch-supplied armored personnel carrier YPR-765 (hit and abandoned)
— 1x #Czech-supplied T-72M1 (destroyed)
— 1x BMR-2 demining vehicle (hit and abandoned)
— 1x French-supplied VAB armored car (hit and abandoned).
— Several burned out trucks #NATO#UkraineWad
For the first time , Leopard 2 tanks and M2A2 Bradley IFVs were destroyed.
I wonder when #Czech Railways will catch up with the 21st century. I wanted to buy a bottle of water from the minibar on their #train. When I took out a 200-crown note, guy said "Sir, if you don't have the exact amount, I'm sorry, I've got no change." So how about a card? "Nope, sir."
What a service.
Is there any difference in how Russian and Ukranian use Cyrillic? That is if I do the Duolingo Russian unit until I can read Cyrillic, with the goal of being able to read Russian place names, will I be able to accurately read Ukranian place names as well?
I've been studying #Czech, which shares a ton of #phonemes and #vocabulary with other #Slavic languages, but is written with a Latin-based character set (I say "Latin-based" because Czech uses an assortment of #diacritic marks as #pronunciation modifiers on an otherwise standard #Latin character set).
On several occasions, I've come across a #Russian or #Ukrainian word written in its native #Cyrillic script followed by a #phonetic pronunciation guide using Latin characters, and consequently recognized the word as one that is shared with Czech. Those moments of recognition are just pure #linguistic glee.
Ukraine and the Czech Republic seek to jointly produce weapons and ammunition (mil.in.ua)
#Ukraine
Welcome to PRAHA Social - a community for Prague, Capital of the Czech Republic
This social is all about Praha/Prague/Prag/Praag the Capital of the former Czechoslovakia, CSSR and Czech Republic and its citizens, and visitors, residents and fans....