úřední dny (days open to the public).

State offices in the Czech Republic, like the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Unemployment Office, are not open to the public every day as one might expect, but only on scheduled úřední dny. These are typically Monday and Wednesday, with the more citizen friendly ones opening their doors for half a day on Friday, all of course minus an hour-long lunch break. It is unclear how bureaucrats spend the rest of the week, but the habit of opening infrequently – inherited from Austro-Hungarian days and further entrenched under communism – is surely evidence of a society where government employees are not used to helping citizens, but to dictating to them.

OPBH (Oblastní podnik bytového hospodářství – District Enterprise for Apartment Management).

This communist-era institution was responsible for managing the country’s large number of state-owned apartments, particularly the prefabricated apartment blocs known as paneláky. Denizens had to visit OPBH whenever they required any maintenance on their flats – whether leaky roofs, broken windows, or stalled furances. The organization was famed for its laziness and corruption, so that repairs would take weeks unless a requisite bribe was offered. Because of this corruption, many claimed that the abbreviation OPBH stood for “Odevzdej Peníze, Bydlíš Hned” or “Hand over your money and you can live right away.”

Matějská pouť (Matthew Fair).

This traditional fair has been held continuously in Prague since 1595 and gained fame as the first spring fair. It begins on the name day honoring Saint Matthew, February 24 and continues until Easter. The fair, likely the country’s largest, features amusement park rides and stands selling various sweets.

melouch (moonlighting).

Under communism, all sorts of skilled laborers offered their services to customers for cash payments after regular working hours. These melouchy or side jobs were theoretically illegal – the state after all was the proprietor of all businesses – but widely used and tolerated as a way of coping with both low salaries and long waiting lists for all consumer services. Interestingly, the word melouch comes from the Yiddish and refers to services offered by Jews to Gentiles at a time when such exchanges were banned.

zapírat, zapírat, zapírat (deny, deny, deny).

This popular advice from famed sexologist Miroslav Plzák to all spouses accused of infidelity has reputedly preserved many a Czech marriage and saved the country from its philandering ways.

“Holky z nase skolky” (Girls from our Kindergarten Class).

This gimmicky song was probably the biggest Czech pop hit of the eighties. A hymn to the girls of one's school years, the song features a saccharine melody accompanied by chants of girls’ names – it begins thusly, “Majdalénka, Apolénka, and Veronika and also Věrka, Zdenka, Majka, Lenka, and Monika.” The empty-headed music and lyrics epitomized the Czech music scene of the late normalization era. The brains behind it was the ubiquitous producer František Janeček who commissioned the song and recruited two good-looking young singers – Petr Kotvald and Stanislav Hložek – as his manufactured teen idols.

Televarieté.

This variety show was one of the most popular shows on Czech Television from the seventies through the early nineties. It was hosted by the comedians Jiřina Bohdalova and Vladimír Dvorak who performed simple sketch comedy scenes and were complemented by musical and circus acts. Similar variety shows remain a staple of Czech television up to the present day as Czech tastes remain stuck somewhere in the 1950s.

lidovec.

This term is used to refer to members of the Czech People’s Party (Česka strana lidová) - today also known as the Christian Democratic Union - a political party with roots in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its voting base has always been with the country’s religious Catholics – mostly concentrated in rural areas and particularly in south Moravia – and the party has traditionally tried to represent their conservative values. General irreligiosity means that the People’s Party is condemned to receive a maximum of only 10% of the vote in general elections. But thanks to its charismatic leader during the First Republic, Jan Sramek, the party has taken as its ethos a willingness to participate in government at all costs, even sacrificing its programmatic commitments. It is this ethos which allowed the party to survive the communist regime and even join most post-communist cabinets, though typically without much effect on policy. Members of the party address each other as brother and sister.

poradnik (waiting list).

Waiting lists were an essential part of acquiring any important goods under communism. Because of low state-mandated prices, citizens could “afford” just about everything – from cars to refrigerators to stereos. However, the inefficiency of the economy and the low prices themselves meant that all of these goods were available only in limited quantities. Thus, to acquire a new car, for example, one had to take a number in a waiting list which might stretch for several years. This naturally gave rise to corruption as favors and money were exchanged for a better place on the list.

Below are the official descriptions of the exhibitions at two museums from the communist era. Both were frequent destinations for school fieldtrips and foreign visitors.

Klement Gottwald Museum

Expositions: history of the revolutionary workers’ movement and the KSČ (Czechoslovak Communist Party) from the beginning of the 19th c. to the present day (the documentation of individual exhibition spaces is complemented by authentic sound recordings and slide programs; the last exhibition hall includes an audiovisual program entitled “The Path of Socialism,” depicting the results of socialist construction in Czechoslovakia); one part of the exposition is the Klement Gottwald Memorial Hall (120 short documentary films); expositions are complemented by thematic exhibits on the most significant periods and events of the workers’ movement and the KSČ and the anniversaries of political figures.

History: the museum was opened in 1954; it is located in the renaissance revival building of the former City Savings Bank of 1894 (architects Antonin Wiehl and Osvald Polívka)

Collections: political posters, banners, emblems, photographs; mementoes of Kl. Gottwald, A. Zápotocký and other leading figures of the KSČ; newspapers, periodicals, brochures, artistic works, medals, the first London edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party from February 1848, a postcard with Lenin’s signature, objects from Saljut 6 (the 1st international space flight of Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship in 1978), original pen-and-ink drawings by Jean Effel reacting to the Munich betrayal, Julius Fučík’s indictment and death sentence

V.I. Lenin Museum

Expositions: on the first and second floors the life and work of V.I. Lenin as a brilliant leader of the world proletariat, founder of a new type of revolutionary party, creator of the world’s first socialist state; basic writings and essays of V.I. Lenin; the influence of Leninism, the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) and Lenin personally on the origin and development of the KSČ; theory and praxis of the leading role of the communist party during all historical stages (preparation for the revolution, the overthrow of tsarism, the battle against capitalism, the period of civil war, and the years of socialist construction); Lenin’s experiences from the battle against revisionism and opportunism and in the international workers’ movement; Lenin’s theoretical and practical activity during the formation of the first socialist state; his plan for the socialist transformation of a backwards country; the origin of the global socialist system as the avant-garde of social development; the expansion of the international workers’ and national liberation movements; a visit to the museum includes a film showing and a viewing of [POLYEKREN – ed. I don’t know this word], which concludes the topic of the history of the CPSU; documentation is offered in all major languages.

History: the core of the museum is the Lenin Hall (where in January 1912, Lenin led the all-Russian SDDSR conference, known as the Prague conference), opened in 1945 in the former People’s House which since 1907 has been a center of the Czech workers’ movement (the editorial office and the printing house of The Rights of the People, known after the founding of the KSČ as Red Right) and played a key role in the clash between the Czech working class and the governing bourgeoisie in December 1920; in 1948 part of the People’s House was set aside for the construction of the Lenin Museum, prepared in cooperation with the Central V.I. Lenin Museum in Moscow and opened in 1953; the Lenin Hall is also used by Pioneers for the taking of celebratory oaths and for induction into the ranks of the SSM (Socialist Youth Union).

Collections: historical material (photographs and negatives, Russian and Czech newspapers, facsimiles, historical posters, flyers, photographs, banners, awards); the archive of photos is among the largest of its type in the ČSSR.

Source: Václav Pubal, Muzea a Galerie v ČSR (Praha: Olympia, 1985).