Äldre tjeckisk gravsten.

---

INLEDNING

För artiklar som helt eller delvis behandlar ämnet nationella minoriteter i Serbien (tjecker, slovaker), se följande artiklar här på Kultur i öst (kulturiost.se; klicka därefter på "Möten med människor och platser" och slutligen på "Tema fd Jugoslavien"):

På besök hos den tjeckiska minoriteten i Vojvodina, Serbien - ett reportage och en rapport (2010/11) (av Per Nilson)

På besök hos den tjeckiska minoriteten i Vojvodina, Serbien - fotogalleri (2010/11) (av Per Nilson)

Åter  i Vojvodina, Serbien (2012) (av Per Nilson)

För artiklar som helt eller delvis behandlar ämnet nationella minoriteter i Rumänien (tyskar, tjecker, slovaker, ungrare, polacker), se följande artiklar här på Kultur i öst (kulturiost.se; klicka därefter på "Möten med människor och platser" och slutligen på "Tema Rumänien"):

Från Meckpomm till Siebenbürgen - på resa med Rumänien-Initiative (2011) (av Per Nilson)

Foton: "Från Meckpomm till Siebenbürgen - på resa med Rumänien-Initiative (2011)" (av Per Nilson)

En strid med flaggor och soptunnor - dragkampen om Transsylvanien (av Robin Gullbrandsson)

Sachsisk skymning - intryck från resor i Siebenbürgen (av Robin Gullbrandsson)

Tjeckiska nybyggare i en vacker bygd (av Marek Švehla; övers. från tjeckiska av Per Nilson)

En resa i Galizien, Bukovina och Karpatorutenien (2007) (av Per Nilson)

Bland tyskar, tjecker och slovaker i Rumänien (av Per Nilson)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"... and always remember" - national identity among the members of the Czech minorities in Romania and Serbia

Introduction

This paper will deal with the Czech minorities in Romania and Serbia. Both countries have about 2 000 citizens of Czech origin. They live mainly in the historical region of Banat, which is divided between Romania and Serbia.

1. Romania

1.1 Historical background

The Czech settlement in areas now belonging to Romania was a question of migration within the same state - the Austrian Empire. At that time both Bohemia and Moravia were parts of Austria, and so was the Banat. In 1716, Austria had conquered the Banat from the Ottoman Empire. In order to colonize the area and defend it against the Ottomans, people from various parts of the Austrian Empire were sent here. In the 1820's there were two waves of immigration and a number of Czech villages were founded. Six of them still exist: Svatá Helena, Bigr, Eibenthal, Rovensko, Gernik and Šumice.

1.2 How strong is the Czech identity among the members of the minority?

In Gernik nearly all of the 350 inhabitants are Czech (2008). The other villages are not that homogenous. In Bigr, for instance, only 80 percent of the inhabitants are Czech. In 2005, I visited Gernik. It is situated in the mountains outside the city of Moldova Nouă. My travel companion and I had to leave the car in that city and walk the seven kilometres up to Gernik. It was a Sunday morning in May and once in the village we sat down in front of the pub and started to chat with some young men wearing black trousers and white shirts. They had just attended the service in the Catholic village church. The school and the local government office had signs in Czech and Romanian. The Czech identity was very strong in this village. All the Czech villages have schools but only half of them offer education beyond the first level (the first half) of the compulsory school (2009). The languages of instruction are Czech and Romanian.

1.3 What is done in order to keep the national identity alive?

The Czech government supports the Czech villages financially. It also sends teachers to the Czech schools. A Czech relief organisation, Člověk v tisní, makes efforts to help. Thanks to this organization and others the Czech company Bobbintronic has opened a factory in Gernik. Agrotourism is another way to earn a living. At least one travelling agency in the Czech Republic (Kudrna) offers trips to the Czech villages. Svatá Helena has a very nice web site in Czech language (http://www.svatahelena.eu/). "The Democratic Alliance of Czechs and Slovaks in Romania" (DSSCR/DZSCR) was founded in 1990 and is represented in the Romanian parliament in Bucharest. The organization has its own magazine: Naše snahy. 

1.4 Which are the threats to the national identity?

There is no risk that the Czechs will lose their identity or forget the Czech language. The big risk is that the villages will die out, due to the fact that they are so small and that the population steadily decreases. After the fall of communism in 1989 many Czechs have chosen to leave Romania for the Czech Republic, especially young people.

2. Serbia

2.1 Historical background

Most of the Czechs came during the first half of the 19th century, many of them from the part of the Banat that now belongs to Romania. They settled in and around the city of Bela Crkva. In 1837 they founded the village of Ablian (later called Češko Selo, "the Czech village"). Today it is the only village where nearly all the inhabitants are Czech. Other villages with Czech inhabitants are Kruščica, Gáj and Velike Srediště.

2.2 How strong is the Czech identity among the members of the minority?

It is not as strong as in Romania where the Czechs live mainly in villages founded by their ancestors. Many Serbian Czechs live in the town of Bela Crkva. Mixed marriages are not unusual. Many Czech families speak Serbian at home. In Češko Selo, however, the Czech language has a solid position. In 2010 I took part in the New Year party in the "Czech house" in Bela Crkva. The party was organized by Czechs but most of the guests were Serbs or belonged to another ethnic minority. No Czech music was played, only Serbian. During my stay in the town I met young people who knew very little Czech. A girl at a restaurant explained to me that her ancestors were Czech and that she had visited the Czech Republic. A young taxi driver told me that his father was Czech but that he couldn't speak the language. When I asked him to to take me to the Catholic cemetary in Kruščica he didn't understand the Czech word for "cemetary". But finally he did: "Aha, krchov!" which is an old Czech word for cemetary (after the German word "Kirchhof"). In Kruščica I met a Czech woman who spoke well and to whom the connections with the Czech Republic were important. She even read books in Czech language. She had visited the Czech Republic several times. One of her grand-children could speak with some difficulty, but it was not so easy to understand him. One day I visited the Catholic church in Bela Crkva. I saw three elderly people and soon I heard that they were speaking Czech! I started to talk to them and praised their natural and spontaneous Czech. "We went to Czech schools", they said, "that's why we still speak the language!"

2.3 What is done in order to keep the national identity alive?

The local Czech association as well as the central organization for all the local associations in Serbia are located in the "Czech house" in Bela Crkva. Different meetings, parties and activities take place here. A library offers books in Czech language but not many people make use of it. In Bela Crkva I also met with the chairman of the Czech National Council. Its members had been elected by the members of the Czech minority of Serbia. The council has close contacts with the Czech embassy in Belgrade. The council decides how the financial aid from the Serbian state shall be allocated. One of the aims of the council is to open a Czech school. Since the 1970's there are no such schools in Serbia. A teacher from the Czech Republic offers language lessons for Czech children in Bela Crkva and the villages. Jednota ('Unity') is the name of a magazine published by the Czech minority in the Croatian town of Daruvar. Jednota is also read by Czechs in Serbia. I found some copies of the magazine in the "Czech house" in Bela Crkva. (The city of Daruvar is the centre of the Czech minority in Croatia.) 

2.4 Which are the threats to the national identity?

The Czech minority is well integrated in the Serbian society. Many young Czechs leave for bigger cities like Novi Sad or Belgrade. The Czech language will not survive. However, the Czech organizations in Serbia have one important task: to keep the memory alive. At the catholic cemetary in Kruščica there are many tombstones with Czech inscriptions - and spelling mistakes. It was a moving experience to stroll there: Far from the country of their ancestors, these people have done their best to remember the language. On one tombstone I found this inscription from the year 2000: "For all the years with you/ What can we give today/ Bunches of beautiful flowers/ and always remember".

------------

Sources:

Krajané. Po stopách Čechů ve východní Evropě by Petr Kokaisl et al (2009)

Česká menšina v Rumunsku by Jaroslav Svoboda (Prague, 1999)