War and remembrance

Recording the past, not some fantasy thereof.

Wednesday 26 June, my business partner and I visited the Army Museum Zizkov in Prague. It covers the military history of the Czech lands from the earliest archaeological discoveries to the present.

In the Anglosphere, there is much childish posturings over objectivity, where inflated claims about an inability to be “perfectly” objective are used to justify telling whatever stories about the past best suit self-indulgent narcissism dressed up as moral concern.¹ The 1619 Project is a particularly egregious example of the genre.

So it was refreshing to walk through a museum that treats the past with deep respect. Interspersed among a wealth of exhibits were summaries of events that were clear, accurate and to the point.

The framing that gave coherence to the military history on display was not merely technological change, but also state development. The development of the Duchy, and then Kingdom, of Bohemia. The succession of dynasties—Premsylid, Luxembourg, Jagiellon, Habsburg. The C15th contestations between the Hussites and Catholic and Imperial authority. The C16th and C17th contestations between the Bohemian estates and the monarchy. The contestations with the Ottomans, and among the European Powers. One of the exhibits was a film sequence of men, from a Hussite onwards, in replicas of the gear of the time, loading and shooting a gun, with how long it took being counted down in the bottom right.

Replicating shooting a Hussite handgun c.1420.

Where the Museum exhibitions really shone was from the Great War onwards, which covers the majority of the exhibits.

From the start of the Great War, prominent Czechoslovak nationalists saw the defeat of the Central Powers as the best prospect for Czechoslovak independence. A judgement that proved correct.

A key element in this was the creation of Czechoslovak units fighting for the Entente: in France, in Italy, in Russia. These, along with a Home Guard formed out of demobilised Austro-Hungarian soldiers, formed the basis of the new Czechoslovak Army.

With the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, about two million Central Powers PoWs were repatriated. This turned into an enormous problem for both the Second Reich and the Danubian Monarchy concerning what to do with soldiers potentially infected with nationalist and/or revolutionary ideas.

Something that came across very clearly was the failure of the Habsburgs to build a durable well of loyalty. The dissolution of the Russian dynastic-imperial order proved to be contagious.

Unfortunately, as the exhibition makes clear, the dissolution of the previous Hohenzollern-Habsburg-Romanov-Ottoman Imperial orders led to border wars among the new national states. Czechoslovakia ended up having short border wars with both Poland and Hungary. As the exhibition also makes clear, that was to have very unfortunate consequences with the rise of Nazi Germany, which proved well able to manipulate such disputes for its own advantage.

Nevertheless, interwar Czechoslovakia was a stable democracy with an effective, apolitical army. France had emerged as the main foreign sponsor of Czechoslovak independence and helped organise the Czechoslovak army. A French general commanded, successfully, its border war against Hungary.

The exhibit notes that the Sudetenland version of the National Socialist Party was founded before the German version. The preparations to deal with the rising threat from Nazi Germany are well covered. Including how the Anschluss with Austria increased Czechoslovakia’s vulnerability.

Then comes the 1938 Munich Agreement, at a summit that Czechoslovakia was excluded from. The epitome of Great Power “Realism” that has not worn well. The exhibit somewhat acidly observes that the 1910 Census was used to strip Czechoslovakia of its border lands (and border defenses), ignoring any population movements since.

The exhibit covers Czechoslovakia reluctantly accepting the Agreement and the steps taken to try and ensure state continuity. Then the experience of German occupation, the Second World War — including Prague’s only two major bombing raids. One where the US Army Airforce units bombed Prague by mistake (they were supposed to be bombing Dresden) and one targeting airfields and factories done on a Sunday to minimise civilian casualties. Sadly, the mistaken bombing was worse than it might have been, as firefighting units were away battling fires in Dresden.

The cascading collapse of German rule in Czechoslovakia across a few days in May 1945 is well covered. Including the rising of the Home Army which managed to secure Prague in advance of the arrival of US and Soviet troops. The fighting in Slovakia was more intense, as retreating German troops sought to reach, and surrender to, the Western Allies, not the Soviets.

Czechoslovak democracy managed to re-establish itself. The expulsion of the Sudeten Germans is covered, including its ugly aspects.

The reassertion of Czechoslovak democracy was brief, as it was subverted and overthrown by the local Communist Party, working as the instrument of the Soviet Union. The Czechoslovak Army was turned into an instrument of Communist rule and Soviet dominance. Though the tension with the older traditions of Czech identity were clearly still in play. While the Czechoslovak armed forces did not resist the Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968 to crush “the Prague Spring”, the new compliant regime felt the need to substantially purge the senior Army leadership.

1989 saw another cascading collapse of a foreign-imposed rule. The main role of the Army was to do nothing. Yet again, Czechoslovak democracy was able to reassert itself.

The last part of the exhibit covers the transformation of Army from a mass conscription force—used in part as an instrument of mass indoctrination—into an apolitical, professional force within NATO. Including, participating in the NATO campaign in Afghanistan. Which is less of a departature from tradition than it might appear, as earlier parts of the exhibits covered that troops from the Kingdom of Bohemia were often used to fight the Ottomans.

While technological change and state development provide much of the framing, there is also considerable coverage of the wider aspects of both World Wars, whether or not there was Czechoslovak involvement.

Military history tends to resist various intrusions of Theory, as brute facts are so salient. Still, the simple respect for conveying accurately what happened in the past that pervades the Museum is, despite the often grim elements of the history, in itself refreshing. It is also quietly powerful. Some things do just speak for themselves.

1. This may seem harsh. Such folk are entitled to as much moral and intellectual respect as they give those who disagree with them: which is to say, none.