Czechoslovakia Post World War II (1948)

[@Ales.2000]

Several years after 1948 were the most horrible time of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Many people had their property confiscated, were forced to move away to low populated areas or even sent to uranium mines. My grandma's aunt was forced to accommodate some people for low rent in her own house, otherwise she would have to move away.

[@arbiter8246]

don't worry bro it wasn't real socialism/communism.

[@Ales.2000]

@@arbiter8246 Although it wasn't the ideal communism where people are equal etc. which can't be reached anyway because of different interests, it was the outcome of communists coming to power, it was communist dictatorship. The ideal communism was something the communists fooled people with after the war. But you might be surprised what "real socialism" was, that was the regime from 1960's to 1989. Even though the concentration camps from 1950's were abolished, there still was no freedom, trying to cross the borders to the West without extra hard to get permission would result in being shot or sent to jail. It wasn't allowed to visit neighbouring socialist countries without permission, visits to the "brotherly" USSR were restricted even more, special permission needed for Yugoslavia. You were allowed to take limited amount of money with you, bringing goods from there was restricted, smuggling often remained the only option. Who actively opposed the regime, was terrorized by the secret police (frequent interrogations and house searches) and often sent to prison. There were shortages of goods, even toilet paper (people had to use newspaper instead) and sanitary towels (women had to make their own) which were often of bad quality anyway. Instead of many brands of certain article as is nowadays common there was just one. There were long queues in front of shops, there was a rule "at first you join the queue, then you ask what the queue is for". If you want to get some better goods, electronics, etc. you had to visit Tuzex stores (tuzemský export = domestic export). These were intented for people working abroad who exchanged their foreign currency for a special money valid in Tuzex called "bony" (singular "bon"). One bon was equal to one Czechosloval crown (Kčs), but as it was unavailable to most people, the only possibility how to get it was to buy it from illegal dealers under ratio being for example 1 bon for 2 Kčs. The state perhaps wasn't happy with it, but decide to more or less tolerate this practice as people were then less unhappy with goods unavailability. State controlled media were lying, in radio they told you about water flow rate in rivers all over the country instead of playing some music in the morning, foreign music was played rarely. Crimes and accidents weren't reported to large extent as this would spoil the official narrative about great life in socialism. People knew that media lied to them, they weren't stupid, they just couldn't talk about it publicly. Chernobyl disaster at 26th April 1986 was announced several days after it happened, despite radiation levels rising from 28th April. Even though the levels weren't dangerous in Czechoslovakia, in Ukraine and Belarus it was very serious, still the media didn't bother to tell people the truth, instead people had to participate in May Day parade, being told that in America nuclear accidents occur frequently. These are some aspects of life in real socialism. I would recommend you to watch a Czech TV series called Vyprávěj, it's about life of ordinary people during that era and some years after, I just don't know if there are English subtitles available.

[@tarikmuhic8739]

So your grandma helped some people who didnt have place to live? What a nice woman.

[@Ales.2000]

@@tarikmuhic8739 Please, read it once more and more carefully, it wasn't my grandma, but her aunt, she didn't accomodate them voluntarily, but was forced to do so under threats from the communists. Sounds like a Radio Yerevan joke. Communists who claimed themselves to be the best government ever that cares about people, were unable to get them some housing by other means than threatening other people with moving away, imprisonment etc. if they didn't want to "rent" (for ridiculous price) parts of their houses to strangers.

[@akapasokopo]

@@Ales.2000 You're comments are very informative, Thank you for writing these. Merciful Forgiveness my english, :)

[@Jigachader]

insane that english people back then could pronounce czech names better than they can today.. shows you the decline in general intelligence in the west

[@CUTECATSTUDIOS]

Thanks for posting!

[@firefish21]

Bohemia is in Western part of Czechoslovakia..