Many years ago, a Czech "cartoon" was a hit in China. In fact, this cartoon is also popular in the Czech Republic, probably not only because the moles in the animation are very cute, but also because the Czechs are very much like moles, sneaky, like to calculate, hiding in the shadows all day long, but collecting money and food everywhere.
Over the past few years, the Czech Republic, a small country with a population of only 10 million, has repeatedly called out china and Russia for no revenge in recent days, and even more in this Russian-Ukrainian border tension, it has brazenly dispatched troops to advance into sensitive areas and made a posture of not hesitating to stand up to a war between Ukraine and Russia. It was a big surprise.
In fact, among the European countries, the Czech Republic has always been known for "loving peace and not fighting", and in Chinese terms, it is a master of practicing "Turtle Breath Dafa", and has always avoided war.
The Czech army, an armed organization, was even more "peaceful" than the populace, and it had become almost a habit to lay down its arms in the face of the enemy, Lilissoso. Even this enemy is not very strong, that is, if you feel strong, you may be strong in the future, and you have to lay down your weapons.
For example, during the German invasion of the Czech Republic during World War II, strictly speaking, the combat strength of the Czech Republic (Slovakia) is actually not bad, compared with the opposite Germany, there is definitely a hard capital. At that time, there were 38 divisions throughout the Czech Republic, and 1.5 million troops were waiting for them. In terms of equipment, there are 469 tanks alone, as well as 2175 field guns and heavy guns, 43,000 machine guns, millions of guns and countless ammunition. So much so that some people say that because of the capture of the Czech Republic, Germany was equipped with 40 divisions. The German army opposite had only 7 divisions, and the total number of other auxiliary troops was only 150,000.
Moreover, in order to defend Germany, the Czech Republic also built a large number of sophisticated fortifications on the border, even if these fortifications were relied on, even if they were poorly equipped, it was not a problem to resist hundreds of thousands of German troops. However, the Czech Republic surrendered.
Why? In fact, this is the shrewdness of the small Czech country. They knew very well that if they really wanted to fight the Germans, the Czechs would not be able to win in the end, because the overall difference in strength between the two countries was too large. Even if it is a draw, it is an unbearable disaster for the little Czech Republic. Conversely, if Germany were surrendered, the first would not actually have any losses, and the second should have little impact on the daily lives of czechs. Later it turned out that their ideas were right, once in the Austrian Empire accounted for eighty percent of the industrial share, the military industry ranked among the world's top Czech Republic, after the surrender to Germany not only did not suffer any losses, but ushered in a large number of German investment and orders, the economy did not fall but rose some large enterprises such as the Skoda factory, but became one of the world's largest arms groups. Strictly speaking, the Czech Republic is actually the most comfortable in the countries of the Axis group, not only making money, but also not having to send troops. Because the Nazis were reluctant to let the czechs' best skilled workers go to the front. The Czech Republic was also very well-behaved, except for sending a little army into the vengeful Poland, the Soviet Union's ghost place could not go to life. So throughout World War II, the Czech Republic really only earned and did not lose, and this abacus really "crackled" and chaotic.
After the end of World War II, the Czechs accepted the fact of soviet occupation and established the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic as a dependency of the Soviet Union. Although everything seems to be quiet, the Czech Republic is definitely one of the most chicken thieves in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. They are not as strong as Yugoslavia is with the Soviet Union, nor is it obedient to the Soviet Union as Bulgaria is. They never had a hard time with the Soviet Union—among the Czech Communists, even Dubček, who presided over the reform of the Prague Spring, had very good personal relations with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and others. But they would never listen only to the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Czech planned economic system is always incomplete, and there have always been a large number of gray areas of the private economy in the whole society. Even according to the rough estimate of the Agence France-Presse correspondent in Prague, before the Prague Spring in 1968, the total amount of the Czech private economy could account for 20-30% of the entire national economy. In the reform program of the Prague Spring, even a 50% share of the private economy should be given.
Naturally, the Soviet Union was not satisfied, so it sent troops. The 180,000-strong Czech army, once again showing its "peace-loving" nature, returned to the barracks without firing a single shot, ate and drank, and continued to live in a foggy way. The common people swam for a while, and when they saw that the Soviet army was going to move, they immediately sneaked home. The Soviets sent troops to the Czech Republic this time, causing only 80 Czech casualties. Compared with the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary in 1956, the Hungarian people who were killed by the shaft were killed in the fight with the Soviet soldiers, but 2652 people died, 19226 people were injured, and more than 200,000 other people fled the motherland. So some Soviet soldiers who had participated in the invasion of Hungary were a little overwhelmed by the "smooth" implementation of the mission in the Czech Republic, because they were preparing for a bloody battle, but they thought that they had come to take a trip. When they were fine, they walked around, but they made a lot of rubles in local Czech restaurants and clothing stores, electrical appliance stores.
But don't think that the Czechs' noisy "Prague Spring" is useless. They are definitely not people who do loss-making business. After this incident, the first secretary of the Czech Communist Party, Husak, who came to power, although he was of Slovak ethnicity, was definitely a typical Czech in terms of personality. His ability to curry favor with both sides and see who fooled whom was probably the strongest among the world leaders of the time. So much so that in 2008, the Czechs made a movie called "Shadow Emperor Husak", which is to tell the "wonderful history" of his lifelong acting. Although Husak grasped it very tightly politically, he knew economically that the Czechs could ignore other demands, and the demands of making a lot of money in a muffled voice could not be ignored, so he constantly relaxed the control of the private economy during his administration, and basically did not care much by the end of his administration. At the same time, he also took advantage of the Soviet Union's war everywhere, and constantly sold Czech arms products to the outside world, and even made the Czech Republic the seventh largest exporter of military weapons in the world.
It would not be difficult for such a country, such a people, such a leader to do something that seems strange in today's society.
For example, the Czech Senate President Vestichel, who called himself a "Taiwanese," even ran to Taiwan to go around in a big circle, and taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party secretary and I, I can't do it. However, immediately after returning to China, he said that he had never said that Taiwan was an "independent country," and the thickness of his face made the Taiwanese people stunned. Then his president and prime minister beat him up and scolded him for doing nothing wrong. It seems like a funny show, but those familiar with the Czech Republic should know at a glance that this is a group of politicians singing double reeds, trying to find out whether Taiwan is worthy of the benefits of the Czech Republic's "name". One look at it, but there is no need to go down so much blood, it is up to you. Because the Czechs could secretly sell artillery and other arms to Taiwan without conflict with China. Why the Chinese Foreign Ministry does not dare to respond to a group of Czech countries, look at the trade volume between China and The Czech Republic in 2020, which is 33.6 billion US dollars. And the money earned from Taiwan has survived hundreds of millions of dollars. Can't the thief Czechs read the numbers?
When the Czech Republic invaded the Ukrainian-Russian border, most people thought that the Czech Republic was holding the thighs of the United States, but it was not, or both.
Except for the well-known czech security that needs to be maintained by the United States, most people do not notice that the Czech Republic, once a major arms exporter, exported only $87 million at the worst time of the last century. Since 2011, the volume of arms exports has gradually increased, and now the Czech Republic's arms exports have been about 20 in the world, and the export volume has also moved to tens of billions. The increase in Czech arms exports in recent years has a clear relationship with the country's tying to American chariots. Indeed, the more actively the Czech Republic participated in various United States military interventions, the more its arms exports. Although there is no clear evidence, the cats understand that people are actually clear.
But the Czech invasion of the Ukrainian-Russian border was definitely not just because of the United States. In fact, although the Czech Republic is close to the United States, it definitely has its own shrewd bottom line. Previously, when US Secretary of State Pompeo visited the Czech Republic and asked for the stationing of troops in the Czech Republic, the Czech prime minister, who was anxious to hear it, immediately said that it would push the Czech Republic to the forefront of confrontation with Russia, which was really unreasonable. But after calming down, he immediately asked, "How much benefit will it bring to the Czech Republic if we agree?" Such a "frankness" of directly asking for money made Pompeo feel very embarrassed.
The Czech Republic also sent troops on the basis of a deep and clear understanding of the situation around its own country.
The Czech Republic is a small country, and when it was with Slovakia, it still had a lot of weight in southeastern Europe. After Slovakia left, it became a small country on the map, suppressed by Germany on the left and Poland on the right. In these two countries, he could not afford to offend. Germany is his largest exporter and shares its exports to Poland. Germany has already sent troops, Poland and Russia are feuds, and the troops are more active. Since the two eldest brothers have gone, the Czech Republic, which has always loved the icing on the cake, sent out dozens or hundreds of soldiers at most, which can please them and lose nothing, so why not send troops?
Especially for Poland, which hates Russia to the bone, this time following them to send troops will definitely make the impulsive Poles feel good about themselves, so is the money earned again.
Over the years, Poland has been actively reorganizing its armaments against Russia because it is a front-line country facing Russia with the support of the United States. The Czech Republic, which is good at weapons maintenance and upgrades, can make a profit inside.
But despite the Czechs' obsession with Poland, they were by no means defenseless against them. The Czech Republic, together with Poland and Hungary, in 1991, in order to cope with the crisis after the great changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and save the unbalanced economy as soon as possible, the Visegrad Group was formed together. This group, although of little importance to those two countries, is very important to the Czech Republic. Because the Czech Republic, which has a very heavy export weight, can legally be tied to Poland through this organization, it is naturally beneficial to sell things to itself. But Poland was too heavy in this group, so the Czech Republic often had to rely on people to sniffle. In order to balance Poland, the Czech Republic even dragged Slovakia, which had left the group because of the separation of the family, back to deal with Poland. This time, the Czech Republic can borrow the support of the United States and the cooperation of Poland's old rival Germany to pull Slovakia and Hungary to contain Poland. This ability to play six balls with one hand is simply worse than bismarck, the prime minister of the Empire at that time.
Not to mention Poland, let alone this military dispatch, you can also have good relations with Ukraine, then you can develop a new market, sell high-end machinery and industrial products that the Czech Republic has but Ukraine lacks, and can also pass unimpeded on the Black Sea and do business smoothly with Turkey and other neighboring countries.
Look, the Czech account is so fine, how it can offend Russia for no reason. In addition to so many benefits to offend Russia, there is another one, in 2018, the trade volume between the Czech Republic and Russia was 3.7 billion, and now it is a strong decline, and the Czech Republic is no longer within Russia's top ten trading partners. That is to say, a few fractions of the money earned from Russia is far less than the money earned by the enemy.