Latest news with #Czechoslovak
News18
22-05-2025
- News18
598 Gold Coins, 10 Gold Bracelets, 17 Sealed Cigar Boxes: Duo Stumbles Upon Treasure During Trek
Last Updated: While hiking in Czech mountains, a duo found a hidden box with 598 gold coins, bracelets, and more—an estimated treasure worth Rs 3 crore Imagine strolling through a lush green forest, soaking in the peace and beauty of nature, when suddenly you spot something unusual – a shiny aluminium box peeking out from between the stones. Intrigued, you move closer. That's exactly what happened with two tourists hiking in the Karkonosze Mountain range of the Czech Republic. What they discovered inside this mysterious box was nothing short of extraordinary. A Box Full of Surprises According to a CNN report, the box contained not just one or two items, but a real treasure trove: 10 gold bracelets, 17 sealed cigar boxes, a powder compact, a comb, and the most astonishing find, 598 gold coins. The total weight of the gold is about 3.7 kilograms (8 pounds), with an estimated value of 8 million Czech Koruna, roughly Rs 3 crore. The cigar boxes, still unopened, may hold even more secrets. A Chance Discovery The two travellers, who have chosen to remain anonymous, were taking a shortcut through the forest when they spotted the box lodged between rocks. Curious, they opened it and were stunned by the treasure inside. Without wasting time, they handed the box over to the East Bohemia Museum in the nearby city of Hradec Kralove. Miroslav Novak, head of the museum's archaeological department, shared that the duo arrived unannounced with the treasure. 'Our team immediately began investigating the site where the box was found," Novak said. He confirmed that the entire box was filled with gold and other artefacts. Experts are now trying to determine the age and origins of the treasure. One of the coins is dated 1921, which means it is at least a century old. Novak believes the treasure may have been hidden before the Second World War, possibly around 1945. Interestingly, not a single coin in the collection is of Czech origin. Around half of the coins are from the Balkans, and the rest from France. Some bear markings from the former Yugoslavia, dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. Locals have their own theories. Some say the treasure may have belonged to the wealthy Spork family of the Kuks estate, while others believe it could have been looted by Czechoslovak soldiers. The museum is continuing its analysis to uncover more details. The true value of the treasure will only be known after the cigar boxes are opened and the other items are examined. As per Czech law, the treasure legally belongs to the local administration. However, the tourists who discovered it are entitled to a reward based on its value. First Published:
News18
21-05-2025
- News18
Tourists Find Hidden Treasure With 598 Gold Coins, Jewels In Forest; Here's What They Did Next
Last Updated: Two tourists in the Czech Republic's Krkonoše Mountains discovered a hidden treasure of gold coins and artefacts, now under investigation by archaeologists What began as a peaceful stroll through the forest turned into a cinematic moment for two tourists when they uncovered a hidden treasure nestled among the stones. Their extraordinary find in the Krkonoše Mountains, located in the north of the Czech Republic, has since captured the attention of archaeologists and historians alike. A Walk In The Forest Turns Unforgettable The two travellers, who have chosen to remain anonymous, were exploring the lush, wooded terrain when they noticed a shiny aluminium box partially obscured by stones. Their curiosity piqued, they opened the box, only to be confronted with an astonishing sight. According to a CNN report, the box contained a remarkable assortment of valuable items: The gold coins alone weighed 8 pounds (3.7 kg) and are estimated to be worth 80 lakh Czech Koruna (approximately Rs 3 crore). The cigar boxes remain sealed, adding to the intrigue surrounding the find. Rather than keeping the treasure, the tourists responsibly handed it over to the East Bohemia Museum in Hradec Králové. According to Miroslav Novák, head of the museum's archaeological department, the finders arrived unannounced and presented the treasure to his team, prompting an immediate investigation. Unlocking A 100-Year-Old Mystery Initial studies suggest the coins date back to at least 1921, making the hoard over a century old. Novak believes the treasure was likely concealed either prior to the Second World War or around 1945. Fascinatingly, none of the coins are Czech, half are from the Balkan region and the rest from France. Some even bear markings from former Yugoslavia in the 1920s and 1930s. Residents have speculated on the origins of the hoard. Some suggest it may have belonged to the wealthy Svirts-Shpork family of the Kuks Estate, while others theorise it was loot hidden by Czechoslovak soldiers during turbulent times. The true story, however, remains buried in history, at least for now. Ongoing Investigation And Ownership The museum continues to examine the items, with special attention to the sealed cigar boxes and the composition of the metals. Under Czech law, the treasure is officially the property of the local administration, but the finders are entitled to a reward based on the assessed value. As the investigation continues, this chance discovery offers a captivating glimpse into Europe's complex 20th-century history and a reminder that even today, real-life treasure hunts do exist. First Published: May 21, 2025, 13:08 IST
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
I fled a dictatorship. Trump and his policies are hauntingly familiar.
In the early hours of March 10, 1948, the body of Czechoslovakia's foreign minister was found beneath a window of the ministry's palace in Prague. The official explanation was suicide. The public consensus — then and now — is murder. Two weeks earlier, the Communist Party had staged a bloodless coup, seizing full control of the government. The minister's death symbolized the definitive end of Czechoslovakia's democracy. Forty years of dictatorship followed. I was born into that dictatorship. Like more than thirty other children (including the late Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) whose stories I document in my recent book, Czechoslovakia's Cold War Refugee Children: Contemporary Resonance, my family fled a country no longer safe for political dissent or independent thought. We were the children of artists, politicians, academics, and ordinary people who refused to toe the party line. Today, as I watch troubling developments unfold in the United States, I can't help but feel history knocking — not softly, but insistently. The parallels between the collapse of Czechoslovak democracy in 1948 and the democratic backsliding occurring in the U.S. under the Trump administration in 2025 are unnerving. And for those of us whose families once lived through such unraveling, they are all too familiar. Opinion: I'm a mom. Florida lawmakers, DeSantis must ban cell phones in schools. The coup in Czechoslovakia was not a sudden explosion. It was a meticulously executed erosion. The Communists deployed police and militias loyal to the Party, pressured rivals to resign, and staged a façade of legality by forcing the democratically-elected president to accept a new, Communist-dominated cabinet. When the foreign minister died — likely pushed from the window by agents of the regime — the message was clear: resistance was futile. Opinion: Hope Florida scandal puts obstacle in Casey DeSantis' pathway to governor Today's circumstances are different, but the tactics feel hauntingly similar. A charismatic leader returns to power and quickly begins reshaping government structures to entrench loyalty. Independent federal agencies are gutted. Inspectors general and civil servants are removed en masse. Immigrant activists disappear into detention without due process. Democratic norms bend — not broken all at once, but weakened over time until they no longer resemble what came before. This is the kind of creeping change those of us who fled authoritarianism remember well. It's not just the loud spectacles — the tweets, the rallies, the televised outrage. It's the quiet dismantling of rules and safeguards. The normalization of once-unthinkable behavior. The way fear settles into communities, into families, into children. Czechoslovakia's Cold War Refugee Children brings together oral histories and personal reflections from those of us displaced as children during the regime (1948-1989). We were small, but we remember. We remember the whispered conversations between adults. The fear of being watched or turned in. The hurried packing. The confusion of arriving in new countries where languages, customs, and values were alien. And we remember — always — that we left something behind that was both dangerous and precious. The United States welcomed me as a refugee child. It would not do so today. When today's migrant children are demonized and American children witness the fracturing of their country's ideals, I worry — not just for their safety, but for the imprint it leaves on their souls. History is not just taught; it is lived and transmitted, often unconsciously, across generations. Parallels are not predictions. They are warnings. They are invitations to pay attention. In 1948, many Czechoslovak citizens hoped the Communists would restore order after wartime chaos. They underestimated how quickly the government could become a tool of surveillance and suppression. They thought democracy would return in a few years. It took over four decades. History shows us that authoritarianism starts with the silencing of critics, the politicization of bureaucracy, and the erosion of public trust. It starts with windows opening in the night, and no one daring to ask why. History is speaking, and it is up to us to decide whether we will listen. Miriam Potocky Rafaidus is a researcher at the International Rescue Committee and author of "Czechoslovakia's Cold War Refugee Children: Contemporary Resonance". She is a resident of West Palm Beach. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump reminds me of the dictatorship I fled | Opinion
The Irish Sun
22-04-2025
- The Irish Sun
The European resort sunshine spot with year-round good weather and spa city, €1.80 pints and Ryanair flights from €25
IF you're looking for a relaxing getaway this summer, look no further than Slovakia. Located in the Trnava Region in the western part of the country is a gorgeous spa town. 8 Spa city in Piestany Credit: Alamy 8 Travertine lake with hot thermal water in spa city Credit: Alamy 8 The area is a hotspot in Slovakia Credit: Alamy The thermal resort of Piešťany is highly regarded as one of the hotspots in It's the most visited thermal resort in the country, and has a stunning picturesque landscape. Its location allows for ideal natural conditions for year-round recreation. And it's temperate climate means that the READ MORE IN TRAVEL In the resort part of the town, mineral water springs and healing mud deposits are located on the streets. It is home to many prestigious hotels and spas, with gorgeous architecture. There's a Thermal Park with stunning gardens, paths, and outdoor thermal swimming pools. Here you can find a stunning park, and a lake with water lilies which is home to different fish including a rare African Victoria Regia. Most read in City If you're looking for a And for history buffs, there is a range of museums to spend time in. VARIETY OF MUSEUMS You can head to Winterova Street, which is the main historical zone in the town. Visit the Museum of Military History, which is housed in the old military building at Piestany airport. Opened in 2004, it focuses on aircraft and vehicles used in the Czechoslovak army between 1945 and 1992. It has almost 10,000 items on show, including MiG-29s, MiG-21s, MiG-23s, different Sukhoi aircrafts along with T-34, T-55 and T-72 tanks. The Balneological Museum is the largest and most popular in the town, and has been open since 1928. The building is made in a Classical style with walkways and picturesque statues. Inside, you can see samples of the flora and fauna of the area, folk life, clothing and embroidery, archaeological finds and the reconstruction of the old peasant house of Piestany. ARTISTIC BRIDGE Here, you can also see an exhibition on German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who visited the resort. Or head to see Colonnade Bridge, which reaches over the Vah river, connecting the town to the Spa Island. It is the longest covered bridge in Slovakia and has many precious art objects. The Eko Park features many zoo animals, restaurants and activities - making it the perfect day out for the little ones. On the slope of the mountains in the resort is Povazhsky Inovec, a curious karst cave - a recognized natural monument. Many archaeological discoveries were made inside the cave, which showed traces of ancient settlements. Ryanair offers flights to Bratislava from €25, which takes approximately two hours and 40 minutes. From here, it's a 50 minute journey to the town. 8 The Colonnade bridge to spa island Credit: Alamy 8 The place is perfect for relaxing Credit: Alamy 8 Visitors can get a pint from €1.80 Credit: Alamy 8 The year-round good weather allows for recreation at any time Credit: Alamy 8 There are a number of prestigious hotels and spas Credit: Alamy
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Exposing ‘the illegals': how KGB's fake westerners infiltrated the Prague Spring
During the spring of 1968, as revolutionary sentiment began to grow in communist Czechoslovakia, a group of friendly foreigners began arriving in Prague, on flights from Helsinki and East Berlin, or by car from West Germany. Among them were 11 western European men, a Swiss woman named Maria Weber and a Lebanese carpet dealer called Oganes Sarajian. They were all supporters of what would become known as the Prague Spring, an ultimately doomed attempt to build a more liberal and free version of socialism and escape from Moscow's suffocating embrace. Many of the visitors sought to get close to the movement's leading lights, offering support in the battle to reform communist rule. But these visitors were not what they seemed. They were spies from the KGB's 'illegals' programme – Soviet citizens who spent years training to be able to pose convincingly as westerners. Previously, illegals had been used to burrow into western societies and ferret out secrets for Moscow. But now the KGB was terrified that the Prague movement could end Soviet influence in the country, and decided for the first time to deploy its most prized spies inside the eastern bloc, in a mission called Operation Progress. To this day, Russia's intelligence services have never admitted it took place. Unpublished documents about the mission, along with interviews with participants, shed new light on how Moscow used its spies to keep tabs on reformers in Prague: informing on its leaders, planting fake evidence, and in one case getting a man who planned a dramatic self-immolation as protest committed to a psychiatric institution before he could carry out the deed. The Prague Spring, which was ultimately crushed by a massive Soviet invasion in August 1968, was a reflection of a huge desire for change in Czechoslovak society. The reform movement was supported by local Communist party leader Alexander Dubček, who coined the term 'socialism with a human face', but it was also a grassroots movement, as Prague became the most buzzing city in the eastern bloc. 'Blue jeans and long hair are everywhere,' wrote one American correspondent at the time. Students from western Europe travelled to Prague, where they sang songs, strummed guitars and smoked joints with their new friends. The openness terrified the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his KGB chief, Yuri Andropov, but in the openness Andropov also saw an opportunity for his spies to infiltrate. They could easily pass through the liberal Czechoslovak border regime with their fake western passports. Five of the new arrivals were told to visit restaurants, museums, galleries and hotels and find opposition-minded Czechs. If necessary they could pay for useful political information, gently hinting that the money might be coming from western intelligence. Some were tasked with befriending Czech newspaper editors and goading them into printing anti-Soviet statements to further escalate tensions. Others buried a fake cache of American weapons to 'prove' that the reform movement was backed by the United States. In 1969, as the Soviet Union continued to crack down on the reform movement post-invasion, more illegals were able to infiltrate. One, Yuri Linov, travelled to Prague posing as Austrian businessman Karl-Bernd Motl. Before long he was socialising in bars with student leaders and progressive journalists from state television, he recalled. In the nights he drank 'a river of cheap red wine' with the protesters; in the mornings he wrote up reports about their plans and passed them over to his handler. The spies were handled on the ground by Dmitry Vetrov, a lumbering giant of a man in his early 50s, who brushed off any doubts the KGB spies might have had about informing on idealistic young people who simply wanted to reform communism. Vetrov admonished Linov and other illegals for thinking too much. He liked to recall an operation he had apparently taken part in, to neutralise a dissident in Berlin, in which he went in disguised as a removals man, knocked the target unconscious, then rolled him up in a carpet and sent him back to the Soviet Union. 'Carpet. Plane. Siberia,' he repeated, to emphasise that he believed the dissidents in Czechoslovakia should be treated the same way. Among Linov's new circle of friends was Jan Křížek, a tall, hard-drinking 25-year-old with a mop of unkempt blond hair. Křížek was obsessed with Jan Palach, a student who had killed himself by self-immolation and become a hero of the resistance. He told Linov he planned to set himself on fire on 21 August to mark the first anniversary of the Soviet invasion. 'Palach is a Czech hero now, everyone knows his name, and soon everyone will know Křížek too,' he boasted. Linov reported the plans to Vetrov, who later told him Křížek had been detained and committed to a psychiatric institution. Operation Progress was first revealed in 1999, when the historian Christopher Andrew released a book based on copies of KGB files made by the dissident archivist Vasily Mitrokhin, who defected to Britain in 1992. But Mitrokhin's original files, now open to the public in Cambridge, contain many more revelations, about the Prague Spring and the later use of illegals in the Soviet bloc. Andropov was so pleased with how Operation Progress had helped the Soviets manage dissent in Prague that he expanded it to cover the whole socialist bloc, where short-term missions continued for the next two decades. In Hungary, the KGB was obsessed with supposed 'Zionist' influence among the party and intellectual elite. In Yugoslavia, illegals travelled to Kosovo to investigate tension between Serbs and Albanians. In Poland, they took an interest in the Catholic church, attempting to get close to several influential religious figures, including the circle of Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, who would later become Pope John Paul II. Eventually, the KGB even began using illegals inside the Soviet Union, posing as western provocateurs to test the loyalty of suspected dissidents. Russia has used illegals since the earliest days of Soviet power a century ago, and continues to infiltrate them into the west today. Vladimir Putin has spoken on numerous occasions about their great achievements over the decades, but there is no place in this narrative for their work against dissidents inside the Soviet bloc. Instead, they are portrayed as heroic warriors, uncovering secrets in the west to help the motherland. 'Illegals are built in a particular way, with strong morals and a firm character,' said Putin in 2017. 'We are proud of them.' The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West by Shaun Walker, is out now (Profile Books, £22; Knopf in the US). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
