Prague
Velvet
Czech respect for human life and passive resistance
Written & photographed by Rasool Nafisi
March 8, 2000
The Iranian
Czechoslovakia -- now divided into Czech and Slovak
republics -- is probably one of the rare states that has suffered at least
three name changes in the last century. It has been dominated almost entirely
by foreign forces throughout its 1000-year history, most recently being
a communist satellite for some forty years.
Nevertheless Czechoslovakia has steadfastly maintained
her cultural integrity and national identity, and has produced intellectuals
and artists greatly disproportional to its size and population. Einstein,
Kafka, Devorak, Max Bod, and Rilke were world-renowned citizens of this
tiny country, and Czech intellectuals such as Kundera, Havel, Klima, and
Harabal, have dominated the intellectual discourse of the late twentieth
century.
Czechoslovakia is the only nation that peacefully
and noiselessly broke into two nations. Additionally, the Czech Republic
is the only country run by a writer/intellectual, Vaclav Havel. The Prague
uprising against the stultified communism imposed by the Soviet Union was
probably second in kind and took place twenty-five years before the downfall
of communism.
The Velvet Revolution of 1989, which was among the first rebellions
against the Soviet domination, led to the liberation of the nation. So
this nation of 12 million seems to have accomplished a lot, but more importantly,
it has maintained a cultural and national identity that has not only sustained
a very unique Czech character, but an intellectual leadership in Europe
that dates back to the Middle Ages. Jon Hus, a poignant example of Czech
leadership, called for church reforms a century before Martin Luther.
It is noteworthy that the Velvet Revolution
was initiated with a demonstration to commemorate the deaths of eight students
killed by the Nazis in WWII; a reference to the value of the individual
in Czech society, and an act which was possibly a take off of the Iranian
revolution of 1979. We may observe the same Czech appreciation of human
rights in the continual commemoration of the two students killed by Soviet
forces in the Prague Spring of 1968.
This civility and the respect for life are in sharp
contrast to our governments' view of life. For example, after the recent
savage murders of scores of intellectuals by some out-of-control secret
police members, Iranian authorities maintained that the death of a few "unimportant" figures did not deserve
all the commotion and brouhaha created by the press!
Visiting Prague, one can observe that even 40 years of destructive communist
rule has not succeeded to erode Prague's cultural heritage. In other communist
cities such as Beijing, anything left standing from the glorious past is
just by accident, otherwise, the city is no more than cinder block housing
units to provide shelter for the "proletariat". To be sure, the
peasant origins of Chairman Mao had a lot to do with his hatred for the
city, while Bohemia and later Czechoslovakia have been urban centers, as
evidenced by the 15th century astronomical clock in Prague's main square.
Designed by master Mikulas of Kadane, the clock was
installed at the Town Hall tower in 1410. Four figures beside the clock
represent sources of fear among the Czechs of the time: death, vanity,
greed represented by a Jewish moneylender (later altered for PC reasons),
and foreign invasion represented by a Muslim Turk. The clock marks the
passage of time by the hour, month and year. Legend has it that master
Mikulas boasted that he could make even better clocks. Fearing that another
city may get it, the authorities blinded him. To avenge this injustice,
Mikulas crawled up the tower and disabled the clock, later repaired by
another master.
Mikulas' legend resembles Senmmar in Nezami's Haft Peykar.
The Christian-Byzantine architect builds the most fantastic palace for
the king of Yemen named No'man. The king had ordered the building to house
the son of the king of Persia, the legendary Bahram. Once the palace
named Khowarnagh was completed, Senemmar the architect was praised by everyone
including the king. Elated by all the praise, the poor man announced that
he could build even a better building if the materials were available.
That remark sealed his fate. Fearing that Senemmar may indeed build a better
palace for another king, No'man ordered him thrown off of the highest wall
of the palace.
One of the most valuable of literary achievements of the Czechs is their
works in exile, or their underground literature inside the country known
as Samizdat. Czech people maintained their civility through these intellectual
channels. Writings of Ivan Klima, the contemporary Czech writer and a main
Samizdat organizer, have been a valuable source to shed light on understanding
the life of a nation in an undesirable political milieu. He, Havel, and
many other intellectuals were forced to abdication or menial labor inside
the country.
Klima writes that many lost their integrity due to
long years of menial work, although some drew good lessons from it and
became more familiar with the essence of life in Czechoslovakia. To overcome
totalitarianism Klima writes that they used "culture and non-violence,
meaning avoiding violence consciously." Prague also survived the same
way throughout history: it just yielded to invaders, not unlike our own
Shiraz.
The glory and magnificence of Prague emanates from a culture of passive-resistance,
a culture known only to very refined people, and those who have suffered
long in history, be they Czech, Hindu, African American, or Iranian. But
it is also a reference to the value of individual life in Czech society.
Author
Rasool Nafisi, Ph.D., is the Discipline Advisor of General Studies
at Strayer University in Northern Virginia. He visited Prague in January
of this year.