167MythsIn 1992 and 1993 Czechs showed Europe that the Czech Republic could be
created as a result of a political transaction and without bloodshed. In their case
(unlike the Serbs and Croats) the disintegrating power of the European idea (dis-
integrating “all great national projects of the 19th century”, or rather their flawed
remnants, such as communist Yugoslavia or indeed Czechoslovakia) was a factor
which facilitated a peaceful transformation from the post-totalitarian regime to
democracy, from the dictatorship to the rule of law and order, from an economy
based on command and control to one based on the market, from nationalisation
to privatisation (and reprivatisation). In a nutshell, it moved from Husák’s “nor-
malisation” to Havel’s normality.
In order to be normal, this motto (although not written down nor embroidered
on flags or chiselled on monument,) is remembered by everyone who lived con-
sciously through 1989. This spell had an enormous driving force, especially in the
Czech Republic where it was easiest to believe that change lay in erasing the past
four decades and a return to the bourgeois society. From the Czech perspective,
the revolution in 1989 resembled Franz Kafka’s story about Gregor Samsa, read in
reverse, from the end to the beginning. As we remember, the protagonist in The
Metamorphosis, an average public administrator in
Prague wakes up one day and discovers he is trans-
formed into a bug or an insect. He dreams about go-
ing back to normality, only to die in the end. His fam-
ily are relieved that he dies and then proceed to get rid
of the body. In the autumn of 1989 it seems that Sam-
sa has regained his old form. In the morning he puts
on his suit and goes to work; in the evening he goes
out with his mates for beer and women.
So, what did the Czechs give Europe? The same as
always: a myth. This time it was an extremely attrac-
tive one regarding the continuity of Central European
history. We can find it in the stories of Milan Kundera
and Bohumil Hrabal, the films of Zdeněk Svěrák and Petr Zelenka, the essays and
speeches of Václav Havel (his fate, in itself, is one of the most fixed in Central Eu-
ropean myths). This myth is present outside and within the country. Every time a
Czech grabs a book or goes to the cinema, they are taught a lesson on historiogra-
phy that is to convey the obviousness of the Western European provenance of their
culture and its primacy (at least in this regard) towards its Eastern neighbours,
that is Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.
From the Czech
perspective, the
revolution in
1989 resembled
Franz Kafka’s The
Metamorphosis,
except in reverse,
from the end to
the beginning.The Czech paradox, Aleksander Kaczorowski Poles and Czechs across generations