The Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is located in East-Central Europe. It is bounded on the northeast by Poland; on the east and south by Slovakia; on the south by Austria; and on the west and northwest by Germany. Prague is its capital. Czechs (95 percent), Germans, Gypsies (Roma), Poles, Silesians, and Slovaks compose its population of more than 10 million. The official religion is Roman Catholicism. The official language is Czech.
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The former Czechoslovakia was founded in 1918, after World War I, from territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1938, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, which remained part of Germany for the duration of World War II. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was “liberated” by the Soviet Army. In 1948, the Communist Party, supported by the Soviet Army, assumed power in Czechoslovakia after a coup. The country then became part of the Warsaw Pact and COMECON. In 1989, the communist regime was overthrown by the “velvet revolution.” In 1990, 22,000 political prisoners were released and the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its troops. In 1993, divided by ethnic tensions between Czechs and Slovaks, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The Czech Republic is a parliamentary republic, whose constitution was signed on December 16, 1992. The president, the prime minister, and the cabinet form the executive branch. Two bodies form the legislature: the Chamber of Deputies (the Czech National Council) and the Senate. The supreme and national courts represent the judiciary,rift gold which is independent. The economy of the Czech Republic is one of the most developed among the emerging republics of the former Soviet block. However, the Czech Republic is still struggling through the transition from a centralized economy linked to the Soviet Union to a free-market economy. Czech manufacturers lost all their markets among the eastern communist countries. In addition, the Czech Republic lacks energy resources and sufficient raw materials. Today, heavy industry and agriculture are the country’s main activities, and Western countries represent its main commercial partners.