- Condition: **
- Year: 2015-10-14
The first stamp depicts the ceremony of unveiling of the monument to Master Jan Hus marking the five-hundredth anniversary of his burning. Although the long-planned celebrations were banned, the unveiling of the monument to Master Jan Hus on the day of the 500th anniversary of his burning became a clear demonstration of the specific national aspirations.
A group of Czech exiles fleeing the country after the Battle of White Mountain, symbolising the despair over the loss of their homeland, was added to the figures of Jan Hus and God's warriors.
At that time, the development of the Czech lands, which were then at Europe's cultural peak, was actually strangled. It used to be the only country boasting tolerance between Catholics and Protestants. Czech was the official language; the authors of the Bible of Kralice, translators from the Unity of the Brethren, elevated it to a language able to express every emotional and legal aspect of human existence. The coupon shows the slogan “The truth will set us free” written on the shield with a chalice used in the monument, which was very significant and binding for the design of the monument created by Šaloun. The yearning for living in truth eventually made its way to the presidential flag.
The banner of the battalion company “Nazdar” in the left-hand coupon in the miniature sheet marks the formation of the Czechoslovak Legions in France and their combat deployment in the area around Arras. Under the banner is a replica cross of John of Luxembourg from Crecy. Czechs and representatives of the Czech state militarily engaged in the area in northwestern France since the Middle Ages. The village of La Targette near Arras is the place of a cemetery of Czechoslovak members of the battalion company “Nazdar”, killed there during the Battle of Arras on 9 May 1915. In 1924, on the initiative of the Association of Czechoslovak Volunteers in France, a place for construction of a monument to Czechoslovak soldiers fallen in France was purchased there and the remains of soldiers from all the battlefields of the Western Front fallen in the years 1915-1918 were gradually collected there. After 1945, the remains of Czechoslovak soldiers fallen in 1940 and at the end of the Second World War during the Battle of Dunkirk, including 29 Czech pilots, were brought there. The stone cross erected in the middle of the cemetery is a replica of the “Czech Cross” (Croix de Bohême), the original of which stands in the nearby fields of Crecy-en-Ponthieu and commemorates the death of the blind Czech King John of Luxembourg in the Battle of Crecy on 26 August 1346.
The tombstones have a uniform design (a cross for Christians, a round stone for other denominations) and state the name of the fallen soldier, the rank, unit and date of death, if known, with a single phrase “Mort Pour la Patrie” (Died for the Country).
The left-hand coupon portrays M.R. Štefanik in a flying helmet. Štefanik was not surprised by the beginning of war; he saw the war mainly as a chance of obtaining independence for Slovaks, which he associated from the beginning with Czech independence. In the early 1915, he received a pilot diploma and the rank of corporal. During his work as an aviator, he always had in mind the independence of Czechs and Slovaks and tried to set up Czech-Slovak volunteer units. In the early September 1915, he was sent to the Serbian front where he further developed his attempts. After the defeat of Serbia, Štefanik returned to Paris where he became acquainted with the most important politicians, such as Prime Minister Aristide Briand and the most influential man at the French Foreign Ministry, Philippe Berthelot. Štefanik continued to push through the plan of a creation of a Czecho-Slovak state. At a meeting with E. Beneš on 13 December 1915, they agreed on Štefanik's and Masaryk's concept of an independent state. Štefanik's new role, set by himself, was to set up a single control centre for joint resistance of Czechs and Slovaks, create independent Czecho-Slovak troops, and make them known among politicians.
He informed Prime Minister Aristide Briand about these plans and arranged for his meeting with Masaryk. The meeting of Briand and Masaryk was successful and Masaryk convinced Briand to accept the concept of a solution to the Central European issue.
The lower left-hand part of the miniature sheet contains a tangle of still alive and already dead, furiously attacking and helplessly falling Czech soldiers in the uniforms of opposing armies, with crosses symbolising suffering and hope in the background. It also contains fictitious police portraits of Czech politicians K. Kramař and A. Rašín, future Czech Prime Minister and Minister of Finance respectively, sentenced to death. The war hysteria of the monarchy led to the intensification of sanctions against national manifestations. T.G. Masaryk and E. Beneš emigrated to avoid persecution. Czech associations were dissolved and the use of the Czech language in official communications was prohibited. Books on Czech history and Czech magazines were prohibited, censorship mopped up books and repertory of theatres, school libraries were closed.
The lower part of the miniature sheet depicts a war “Pieta”.
The upper left-hand part commemorates one of the most insidious weapons - the use of poison gas at Ypres. The idea of using poison gases was conceived by the Germans. The gas was transported to the front lines in metal bottles. On a given day, if the wind was right, the valve of a bottle was turned on and the gas started to escape. The deadly cloud was driven by the wind across the no man's land to the enemy lines. On 22 April 1915, after two days of artillery shelling that destroyed the medieval town of Ypres, British soldiers noticed a yellow-green cloud rising over the German trenches. The cloud hit the left wing of the British trenches. The deadly cloud of chlorine hit the French troops, mostly originating from Algeria. They were helpless and ran away from the battlefield. The Canadian troops, also hit by the edge of the cloud, kept up. They used primitive means to defend themselves, such as socks soaked in urine. On 24 May 1915, after another month of uninterrupted fights, the Germans once again ordered a gas attack on Ypres. The gas cloud hit the Canadian troops. They managed to keep up at the cost of horrible losses.
The upper right-hand part contains a view of the sea conflict. Although the naval operations against Turkey in the Dardanelles were not the main focus of Czechs, W. Churchill, one of the main authors of the concept of landing in Gallipoli was crucial for the further fate of the world and cannot be overlooked. The landing failed and led to the defeat and departure of the Serbian army. The Dardanelles campaign decided the fate of Serbia. Until the British invasion during the Battle of Gallipoli continued, Bulgaria did not dare to attack Serbia, but instead waited for the help from Greece and Romania. When it became clear that the British attack on Gallipoli was losing steam, the situation in the Balkan battlefield suddenly changed. On 6 October 1915, Serbia was attacked. The Bulgarian attack came through the valley of the Morava river while the Austro-Hungarian army attacked Belgrade. The Battle of Belgrade was incredibly cruel, and the Serbs had no chance against the overwhelming odds even with the help of the British and French artillery. The remnants of the army retreated in appalling conditions through Albania and Montenegro to the Adriatic coast. Serbian historiographs of this period often call it the Serbian Golgotha.
The lower right-hand part depicts some actors of the global conflict: Russian Tsar Nicholas II, General Hindenburg, later German president, English King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Japanese Emperor Taisho Yoshihito, Emperor Franz Joseph I and the already mentioned Winston Churchill, the then First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary to the Navy.
The right-hand part of the upper coupon portrays Tomaš Garrigue Masaryk. During the First World War, Masaryk abandoned his original opinion that Austria-Hungary could be reformed into a modern union of autonomous countries. In January 1915, he went to Switzerland. He submitted an “Independent Bohemia” memorandum to the British Foreign Minister, which suggested “restoration of the Czech Republic as an independent state”. He also proposed a personal union of Serbia and Czechoslovakia. At a meeting in the Reformation Hall of the University of Geneva on 6 July 1915, he made his famous speech marking the 500th anniversary of the burning of Jan Hus, in which he declared a war to the Hapsburg domination: “We condemn violence, and we do not want to use it. But if necessary, we will use iron against violence.” In the nearby Chamonix Mont Blanc in France, Masaryk met Štefanik. Masaryk admired the organisation and secrecy of the Sicilian Mafia; the Czech resistance organisation, as a secret society, was therefore named the Czech Mafia. During the First World War, members of the Czech Mafia became the driving force behind Czech resistance, influenced by Professor Masaryk from his exile.
In the axis of the sheet at the very bottom is a red poppy flower. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row.” These words from a poem by Canadian Lieutenant John McCrae, written in 1915 in honour of a fallen friend, spread very quickly and contributed to the fact that poppies began to be associated with the victims of war conflicts. For centuries poppies grow on all battlefields, apparently due to the presence of lime penetrating into the soil from the rubble.
The flags of the participating countries flutter above it all. The red and white bicolour already quietly emerges in this miniature sheet.
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