It can be said a hundred times that these statements are not about generalizing and spreading the concept of collective wines. But it is still the case. We Czechs have about a thousand reasons to tame the “barbarian” nation. Just open one of the pages of our 20th century history.

For example, here on May 12, 1945. At that time, Edvard Beneš uttered the many-important sentence in Brno that “we must eliminate the German question in the republic.” Four days later, in the Old Town Square, he further embellished his statement by saying that it is necessary to “eliminate Germans in the Czech lands, especially uncompromisingly.”

Wine of the nation

The Czech “patriots” interpreted this awkward turn in their own way and set out to kill the Germans. At the end of May 1945, about twenty thousand Germans were driven from Brno on foot during the event known today as the Brno Death March. About two thousand of them succumbed to him, often women and children. It is the most glaring example of the application of collective guilt in the Czech concept.

“That’s how the occupiers die.” The Ukrainians boast of a downed Russian helicopter

So far, we have not witnessed the call to “eliminate the Russian question,” but once a train of collective guilt starts, no one usually stops it. All the more so when he is pushed by public authorities, even journalists. We must learn from history once and for all that there is no such thing as “the nation’s fault” or “another civilization that wants to destroy us.” There are only bad rulers or bad ways of governing.

It is not true that there is no actionable opposition or civil society in Russia. If that were the case, Putin wouldn’t have to mess with her, which we’ve seen regularly in recent years. If he really considered his opposition to be toothless and counted as “mere protesters,” he would not have had the kind of campaign he had made against his now-probably biggest opponent on the field, Alexei Navalny.

Opposition surrounded Putin

The strange deaths of another opposition politician, Boris Nemtsov, or the uncomfortable journalist Anna Politkovskaya, only confirm that Navalny was far from alone in his criticism of Putin’s regime. If all the Russians stood behind their leader lined up in one line, today you would not walk to Boris Nemtsov Square, Anna Politkovskaya Promenade and Stromovka’s promenade at the Russian Embassy in Prague from the perspective of Alexei Navalny. Opposition surrounded Putin. At least in Prague.

There are thousands of heads of demonstrations in Russia these days, and it is actually a miracle. The Russians have long been massaged by a single view of the world. Others will not learn from the pro-government media (which is almost all). But globalization and the Internet help pluralism of opinion. He can regulate Putin, but he can’t ban him completely. With the influence of the “global village” on the youngest generation, Putin’s Belarusian governor Alexander Lukashenko also recently had to fight mass protests.

The debate over whether “sick Russian blood” will ever allow democracy to be established in such a vast country is therefore misguided. Yes, I will. Like the affected German blood, it laid the foundations of a democratic state after World War II, although the Germans had little to do with democracy until then. The relevant question is whether something like this in Russia will require the fatal fall of the whole country. Probably.