Výstavy

3. 2. 201017:22

Soldiers of the Republic on Battlefield 1914 - 2010

The exhibition under the auspices of the Prime Minister Jan Fischer and the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence Martin Barták.

The most long-lasting myths are those which are not founded on real bases but which penetrated into the general awareness. They concern many spheres of everyday life of citizens, they influence opinions of individuals as well as important and numerous social groups, they have share in forming the "right" social climate ... and they markedly deform general awareness. Among our traditional myths belongs undoubtedly the statement that could be expressed by four words – "Czechs did not fight". And these words often relate to the 20th century – to the republican period of our history.

The fight against myths is nearly hopeless; nevertheless it must never be given up. Just because of this reason the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic in close cooperation with the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic decided on organizing a panel exhibition in the premises of the Straka's Academy. The exhibition covers key moments of military history of our republic starting from actions of legionnaires up to current military missions.

The exhibition presents on 36 panels in the picture and map form those moments, which clearly document surprisingly great involvement of our soldiers in fights in four continents. We can estimate that under the banner of the republic more than 6 000 000 men were involved in fights. Nearly one third of them took up their duty under those banners and knew that they were marching to the battlefield and nothing but fight and perhaps death were ahead of them. Do not let us speculate whether it finally took place. The important thing is that there was such a possibility and they were aware of it. And they were marching to the fight ...

The exhibition is also the first this year's reminder of the 65th anniversary of the end of the World War Two. It documents our share in the final victory but it also documents military activities of our republic which covered not only more or less known fights during the World War One and World War Two.

The exhibition will be open to the public on the open day, about the date of which we will inform you at our websites.