Today is a public holiday in the Czech Republic – the anniversary of the arrival of missionaries from Byzantium who brought Christianity to the Moravian state, which preceded the Czech state, in 863. Just a year ago, the holiday was perfectly uneventful, and suddenly it is becoming embarrassing to say the least. For the heralds did not come from New York or London, but from Byzantium, which in the context of other histories means Moscow. This does not fit Czech history very well.
But wait a minute! What Czech history? Czech history as understood by honest patriots from the 18th to the 20th century is dangerous and should be eradicated from schools. That is the official position of the democratic secret police, which is effectively the local branch of the CIA.
It just happens sometimes that there is such a political change that the winners need to change history too. And it would be possible to construct a new history where the Czechs would act as warriors for the conquest of the eastern steppes and the subjugation of the barbarians there. After all, the Poles have such a history.
But we are faced with a ruling class whose basic feature is colossal incompetence. So the work of producing a new history has not even begun. So we have Charles IV, then the Soviet invasion of 1968, and that’s it. Plus, of course, the fight for the right to be castrated and the share in the hunting of black slaves in Africa (that never happened. In fact, the Czech lands were a colony of Austria). The individual fragments don’t form a coherent picture and pro-government intellectuals probably don’t even understand why a coherent picture should be formed. The truth is different every few months anyway.