HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC REALITIES OF THE 1990s

• Main Author: Oksana Salatа
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University 2019-12-01
• Series: Київські історичні студії
• Subjects: historical experience; good neighborliness; historical memory; czech republic; slovak republic; “velvet revolution”; “orange revolution”
• Online Access: https://istorstudio.kubg.edu.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/195
• ISSN: 2524-0749; 2524-0757

The experience of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic is important for Ukraine. The population of Czechoslovakia rethought the values and realities of the communist regime and embarked decisively on the path to building a democratic state. Similarity in the historical path of the Czech and Ukrainian states is, in our opinion, manifested in two revolutions — the Czech velvet and the Ukrainian orange.The historical experience of the development of the Czech independent state in the conditions of democratic realities of the 1990s is revealed. The main stages of the formation of the new democratic state of the Czech Republic are analysed. The problems and threats that arose in the course of the breakup of Czechoslovakia as a state formation and the construction of two new partner countries in the new European policy of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic are revealed.The main stages of the transition of the Czech and Slovak Republics to the development of independent states based on democratic values and the steps of the Czech and Slovak societies to mutual understanding and partnership support in further development are shown.The politics of memory in the Czech and Slovak republics in the post-socialist period show how we can change the path of historical progress and political development; to change the negative experience of totalitarianism in the public consciousness in order to avoid in the future those social phenomena that hinder the development of a free civil society. The Czechs and Slovaks presented to all European peoples the way in which two historically close peoples begin a separate independent statesmanship, “divorcing” in a peaceful manner without any substantial claim to each other. The common past, as it turned out in the case of Czechs and Slovaks, does not necessarily imply interdependence in the political space and in the economic plane. Nowadays democratic environment, it is important to support one another as partners and to foster good neighborly relations. Such experience deserves attention from the Ukrainian authorities because it is of great practical importance — a new model of public memory.