CzechiaPage 2
Czechia
76 articles5 guides · 60 explainers · 2 lists · 9 FAQsUpdated 13 Oct 2026
All Czechia, page 2
Newest first- FAQ5 min
Czechia versus Czechoslovakia: two states, one name history
Czechoslovakia ended on 31 December 1992, and Czechia is one of its two heirs. What carried over, what did not, and why the two names keep getting muddled.
- Explainer5 min
Czechoslovakia under communism: how the one-party state worked
Forty-one years of one-party rule: show trials, queues, weekend cottages and the quiet bargain most people struck to get on with life.
- Explainer5 min
Four centuries under the Habsburgs: how the Czech lands were ruled
For almost 400 years the Czech lands answered to Vienna. The rule brought centralisation, reform and factories, and it set the terms of modern Czech politics.
- Explainer5 min
Friday and Saturday ballots: how Czech elections really work
Six kinds of election, six systems, a two-day vote and a 5% cliff for small parties. What newcomers should know before the next polling day.
- Explainer6 min
From election night to confidence vote: how a Czech cabinet is born
Voters elect a Chamber, not a prime minister. Three attempts, a 30-day clock and a very long coalition agreement decide who governs.
- Guide5 min
From Great Moravia to the EU: Czech history in nine stages
Wenceslas, Hus, White Mountain, 1918, 1968 and 1989. The milestones that explain Czech public holidays, Prague's streets and today's arguments.
- Explainer5 min
From Libuše's legend to the Golden Bull: the Přemyslids who made Bohemia
A ploughman prince, a murdered saint and a king whose realm reached towards the Adriatic. How one dynasty turned a duchy into a kingdom.
- Explainer5 min
How Czechia joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004, and why it chose to
NATO came by parliamentary vote in 1999. The EU came after the country's first nationwide referendum, with about 77% voting yes. The steps and the dates.
- Explainer6 min
How Czechoslovakia was made in 1918, and why 28 October is a holiday
The state was declared in a day, but it had been argued for in Paris, Washington and Pittsburgh for four years. How Czechs and Slovaks came to share a country.
- Explainer6 min
How many Czechs reach 100? It depends who is counting
Czechs live longer than their grandparents did, yet the count of people aged 100 changes with the register you ask. How longevity numbers are built, and read.
- Explainer5 min
How old is Prague? A ninth-century hillfort and a city of 1922
Counted from its castle, Prague is more than 1,150 years old; as one legal city it is about 240; in its present size, just over a century. Three birthdays.
- Explainer5 min
How the Czech state works: a president, a government and two chambers
The prime minister needs the Chamber's trust, the Senate can never be dissolved and the top courts sit in Brno. A plain map of Czech institutions and powers.
- Explainer5 min
How to pronounce Czechia: CHEK-ee-uh, stress first, no 'z' in sight
Three syllables, one stress and no z anywhere. The sound, the reason for the odd spelling and the slips that give a newcomer away.
- Guide5 min
How to say hello, thank you and goodbye in Czech
A few phrases change how a Prague shopkeeper treats you: the polite hello, the goodbye you owe a waiting room and the one word that means four things.
- FAQ5 min
Is weed legal in Czechia? Possession, home growing and driving
Not for sale, no longer a crime in small amounts, and a 2026 change to home growing. The outline, the medical route and why driving is a different matter.
- Explainer6 min
Liberation Day, 8 May: three armies, three dates and one lasting argument
Prague rose up on 5 May 1945, Americans stopped at Plzeň, Soviet tanks entered on 9 May. Why Czechs still argue about who liberated them.
- Explainer5 min
Munich 1938: the deal made about Czechoslovakia without Czechoslovakia
Four powers gave Hitler the Czech borderlands while Czechoslovak officials waited in a hotel. Six months later the rest of the country followed.
- Explainer6 min
Nostalgia for communism in Czechia: what surveys can and cannot tell us
Ask Czechs whether life was better before 1989 and the answer depends on the question, the age of the respondent and what is being compared.
- Explainer5 min
One national referendum since 1993: why Czechs rarely vote on policy
Czechs voted once on joining the EU, in 2003, and never since. Why a national referendum needs its own law, and where direct democracy does work.
- Explainer6 min
Opening the StB files: how Czechia dealt with communist-era crimes
Prosecutions were slow and few, but Czechia opened the secret police files and passed a law barring former officials from some posts. How it works.
- Explainer5 min
Over 6,000 municipalities and 14 regions: who runs what in Czechia
A village mayor, a regional governor and Prague's 57 districts. How Czech self-government fits together, and why the right office matters.
- Explainer5 min
Parties that call themselves movements: how Czech politics is organised
In law a hnutí is a party, public money follows votes and a 5% line decides who sits in the Chamber. The rules behind a fast-changing landscape.
- Explainer5 min
Pilsner: how a bad batch in Plzeň produced the world's first golden lager
In 1838 the burghers of Plzeň poured their own beer into the street. Four years later a Bavarian brewer made the golden beer the world now copies.
- Explainer5 min
Same-sex couples in Czechia: partnerships, marriage and the law today
Czech law gives same-sex couples a partnership with most of marriage's rules, but not marriage or joint adoption. What couples can do, and what is still tested.