I Stand (2016)
Czechs in Kiev
EUROVISION COUNTRY: Czech Republic
KYIV DESTINATIONS: Staromak Czech Restaurant; Volodymyrska Street, Trypolie
Staromak http://staromacek.com.ua is a Czech beer hall and restaurant with a rooftop terrace on 37-41 Artema St. It emphasises the links between Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The country's former partner - Slovakia - borders Ukraine. Therefore Czechoslovakia and Ukraine were neighbours.
During the First World War there were about 35,000 Czech and Slovak soldiers in Ukraine, defending the Russian empire. The Czechs saw the Russian empire as a place of freedom. Czechoslovakia at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. One of these was Jaroslav Hašek, a propagandist journalist writing for an anti-Austrian newspaper, wrote some of the first lines of his novel The Good Solider Schweijk, which takes a humorous look at the futility of war. He lived on 36 Volodymyrska St, which is currently undergoing renovation. However when you land at Boryspil airport you will see the town of that name on the horizon. Hašek also spent some time here, as he has spent too much time on Volodymyrskaya St drinking and womanising.
Nearby on Volodymyrska St is another plaque to Vaclav Vondrak, a private school teacher in the Russian empire who went on to become a leading researcher into slavic languages and Old Church Slavonic - the language of the Eastern Orthodox bible.
Another important Czech in Ukraine was Vikhenty Khvoyka. He was a teacher who became interested in archeology, and discovered a Neolithic culture, previously unknown in Ukraine - adding an entirely new chapter to the country's history. This matriarchal society produced amazing pottery bowls that look modern today, and built two storey houses. The people live in towns - the only ones in Europe at the time - 7,000 years ago in the Neolithic era, and 2,000 years before Stonehenge or the Pyramids.
A statue of Khvoyka can be found in a village south of Kyiv called Trypolye. It is here that he made his first discoveries. There is a archeology museum next to the statue. Many of his finds can also be seen in the national museum in central Kyiv.
Finally the most prevalent part of the Czech Republic on the streets of Kyiv are the trams. Some date back to the 1950s and will be familiar to anyone who is from a former Soviet-bloc country with a tram system.
Czech embassy:
Address: 34A, Yaroslaviv Val St, Kyiv
Tel: +380 44 234 1005
What other associations are there with Czech Republic in Kyiv?
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