Czechs and Slovaks: The Tale of Two Nations

In this video, I analyse the peculiar case of Czechs and Slovaks, two very different nations that have nevertheless become irreversibly connected in the eyes of the world.

- timestamps -

00:00 - Introduction
04:04 - Czechs and Germans
09:57 - Slovaks and Hungarians
13:43 - The Czechoslovak Nation
26:31 - The Commonalities
30:30 - The Differences

Photos used in the video and for the thumbnail:

[belstar]

what if Slovakia and Slovenia formed a union to avoid confusion

[shk]

TL;DR:
Czechs are Germanized West Slavs
Slovaks are Hungarianized West Slavs

[BozaCukuranovic]

As a Balkan Slav, I lived in Prague for two years, and met a lot of Czechs and Slovaks. I realized i connected way easier with Slovaks, my theory was that Slovakia has historically been agricultural like my country of origin and both of us entered Industrial age way later than Czechs or Slovenians. Great channel, mate, can't have enough of it, I am sharing it and bothering people like crazy. Much respect.

[BozaCukuranovic]

Fun fact - there is a 40k strong community of Slovaks in Serbia, and they are mostly Lutheran, and not Catholic, like in modern Slovakia.

[limao]

Baby, wake up, your favourite Czech released a new video.

[heartsofironever]

Czechs have names like Vladislav Schmidt, Slovaks have names like Vladislav the Magyar, that's all you need to know.

[_]

Love to both Czechia and Slovakia from Romania 🇨🇿❤🇸🇰❤🇷🇴

[prasakmanitou]

It was there, but I will still allow myself two comments:

1. Bohemia became an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century, not because of golden Czech hands. But for extensive deposits of coal and ore. So companies from all over Austria-Hungary built their factories there. Then the seizure of Czechia by one ambitious Austrian 20 years later was not so surprising.

2, After WWII, Transcarpatia with their language was lost to the Soviet Union, and in 1947-48, Czechoslovakia got rid of a large part of the German and a smaller part of the Hungarian-speaking population. Which greatly simplified federalization.

[ElTigre]

My brother visited the Czech Republic in 2016 (and a little bit in Bratislava) and said he had some great times. Oh and the Czechs make the best beer.

[asborodo]

As Pole living close to borders both Czech and Slovakia I always wondered why Czechoslovakia divided and what kind of differences those nations have. Great take on that topic, greetings from Silesia.

[Alex_Urs]

"The world is not perfectible. You won't change it. Why try? You might as well get completely sh*tfaced instead."

As a Romanian and fellow Eastern European, I felt that.

[ManBehindTheMask]

Didn’t know you had a son, good on you!

[gaba]

Hi Kaiser! Very fair description, approved from Slovakia! I am enjoying also other of your videos, keep it coming.

[Li_Tobler]

I'm a Ukrainian with 100% Slovak father (surname Hitric(h?)). I have no idea how he ended up here, but I'm very excited to learn about this part of my heritage ❤ You never miss with your topics, proud to say that I've been with you since your first vid!

[matejkovalcik]

For me, the biggest tragedy is, that for the 70 or so years we did not adapt some more of the usefull czech characteristics, like pragmatism and inovativness.

And about alcohol, you got it wrong my good man. We usually take a shot of spirit, flushed down with beer. Much love to Czechia

[rixorobert]

I would love more videos on Central/Eastern European countries such as Poland, Romania or Bulgaria :)

[Winner]

There is interesting history of stereotypisation too, for example: during the commie times, the evening news on TV were presented by two anchors: one male and one female. But in most cases, the male anchor was Czech and the female Slovak. Slovakia was, in Czech public imagination, always the wilder, more emotional, feminine part of the country, while the Czechs were the more sober, rational, masculine husband.
Thing is, I as a Czech only started noticing this when I read about it, while I am sure Slovaks always subconsciously perceived this and it irked them :) How many times have they heard that Slovak is such a beautiful language — when girls speak it?

Greetings from Brno, the true capital of Slovakia.

[jonobidonofanas]

Would love a full length video covering the czech national revival. I find it very interesting how a nation was able to resist cultural oppression so well. As a lithuanian it hits close to home.

[AG-lzgg]

You’re my favourite YouTuber. Thanks for all the interesting videos about things few talk about.

[chicobeirao]

Last time I was this early, Czechoslovakia was still a thing.