Visiting Communist Czechoslowakia in 1988 

You don't see any poverty in the video.

4:50 - WTF? Better road than today. :-D

8 crowns for that ice cream in 1988, well you got ripped-off mate :)

Great video! I first visited Prague two years ago and became fascinated with the city and Czech history. I love seeing videos like this which show a slice of history from that beautiful country. Thanks!

Thank for your comments. I forgot where that pond was and my fosterson has died of skin cancer.

This was a trip of once in a lifetime!! as it this country and system does not exist anymore and you could travel to see in reality how it was

Vous filmez bien ! J'étais à la Famu en 1989 . Merci pour ses images.

Hmm I dont know. Poverty is a bit strong word maybe., Born In 1990 I can still remember how it looked between 1900 and 2000 that we looked poor compared to our western neighbours. Everything was outdated, poor service. On the other hand compared to the rest of the Eastern block it was quite ok. Thanks to the fact, that Czechoslovakia was quite rich before the WW2, it was relatively rich even during the communist times in terms of the Eastern block. In the end, people had cars, TVs, we were never hungry, infrastructure worked including highways, trains worked, free healthcare was not bad (on the other hand planned economy always suffers from lack of resources, so for some reason they always did not have enough toilet paper for some reason and people were using newspapers :D ). However I realise that people looked at you totally amazed that you own a video camera :D I am not defending it, I am quite against communism really. But it was not really that bad in Czechoslovakia. There are still places on Earth where you can experience the proper poverty. On the other hand the regime was quite restrictive even compared to other communist government in the Middle and Eastern Europe, from this point of view it was quite bad after 1968 during the "Normalization". I am so glad I was born after the revolution of course ... great footage, thanks. I remember all the cars in the 90s, it was not much different compared to the late 80s. My parents had same Škoda 100 as in 3:11.

thanks for video!

@MichaelRogge No worries. Thank you again for the experience and responding.

My family visited Czechoslovakia in 1986 by car for two weeks. There was dilapidation everywhere. Food was basic enough. the restaurants were very poor though the beer was excellent and cheap. The greatest flaw was pollution which although it wasn't as bad as neighbouring Poland was grim enough at times with pipelines running across the road. Czechs told us that often enough sirens would go off in industrial areas and children had to go indoors because of the air pollution. It was an enjoyable experience but crossing into Austria was a relief.

Choice of goods truly wasn't abundant. I wouldn't desribe it as poverty, though. The decline of buildings was also closely connected to communists not being interested in historical preservation (which felt quite bourgeois to them). Often they would tear down (completely good, functional, pretty) old historical buildings in order to build "modern" (read ugly) block buildings. There was very little interest (and therefore investment) in historical site conservation, total lack of care except maybe except for the very centre of Prague. Still, wouldn't quite decribe the day to day life as "poverty".

Tak v týhle zemi sem nikdy nebyl. :D

It was great time, no phones no iphones etc, no fake music

Yes, we were not under the impression that we were being followed. We had great difficulty in securing a place to stay, though. Finally we found miles away from Prague an empty holiday resort room. When we were asleep the people who had reserved that room arrived at midnight. Fortunately they were put up elsewhere.

I have visited in July 1988 as young pionner. Nostalgic

@jlszala Sorry, I do not know anymore. I have only a record of going to Usti and Marienbad.

@JNathanK2011. Indeed, Pils beer was invented there!

Cool video. I live in Czechia since almost 11 year now. Where is located that lake at 4:20?

Strange idea of ​​what poverty is. People who don't know what the world was like in 1988 (or who lived somewhere in fantasies)

"service was poor" Maybe because you were treating people like they were animals in a zoo

I'm going to assume you're Dutch because of the intro. You do know that the reason that western Europe looked way better was because of the marshall plan right? The Netherlands would have looked very different if it wasn't for the marshall plan. Rotterdam would have been a hole for way longer.

Great!

At 6.50 what is the building your were queuing at?

Prague witout one milion turists. Nice nature on vilage , not drugs dealers , homeless, africans and prostitute. Nice epocha....

Does not look as bad as you describe. I am also not aware of anyone living in poverty. Dilapidation was a problem though.

i wish ther was some english subtitles

Buildings were deteriorating in disrepair. Shop windows were covered in dust. etc. etc.

Very interesting video, thanks for that. At 3:24 you drive past the house where my wife is from (whom I didn't know at the time :). But I disagree with the word poverty. Of course, Czechoslovakia was not as rich as Western countries, there were worse cars, not enough coca cola, lego only with protection, etc., but social needs such as housing, food, heat, education, public transport or healthcare were at a good level. Not only in big cities, but also in the countryside. Although socialism was holly shit.

Thanks for the video. May I ask, where, that is in what city, was the hotel Bohemia?

Fascinating video. I was there in 1989 for the first time - while it was very interesting there's no doubt that it is a much better place to live now.

01:25 - 02:10 Litoměřice ( Leitmeritz ) :-))

It doesn't look that bad. Also, it appears you are in the rural area.

The communists commenting today are literally so naive. I live in Brno a lovely city.

btw Michael, your impression was right, there were years of decay.. only old commie lovers (like kaotikdreamer), who can't look after themselves still praises those times. But what a beautiful country Czech republic is now!

Doby kdy ještě Česko nebyla Ukrajina a Karlovy vary po pravdě Ruské Vary.

It looks nice there, food in the shops, people busy, happy. Dreadful place now

Zajimave, dekuji za nahrani

American primitives and consumer society are not able find wealth in free helath and social care for all people, cheap living without stress and hard work for all people, without drugs and dependence on money and bussines.State owned buildings were ruined, priority in Czechoslovakia was other, Family, children, life its not really now.

@kaotikdreamer Well, my impression was quite different!

I visited Czechoslovakia in August 1986. I landed in Frankfurt, got a rental car then drove to Prague from Frankfurt through Nurnberg. Then crossed the border into Czechoslovakia from Bavaria via Furth im Wald then to Folmava on the Czech side of the border. In Czechoslovakia from Folmava to Prague via Plzen. There were no cars on the road in late afternoon in Czechoslovakia and most of the traffic lights in Czechoslovakia at that time (even in Prague) had limited function with yellow amber lights flashing for the arterial road traffic and flashing red lights for side street traffic (whatever little there was of it). Street signs were faded most of the time, but the roads in reasonably good condition. For the most part the buildings were often covered with dirt from the belching smoking Trabant and cars common at that time. Food was basic and wholesome. But I did have a nice roast goose dinner at Hotel Alcron at that time. During the 1986 visit to Czechoslovakia, I ended up going to Prague, Terezin, Brno, and Bratislava. I also visited the region again in 2017. In 2017, still charming, but overall, thank goodness communism ended. I am glad that I good to see first hand Communist Czechoslovakia versus the way the region ended up evolving after 1989.

I went to Czechoslovakia when it communist in 1985

Ústí nad Labem hotel Bohemia.

Já ❤Czechoslowakia

Were you allowed to travel around unescorted and unrestricted ?

During that year my family managed to get 'exit visa' to west germany(as a Czech citizen, you needed permission from the government to travel OUTSIDE:))- I liked it in West Germany, it was all fine, but I was not super-impressed. BUT when we were crossing the border back to Czechoslovakia, it all came down on me: the non-maintenance of everything, the roads, deteriorating buildings,economic decline.... ...all these things that seemed a 'NORM' before were now punching me into the face! I felt so sorry for my country- really ashamed- I was thinking- "what the commies did to this country during the 40 years??" I was literally in shock!

Bosnia 2019

Nice except for the music. That is completely irrelevant

in trying to understand, it is genuinely fascinating to see people pushing for communism today, especially in a place like this that already lived through it and know what it's actually like. Genuinely curious as to what the appeal is compared to the current government and economic system?

@JNathanK2011

Das ich gud

@MichaelRogge your impression was wrong

It was a good life during communism in the Czech

Communism and the ethnic cleansing of the Sudeten Germans really managed to ruin the Czech(oslovak) economy.