Prague, St. Petersburg and Washington, D.C.

I am not pleased with the following blog......I wanted to do better. But it is a complicated subject. The history of Prague. A very old city. Been through a lot. Catholic/Protestant/Jewish. Independent/part of Hapsburg Empire and Holy Roman Empire/ part of Communist East Europe. German/Slavic. Rich/poor.

I have recently read Prague in Black and Gold, a history of the city by Czech native and retired Yale comparative literature professor Peter Demetz. It traces the history of Prague from the Bronze Age through 1937. It was published in 1997, following Demetz's first trip back in approximately 50 years. It is a scholarly book, yet readable if you give it a chance.

I had wanted to comment on it in connection with Solomon Volkov's book on St. Petersburg that I read several years ago. But I cannot find my copy of the Volkov book, so my ability to compare the two is limited.

I also wanted to compare the history of Prague with that of Washington. The history of Prague is much more interesting. Much more. I wanted to conclude that this would not be surprising considering how much older Prague is than Washington. Washington has no Bronze Age origin. Washington was founded in approximately 1800.

But St. Petersburg, founded by the Russian tsar, Peter the Great, is less than 100 years older than Washington, D.C. Yet its history is equally more interesting than Washington's.

Why is this? The answer is simple. Prague and St. Petersburg are European cities, with European history, meaning war, regime change, and general cycles between prosperity and cataclysm.

Because, I do not have my book on St. Petersburg, I am not going to try to compare Russia and Czechoslovakia. The history of Washington is easy. It was formed around 1800, it remained small, even though it became the capital, the British did attack in 1814 but were eventually repelled, and slowly but surely, the city grew.

Now let's look at Prague. The first humanoid presence.....250,000 B.C.E. Farming communities from 4000 B.C.E. Celts, Czechs, Greeks, Romans, Jews. The Premyslid dynasties through 1250 C.E. The end of the dynasty and a time of invasion, revolution, hunger, raiders, and disease. Then, the Carolingean period. Then King Charles and a time of great prosperity and intellectual accomplishment, growth of church influence, growth of the Jewish community, followed by 14th century pogroms.

The the Hussite revolution against the Catholic Church in the 15th century, and the attraction of European radicals and dissidents to Prague. And civil war.

The 17th century entrance of the Hapsburgs, King Rudolf II, and the strengthening of the Catholic Church once again. The time of Czech scientists: Hayek, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler. The golden age of the alchemists. The Jewish mystics and Rabbi Judah Lowe and his golem.

Increased tension and fighting between Catholics and Protestants. The Thirty Years War, the removal of the emperor's seat from Prague, the decline of the population by half, and the eclipse of the city.

Prosperity and optimism, and 1848 and its repressive aftermath. Then modernization and slum clearance and industrialization in the 1880s. The collapse of the Habsburg empire in World War I, the creation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, the entry of the Nazis, World War II, the failure of a free Czechoslovakia, Communist rule, Prague Spring in 1968, the entrance of the Russian troops, and eventual liberation in the 1990s.

A history unlike Washington's, but more like St. Petersburg, with its frontier days, it rapid development into a world-class city, the decline of the Romanovs and their moving the central power into Moscow, the Communist revolution and the name change to Petrograd, and then to Leningrad. World Wars I and especially World War II and the famous 900 day siege. Stagnation. Then Russian liberation and prosperity.

We are lucky not to share the Prague or St. Petersburg histories. But do we have any history of our own?