15.10.2024, Prague.
An increasing number of Czech citizens view life and societal conditions during the communist era positively, according to data from the STEM agency reported by the Czech news portal Novinky.cz on October 14.
Positive evaluations of life under communism are most prevalent among individuals over the age of 30 and those who have direct experience living in communist Czechoslovakia.
Researchers attributed this favorable view not to nostalgia for “bygone years” but to disappointment and uncertainty about the future. “Disappointment may have played a role because people might have envisioned post-revolution development quite differently. The current level of dissatisfaction is much more reflected in their responses, so it is not just a comparison of regimes,” said Jitka Uhrová, the chief analyst at STEM, as quoted by the portal.
Thousands of people participated in the STEM agency’s poll, with some voting online.
A separate poll conducted by the Novinky cz portal, which saw participation from over 13,000 people, revealed that 55.1% of readers consider the current regime “definitely worse” than the communist regime. Additionally, 2.6% rated democracy as “much worse.”
Conversely, 38.8% positively evaluated democracy in the Czech Republic, with another 2.6% stating that democracy is somewhat better than communism. Less than 1% of readers said they could not compare the current state of the country to the times of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR).
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
