A rich collective monograph that looks into a daily life of Czech compatriots
2009, CULS Prague
“My first blood. Serious ethnographic fieldwork turned into a wild journey across the Balkans and a history of living ‘Czechness’.”
- Book title: Countrymen: Seeking for Czech Footprints in Eastern Europe
- Editor: Petr Kokaisl
- Authors: Markéta Bäumelová, Eva Bednaříková, Jan Beneš, Pavel Borecký, Adam Bubák, Nina Cihlářová, Jakub Doležal, Klára Felkelová, Lubomír Hajas, Jakub Hajný, Veronika Hejduková, Zuzana Herrmannová, Nikola Hrušková, Veronika Ilievová, Lucie Kartousová, Zuzana Kohlová, Kateřina Kohoutová, Petr Kopal, Petr Kopeček, Marek Matiášek, Renata Mrázová, Iva Nádvorníková, Radka Němečková, Dagmar Nováková, Alžběta Novotná, Tomáš Obruba, Pavla Panská, Anna Patočková, Ida Pětioká, Martina Pištěková, Lukáš Policar, Jana Procházková, Eliška Steklíková, Andrea Štolfová, Tereza Tóthová, David Vála, Leona Židková
- Publisher: Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 2009
- Language: Czech
- Paperback: 435 pages
- Price: open access
- My contribution: author
- Key words: compatriots, migration, ethnic minorities, Eastern Europe
Countrymen: Seeking for Czech Footprints in Eastern Europe
What is the current situation of the Czech expatriate communities in Eastern Europe?
This publication is the result of the namesake research project, which was carried out in eight Eastern European countries (Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The research focused on the assessment of the total Czech population in individual municipalities, the use of Czech as the main (native) language, communal, educational and religious activities, and the perception of Czech ethnicity. Last but not least, the book reports on the felt needs of the Czech compatriots.
Co-funded by the “Youth in Action” EU programme, the research was executed by students of Economic and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Economics and Management (CULS Prague), Faculty of Arts (Charles University) and Faculty of Social Studies (MUNI).
Pavel Borecký – Veliko Srediste and Gaj
a book chapter
Czechs came to Gaj as descendants of Czech emigrants who colonized the southern border of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 19th century. In the rugged mountains and deep forests of today’s Romanian Banat, life has never been easy.
In the 1920s, the first families went down to the lowlands north of the Danube and mixed with German, Hungarian and Serbian-speaking communities.
Countrymen: Seeking for Czech Footprints in Eastern Europe – Full Book