Tag: Czech stamp

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Czech Republic 1996, Losing the hyphen war

Czechoslovakia were two peoples with two languages held together by an authoritarian government post World War II. When the communist regime ended, those that replaced them were an informal group of Czech intelectuals that had put fourth an anti government manifesto. Notice the lack of Slovak involvement, the Slovaks sure did. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The remaining Czechia apparently could not achieve European integration fast enough. Here we have a stamp issue of various styles of doors. The styles are generic  and not an actual door located in the country. Isn’t that strange for a new country that might be expected to want to show the world what they had. The European Union often shows generic styles like that. It is away to avoid people keeping count of whose things are represented.

Todays stamp is issue A1093, a 4 Koruna stamp issued by Czechia on June 12th, 1996. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations displaying styles of portals, this one classic. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Czechoslovakia got more repressive after the Soviet invasion of 1968. In 1976 they arrested members of the local rock band “Plastic People of the Universe”. The crimes were long hair, rude lyrics and involvement with the underground. What rock band wouldn’t be guilty of that? In any case a group of higher art folks from Prague attended their trial and then put out a manifesto called Charter 77. It made the point that hassling the rock band violated human rights treaties that Czechoslovakia had signed. It was only the type thing that fancy people would read but fancy people from all over read it. One of the writers of it was playwright Vaclav Havel.

When the communist regime was falling apart it was the Charter 77 people appointed to replace them. A Czech group. As artists they made some freshmen mistakes playing politicians. A prison amnesty meant to release political prisoners instead released almost everyone in prison. The crime rate tripled and with that took away much of the new government’s popularity. The new government also tried to get away with just removing the Socialist from the countries title.

The Slovaks wanted more. In 1919 the country had been founded as the Czech and Slovak Republic. By the late 1930s the dominant Czechs had contracted that with a lower case S. In the divisions that came with German pressure, Slovakia asserted its independance. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/21/slovakia-1942-right-wing-priests-try-to-achieve-a-seperate-slovak-state/  . After the war it was back to 1937 and now without Germans. Slovak deputies in 1991 asked for a hyphen and a capitalized S in the new name for the country. This was summarily refused but the Czechs offered to allow a dash instead of a hyphen that kept the S lower case, and only when writing the countries’ name in Slovak. They also offered to add federative to the republic title indicating the federation of states. They also took great offense at the whole discussion, reminding of the Munich Conference of 1938 with all of those inferences including by extension Slovak disloyalty.

Vaclav Havel was a lot more popular around  the world as a urbane communist resister than in Slovakia where he was the Czech guy who let all the crooks out of jail. So when Slovak demands moved past names and toward independence, Havel threatened to resign. He was not going to be the guy presiding over the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. . This threat only offended has what had he done for Slovakia and notice he still wasn’t spelling the country as if he was representing both Czechs and Slovaks. Havel resigned, the two countries separated and Havel then put himself forward again to be elected as a less powerful Czech President.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for the Plastic People of the Universe. Assuming suspended sentences, what rock band wouldn’t want the credibility of the “Man” being after them? They sung in English, weren’t political, and their name and style were rip offs, excuse me, homages, to Frank Zappa, but he never got his country to come after him. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019

 

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USA 1965, Getting inspired to have a strong mind in a sound body by a flocking of Slavic falcons performing gymnastics

This is a strange stamp. Wanting to do a stamp celebrating and perhaps suggesting more interest in physical fitness, the USA ties it to a 100 year old organization called Sokol (falcon). Sokol directly tied the self improvement to rising Czech nationalism and Slavic brotherhood. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

There is further weirdness in the visuals of this stamp. The Sokols route to fitness was group gymnastics, yet here we have a single discus thrower. Looking at the images of groups of Sokol gymnasts, see below. There is the pretty obvious problem of a row of men/boys with their face aligned to the neighboring rear end.

Todays stamp is issue A694, A five cent stamp issued by the USA on Febuary 15, 1965. It was the 100th anniversery of  the first group of Czech immigrants to the USA setting up a local Sokol chapter. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents mint or used.

Sokol was founded in Prague in 1862, during the time of Hapsburg rule from Austria. Sokol means falcon in the Czech language and the goal was for Slavs to use gymnastic excersize as a route to a strong mind in a sound body. The chapters were open to males of all ages. Every six years there would be a slet gymnastic festival with all the chapters invited. Slet means a flocking of birds in Czech, in this case falcons. The largest Slet ever was held in 1912. The Pan Slavic aspect of the organization bumped against some churches as it was open to Slavs whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Muslim. “A Slavic brother is dear regardless of his Faith” so says Sokol. The Slovene Catholic church went so far as advise against joining Sokol.

There were other issues. The socialists set up a rival workers gymnastics club, with affiliation to Eagles instead of Falcons. The more progressive Sokols flew away leaving the remaining organization more right wing and militaristic.

The interwar period which saw the long sought by Sokols Czech nation arrive. The support from the new state saw slets becoming official events. The last Slet was in 1938 before German occupation. The Nazis banned the Sokol organization and even jailed the leaders.

There was an attempt to bring the Sokol organization back post war but the lefties remember preferred the Eagle gymnasts and the Sokols were again banned by the communist Czech government. The Sokols were legalized in 1990 with the change of government but the Sokols left were many now older folks, who do not make the best gymnasts.

In the USA, the Sokul organization peaked in 1937 with 19,000 members. The American organization still exists and was even a slet in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2017. It is now open to and mainly girls.

A modern American Sokol gymnast.

Well my drink is empty. If I have any hope of a strong mind in a sound body, I should probably put the bottle down. Come again soon foe another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Bohemia and Moravia 1939, Showing off Bata’s skyscraper in Zlin’s urban utopia

Interwar modern architecture showed up in some strange places. Capitalist mass production had lead to the imagining of a new town in Austria-Hungary, I mean Czechoslovakia, I mean Bohemia and Moravia, I mean Czechoslovakia, I mean the Czech Republic, I mean Czechia. The building on the stamp is now the local tax authority, so it is important that you closely follow to whom it is you owe. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

One thinks of modern architecture as arising from thinking from the political left as to how to organize the movement toward the  cities as part of industrialization. Great mind though travel similar lanes and Zlin’s modernity resulted from capitalism only to be embraced by socialist, communists, and during this period even national socialists. For fans of architecture, it means the building still stands after the enabling shoe factory is long gone. One modern feature of Bata’s skyscraper that was not much copied is that the bosses’ office functioned as an elevator containing a phone, a sink, and air conditioning.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a 3 Koruna stamp issued by the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939. It was part of a 22 stamp issue in various denominations showing items of architectural interest in the newly occupied territory. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Thomas Bata founded a shoe company in the small town of Zlin in modern day Czechia. Over time the shoes became ever more mass market. Canvas replaced leather and machines for mechanical sewing were used. This expanded the market and lead to the factory and surrounding area expansion. Czech architects influenced by trends in Germany and France, were contracted to design a modern industrial city in Zlin. For example, even residential housing used bricks and stressed concrete matching the factory. The factory benefited from World War I orders but then felt deeply the recession that followed. One aspect of the recession was that the new Czech currency was devalued. Bata sensed the opportunity and cut in half the price of his shoes. The workers took a pay cut in exchange for stock ownership in the company. The ploy was a big success and the skyscraper on this stamp was a result of the new prosperity. New Bata factories, also with matching surrounding urban utopias, sprang up as far away as India, the USA, and Canada.

With the German conquest of Czechoslovakia, the Bata family posted it’s Jewish workers overseas and left for the USA. Factory production continued at Zlin and benefited again for war time orders but some workers were then sourced from the Auschwitz concentration camp. When the USA entered the war against Germany, the Bata family further emigrated to Brazil to be seen as noncombatants.

The post war communist government of Czechoslovakia seized the Zlin assets using the excuse that the Bata family had not done enough to resist the Nazis. That was just an excuse, the Batas had supported the old Czech government in exile and tried to make places for Czech expatriates in the worldwide operations still owned. Thomas Bata was sentenced to 15 years in jail in absentia for collaboration. The remaining worldwide operations were now run from Canada.

The velvet revolution of 1989 gave the Bata family a chance to bid on the old factory complex in Zlin. The family chose not to as shoe production was leaving developed countries for the third world. The shoe factory in Zlin struggled on until the year 2000 and then closed. At it’s height, it had employed 14,560 people. Bata shoe factories have also closed in the USA, Canada, and the England but still continue in India. The organization is now based in Switzerland. Interesting, given that people still wear shoes, that the quest to maximize profit was eventually worse for this shoe business than either the communists or the Nazis. Well at least the Bata’s are still rich, I guess that is all that matters.

The city of Zlin bought Bata’s skyscraper from the bankruptcy and refurbished the building for local administration and the tax authority. I bet those two employ more people than the 30s equivalents, while still managing not to make anything. Wonder whose office rides the elevator?

Bata’s skyscraper in Zlin today

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Thomas Bata’s attempt to create an urban utopia around his factories. Who doesn’t love an urban utopia? Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Poland 1986,Remembering Dobrawa’s advise, If you want to avoid Holy Roman Germany, get with God, and Bohemia and err.. her

This is a fun one. You would think with collecting postage stamps, we could only go back in history to 1840 and the first stamp. Every now and then a country puts out a stamp that goes way back, when Royalty was cruel or brave or even haughty and when a King gets religious, so does his whole country, because he said so, and because his wife told him to say so. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Dobrawa was a foreign Duchess that married a long ago King. Not someone you would think Poland would choose to particularly remember. As the stamp shows, she has a book for you. A Good Book. The country read the Book and some still do. When they do they should remember Dobrawa.

Todays stamp is issue A875, a 25 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on December 4th, 1986. It was a two stamp issue the other showing Dobrawa’s husband, King Mieszko I. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

In the 960s AD Poland was still a Pagan country ruled by King Mieszko I. Nearby Germany was ruled by Kaiser Otto the Great who had recently added the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Otto was expansionary both based on patriotism but with the added duty of Christian conversion animating. Polish King Mieszko felt threatened and so sought out allies. He found a ready ally in Bohemia that was then a Dukedom ruled by Boleslav the Cruel. He may have been cruel but that does not mean he did not feel the same threat from the Holy Roman Germany. Bohemia was already Christian. To cement the alliance between Bohemia and Poland, Boleslav offered for Mieszko to pick a wife from his two daughters and Mieszko picked the older one Dobrawa.

Dobrawa arrived in Poland with a large entourage. Among them was Jordan, an Italian Missionary Bishop that reported directly to the Pope. Dobrawa then made it a condition for marriage that Mieszko be Baptized. Mieszko agreed and Jordan both performed the Baptism and officiated the wedding. He was then named the first Bishop of Poland with a base in Poznan. Dobrawa was then the Patron of several of the early Catholic churches in Poland. The union was successful. The Polish alliance with Bohemia outlasted all of them. There were also two children, another Boleslav, this one the Brave who succeeded the Polish Throne, and Segrid the Haughty. Segrid managed to marry, hopefully in different periods both the Kings of Sweden and Denmark. Perhaps Segrid was haughty by I nominate the additional honorific of Hottie.

We know these stories because of the work of the chronicler Cosmas of Prague. 150 years later he wrote the definitive history of the Bohemian people. He inspired a group of followers called Cosmas followers that updated his works as history went along. There are modern historians that dispute details of Cosmas. They say that it is just Catholic iconography that liked to emphasize the role of woman in the conversion of Pagans. Party Poopers.

Cosmas of Prague

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the the Brave, the Great and even the Cruel and the Haughty among us. That is a lot of toasting, I may need a bigger bottle. Come again on Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Poland 2008, Poland displays European capitals while the EU shows Poland the money

Poland is a proud nation. Given that it might be strange to see other European capitals on their stamps. The European Union was laying out big money to integrate Poland, and that buys something. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Between 2005 and 2010 there were 27 stamps issued showing landmarks in the capitals of European Union members. All of the landmarks predate the formation of the union but display EU style stars to claim them. The way this type of stamp petered out might make you wonder though. Integration as yet to mean common stamps, except for a few specials. Will integration ever get that far, or will stamp issuance or the EU itself end?

Todays stamp is issue A1323, a 3 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on October 24th, 2008. Five of the stamps were issued that year and this one displays the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czechia. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used.

Poland was very interested in European integration from the earliest days of the post communist government. Poland formally requested admittance into the European Union in 1993. The process of integration was quite complicated as laws had to be changed to conform to EU dictates. The EU sent 37 task forces to work with the Poles on what would be required in each of the areas. There were frequent changes in Polish governments but all shared the desire to integrate. Naturally the enthusiasm for it though was more on the left. At the beginning of May 2004, Poland, seven other eastern European nations, Cyprus, and Malta joined the EU.

It was originally planned that Poland was to replace the Zloty with the Euro beginning in 2009 but this has been indefinitely delayed. The opening up of borders saw over 600,000 Poles move to Great Britain, more than tripling the already large Polish community there. The EU is also spending lavishly  in Poland. In 2016, Poland paid in about 3 billion Euros in dues but received over 17 billion Euros in spending from them. The benefits Poland has received keep membership popular in Poland and the Poles have been big advocates for EU expansion into the former Soviet Union, Turkey, and Albania.

There have been of course some areas of disagreement. Poland, like the USA is more skeptical or Russia’s intentions regarding energy supply westward through the old COMECON gas pipelines. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/25/hungary-builds-on-soviet-friendship-to-power-itself/   . This is more popular in Germany because of the relative cleanliness of natural gas and the cheap price Russia offers. Poland is also reticent of taking in refugees from outside the EU though it recently took many from the Ukraine.

The Charles Bridge in Prague was built by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV starting in 1357. It crosses the Vltava River. Over the years it has been damaged by wars and floods. In the early 20th century buses and trams used the bridge but there was a large reconstruction between 1955 and 1975 that left it a pedestrian bridge with the original decorative statues replaced by replicas. This restoration and a further one in 2008-2010 were done some felt ham handedly. So this year, the bridge is again closed for reconstruction. I can smell additional ham.

Well my drink is empty and you have to give it too the Poles. So far at least, that is what the EU thinks. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Slovakia 2000, interesting how the EU liked dealing with the old communists

When the old system broke down and even the country split, it is understandable that everyone gets nervous. So when a bland figure from the past offers his services, maybe you give him a try. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

You may have to do a double take on this stamp. It really has a strong resemblance to the old Czechoslovakian stamps of the communist era. I doubt Slovakia was doing this consciously, but perhaps it fits with an official from that old regime is returned to power as a compromise leader. This time he would be dealing with the EU instead of COMECON, but I bet that COMECON experience was useful. This fellow even had a German name.

Todays stamp is issue A190, a 5.5 Koruna stamp issued by the independent republic of Slovakia on June 15th, 2000. It was a two stamp issue several years apart honoring Slovak President Rudolf  Shuster. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp was worth 25 cents used.

Slovakia broke away from Chechia in 1992. The 20th century had seen many border changes And so Slovakia also contained Carpathian German and Hungarian minorities. These ethnic minorities added to the massive number of political parties that formed in Slovakia after independence. In Czechoslovakia remember there was only one party the Communists. Elections work best with a clear majority, and that became difficult with the plethora of parties.

This was handled by coalition governments. There was also the issue of the old Communists wanting to stay in the game. One such fellow was an ethnically Capitanian German ex Communist named Rudolf Shuster. The Carpathian Germans were evacuated by Germany with the approach of the Red Army in 1945 but some returned post war submitting to a Slovakisation process. With the help of an old crony Pavel Rusko, that came to own a TV station, he was able to put together a new left party of civic understanding. The selling off of government assets had not gone well with the stench of corruption and this tainted the Slovak bid to join the EU. Why not add Shuster to put a new, old face on the government to be a point man on EU integration. Shuster got that job done and Slovakia joined the EU in 2004.

By then Rusko had lost interest in Shuster and the party of civic understanding. He formed a new party that more directly featured himself. Rusko was later able to cash out of his media empire with it becoming part of the international operations of AT&T. Shuster ran for reelection in 2004 as an independent but came in fourth. After this he retired from politics. He was a popular figure with the EU, despite just being just a front man. What does it say about the EU about there willingness to deal with front man, and also that when picking a front man both sides look to the old failed Communists?

Well my drink is empty and I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Czechislovakia 1970, remembering the cannons of the Hussite Bohemian Rhapsody

Cold war era eastern European farm out stamps could be fun and were often aimed at children. Here our communist Czech friends remember the Bohemian uprising against the Catholics and the following Hussite Crusades. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair.

In stamps we don’t often get to travel back before 1840 and the first postage stamp. Here we do, because a noble ancient war with crusades fought by knights around castles with cannons is always fun. To increase the fun, the stamp is oversized with a lot of disparate things going on for children of all ages to deduce. This is a fun stamp but comes through with what was going on with the hobby at the time. Stamp values were rapidly inflating and stamp makers were using new printing techniques to make ever more bold stamps. Somewhere in this we lost the serious adult collector who really doesn’t look much at stamps after World War II. The hobby came to be seen as a hobby for children and many big collectors took advantage of the high prices to cash out. The young collecters, myself excluded, did not continue into adulthood and we are left with a much smaller hobby. Most of us think the answer is get more kids involved but I say lets get the old rich guys back, this time from the new countries that have interesting, often colonial postal histories.

Todays stamp is issue A620, a 60 Haleru stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on August 31st, 1970. It was part of a five stamp issue in various denominations that displayed cannons over time. Todays stamp shows cannons from the time of the Bohemian Hussite Wars in the 15th century. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Jan Hus was a Bohemian priest who rebelled against the Catholic church’s habit of selling indulgences. This was over a hundred years before Martin Luther. At the time there were rival Popes and the one in Rome was trying to raise a lot of money to fight his rival. Hus thought this wrong and lead his followers to Prague where they attacked church and Holy Roman political leaders. His people stormed the palace and threw many of the occupants out the windows to their death. The Pope then launched a series of 5 Crusades that attempted to bring Bohemia back into line using mainly German knights. None succeeded as the Bohemians had developed new tactics taking advantage of new developments in artillery and personal arms. Hus himself however was captured and burned at the stake for heresy. After this the Hussites began fighting amongst themselves and the Polish King turned on his own force that he had sent to fight with the Hussites. Though Jan Hus did much to inspire the Protestant Reformation, Bohemia/Chechia remained Catholic.

The stamp also features Saint Barbara who has roots in Roman mythology where her command of lightning lead her to become the patron saint of explosions and by extension artilleryman and miners. The lack of clarity of whether she was merely a figure of myth have seen the Catholic Church deemphasize her. Really they are probably not to in to praying for artilleryman. She is still important in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The British Royal Navy Gunnery School is named for her and in Chechia her statue is still placed at the entrance to a new road tunneling projects.

Well my drink is empty and I may have another as I imagine the bombs bursting in the air and hoping Saint Barbara will see that the flag is still there in the morning. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Slovakia 1942 Right wing Priests try to achieve a seperate Slovak state

The Eastern European Nazi collaborators are tarnished by the association. In Slovakia’s case, for good and ill, these leaders were practicing Catholic Priests. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp was issued by a semi independent Slovakia, under the “protection” of the Third Reich. Yet here you have a Priest, who called Hitler a cultural beast, being honored as a recently passed founding father. It points to the strange situation the nation found itself.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a I.3 Koruna stamp issued by Slovakia on March 20th 1942. The stamp was a single issue that honored Father Andrej Hlinka, a priest and politician who had died in 1938. Father Hlinka has been honored by other stamp issues of modern Slovakia and the 1939-45 entity. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Up until 1918, Slovakia was ruled by the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Hapsburg Emperor. Father Andrej Hlinka was a parish priest who moved in conservative political circles to try to gain more self determination for the Slovak people. In doing so he angered both the Hungarian authorities and his Bishop. He was suspended as a priest and sentenced to jail for his political activism. While in jail a new church finished construction in Cernova that Hlinka had been the force behind. The local parishioners wanted to wait to consecrate the church until Father Hlinka could do it. Instead the bishop sent a Hungarian speaking priest to do it guarded by 15 military police men. The local protest turned to rock throwing and the soldiers then fired on the crowd killing and wounding many. Father Hlinka’s story was now out and a appeal to the Pope got him released from prison and his priestly duties restored. As the post Austro-Hungary breakup Slovak future was being decided in Versailles in 1919, Father Hlinka traveled to Paris to try to get a better deal for the Slovak people. At this point he was in favor of a united Czechoslovakia, but only with rights of autonomy for Slovakia. His presence was not welcome and he was again jailed in Paris for allegedly traveling to France on a fake passport. This again raised his status with the Slovak people. Czechoslovakia became independent but with perhaps too much power in the hands of the Czechs. In 1920, Father Hlinka was again released from jail and elected to parliament as a member of the right wing Slovak People’s Party.

He was a leader of the party and when he died in 1938, leadership passed to another Priest, Father Josef Tiso. The troubles with Germany and Czechoslovakia were then coming to the fore. Hitler suggested to Tiso that Slovakia declare itself independent and that would be recognized by Germany. This was done and Father Tiso was named Prime Minister. The collaboration with Germany lead to the expulsion of many Jews to labor camps that became death camps. This crime was protested by the Vatican and temporarily stopped in 1942. There was also a lot of bribery of lower officials from Jews of the Bratislava Working Group. In late 1944 there was an uprising that was violently put down by the Nazis and now Father Tiso was just a figurehead. The Germans restarted the rounding up of Jews. With the Red Army approaching, Father Tiso fled to a monastery in Bavaria where he was arrested by the Americans and sent back to Bratislava to face a war crime trial at the hands of the new again united Czechoslovakia communist regime. He was found guilty and hung while still in his priests garb.

Well, my drink is empty and I may have a few more while I ponder the Slovaks then plight. First association with Hungary, then Chechia, then Germany, then Chechia again, when the desire was just to stand alone, with God. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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My music would get a lot better if I could make it more Czech and maybe have a few affairs

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell of when the excitement of a new nation can inspire your music to a new level and success teamed with tragedy  can make the eyes wander.

The stamp today is from the early days of communist Czechoslovakia. As such there is a great deal of emphasis on the culture of the Czech majority in the country. The effect is perhaps lost  on the many ethnic minorities in the country. The effectiveness is also held back by the low quality of the printing. It really was several steps below what was being put out in Vienna, the former seat of the old empire.

The stamp is issue A243, a 1.60 Koruna stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on June 19th, 1953. The stamp features the music composer, teacher and historian Leos Janacek. The stamp was part of a two stamp issue issued to celebrate a music festival in Prague that year. According to the Scott catalog. the stamp is worth 25 cents in it’s cancelled state.

Leos Janacek was born to a schoolteacher and at an early age was recognized to have great musical talent. He was accepted into music school on scholarship and trained and made his home in Brno, in what was then still the Austria-Hungarian Empire. He stayed on as a teacher and married one of his students, Zdenka, who was also the daughter of the headmaster of the school. He split his time between composing and teaching and his early output was very heavily influenced by the German Wagner.

Over time his work gradually began to reflect the Czech nationalism that was growing up around him. Moravian folk music and Czech speaking styles became very evident in his operas, a first. In 1903, his family visited Saint Petersburg Russia to experience the music scene there and his daughter stayed to study Russian. She quickly got very sick and Janacek returned to bring her home to Brno where she died. The parents were naturally distraught and Zdenka attempted suicide. Leos threatened to divorce her, but they agreed to stay married and continue to live together but live separate lives.

Janacek’s eyes began to wonder and his operas took on a much more romantic feel. This helped get them beyond provincial Brno and productions were now able to be seen in Prague. After meeting a married woman named Kamila who was forty years his junior, he began a love sick correspondence. There are over 700 letters from him to her with her remaining aloof but in touch to his romantic writings. Her husband was in the army and often away. She became the inspiration for some of his most famous operas including “Jenufa”, and “The cunning little Vixen”. Kamila was with him and Zdenka at his bedside when he died in 1928 at age 74.

It is a little surprising that Janacek was honored with a stamp. The communist culture minister was not a fan regarding much of his work as unpolished. He had just carried out a purge that hit hard on former students of Janacek. It was though an international festival and Janacek’s work was known and performed abroad.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. A flirtatious couple today with 700 texts would probably not inspire operas. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.