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Please read the article and write about the history of the soft drink Kofola.  Why was it created?  Why was it successful?  Would you like to try it?

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As a third dessert option was being squeezed on to the kitchen table in front of four sufficiently full young men, all too polite to refuse a final helping, I reflected on how fortunate I and my companion Marco were to be visiting Bratislava with friends who grew up in the city. Marek and Kubo were back in their home town from Barcelona and Prague for a short time only, and so their mothers were keen to feed them - and their two lucky guests - while they could.

That evening we'd gorged on the sweets from my friends' childhoods: buchtičky se šodó, a doughy vanilla cake with just a touch of rum, and šišky s mákem, sweet dumplings made from potato, sugar, butter and poppy seeds. It was when a dark and dense beverage was passed around in plastic bottles that Marco, the designated driver for the evening, looked as though he could take no more.

This was my first introduction to Kofola. Although it resembles a stout beer, Kofola is non-alcoholic, and originates from the second half of the 20th Century when Czechoslovakia was a Soviet satellite state. Created as an alternative to Coca-Cola and Pepsi at a time when Western goods were prohibitively expensive, the drink has since gone on to become a national favourite in the now-independent countries of Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

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The syrup that forms the foundation of Kofola was invented in the late 1950s by Zdeněk Blažek, a scientist who had been commissioned by the state to create an alternative to American cola brands, using ingredients available in Czechoslovakia. The result was Kofo syrup, a mixture of fruit and herbal extracts that forms the base of Kofola. Some historical accounts say that Blažek and his team came up with the recipe for Kofo syrup (which remains secret to this day) when experimenting with ways to use the waste generated from roasting coffee, but while Kofola is caffeinated, these accounts are unsubstantiated.

The beverage is still served on tap in most of Bratislava's bars and restaurants, and the company that makes it boasts a following of half a million people on Facebook, making it one of the most popular Czech/Slovak brands on the social networking website.

As the four of us left Marek's family home and gave thanks for a wonderful evening, his mum passed each of us a huge slice of poppy seed cake wrapped in foil, and we promised to try 'proper draught Kofola' on our next visit to a pub.

Kofola has become so popular that knock-off versions of it have been produced in Slovakia. Linda Metesová, who gives food tours of Bratislava, laughed when she told me that after analogous brands like Lokálka became available, "pubs in Bratislava put up signs to advertise that they sell authentic Kofola." Most people on her tours have not previously heard of Kofola, let alone Lokálka, and so when she gives her food tours she is keen for them to try the original version. She hears "it tastes like Jägermeister" a lot, noting that people are often surprised to discover that it's not alcoholic.

As we drove away from Marek's mum's house, I reflected that the word 'fake' didn't come up once during our conversation about the rich beverage. Kofola is perceived not as an imitation of Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but rather as a unique drink with a set of nostalgic associations that are deeply embedded in the two cultures. For Czechs and Slovaks, Kofola has come to represent a very specific period of their shared history.

A cold glass of Kofola offered refreshment without scandal

It was against a backdrop of scarcity that Kofola became popular in Czechoslovakia. During the Soviet era, Western goods such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi were only available in Bratislava's state-owned Tuzex stores for heavily inflated prices, and could be bought with bony coupons - which were produced by the state and were like golden tickets to a world of luxury items unavailable to most. There were apparently local girls (known disparagingly as 'Tuzex girls') who dated foreigners who could afford to purchase bony. There was even a burgeoning black-market trade in these coupons during the 1970s and '80s, and you would hear "need some bony?" whispered in hushed tones by suppliers on Bratislava's street corners.

A cold glass of Kofola, on the other hand, offered refreshment without scandal.

Kofola was by no means the only alternative to American cola that proliferated behind the Iron Curtain. In East Germany, consumers could choose from brands such as Vita Cola, Quick Cola, Kaffee Cola and at least 14 others. The Polish People's Republic had their own variant, Polo Cockta, as did the USSR, with a drink called Baikal. Yugoslavia's Cockta, which is still available today, is flavoured with caramel and rose hip.

Yet Kofola's distinct herbal taste has been key to its lasting success. Many of the other Cold War-era imitations matched the original product too accurately, and so could not compete with the originals when trade opened up after the fall of the Soviet Union. "My mum and her colleague managed to buy an expensive bottle of Fanta once in the 1980s," Metesová recalled. "But after sharing it they were disappointed to find it tasted just the same as the fizzy orange [drink] sold in Czechoslovakia." Kofola, on the other hand, which is noticeably less sweet than other cola drinks, offered a different refreshment experience altogether.

Although its flavour recalls a difficult period of Czech and Slovak history, Kofola's present-day popularity is rooted firmly in nostalgia. When I asked Bratislavans about Kofola, it was their happy childhood memories that came to the fore. "I remember going with my dad to the pub and drinking draught Kofola with the other kids; we felt like adults," said Martin Záhumenský, a Slovak chef and judge on MasterChef Slovensko.

Today Kofola's aromatic taste is still a beloved alternative to the sugary flavour of Coke or Pepsi, and demand for the drink now extends beyond the boundaries of Eastern Europe. There is demand for the drink amongst Czechs and Slovaks living in the UK, according to Anish Shah, director of Halusky, a supplier that specialises in the food and drink of these two nations. "We initially started selling just a few bottles in 2004, when the countries joined the EU. Today we sell pallet loads, perhaps 3,000 litres a month," he told me. There is clearly money to be made keeping the diaspora in good supply.

While Kofola purports to be healthier than mainstream colas (it contains roughly 30% less sugar than its big competitors, with no phosphoric acid at all), it is surely the sense of nostalgia and brand loyalty felt among its consumers that helped the company survive when the newly independent Czech and Slovak markets opened up to Western competitors in the 1990s. Kofola is now available in a variety of flavours, including lemon and vanilla.

When the four of us finally made it to the pub to sample proper Kofola on tap, it was colder and more refreshing than the bottled version we had previously tried. The heavy glasses accentuated the deep brown colour, and the herbal taste was much more pronounced. This was a small taste of life in Bratislava for four young men, two of whom not born here, and the other two too young to remember what it was like when Kofola was the only option.
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As a third dessert option was being squeezed on to the kitchen table in front of four sufficiently full young men, all too polite to refuse a final helping, I reflected on how fortunate I and my companion Marco were to be visiting Bratislava with friends who grew up in the city.

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Please read the linked article and write a little bit about the Stalin Monument.  Who was its creator? Where was it built?  Why was it different or unique?  Why do you think it was destroyed?

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Stalin's Monument was a 15.5 m (51 ft) granite statue honoring Joseph Stalin in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was unveiled on 1 May 1955 after more than 5½ years of work, and was the world's largest representation of Stalin. The sculpture was demolished in 1962.

The monument was located on a huge concrete pedestal, which can still be visited in Letná Park. It was the largest group statue in Europe, measuring 15.5 m (51 ft) high and 22 m (72 ft) long. The sculptor was Otakar Švec, who killed himself a few days before the unveiling.

The process of de-Stalinization began shortly after the unveiling of the monument. The monument, therefore, became an increasing source of embarrassment to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and was taken down with 800 kilograms (1,800 lb) of explosives.

In 1990, pirate radio station Radio Stalin operated from a bomb shelter beneath the statue's plinth. The same shelter was also the home of Prague's first rock club in the early 1990s. Since 1991 the marble pedestal has been used as the base of a giant kinetic sculpture of a metronome. In 1996 the pedestal was briefly used as a base for a 35-foot-tall (11 m) statue of Michael Jackson as a promotional stunt for the start of his HIStory World Tour. A billboard promoting Civic Democratic Party leader Václav Klaus was erected on the site during the Czech parliamentary elections of 1998 but was removed soon after due to high winds.

A green plaque below the metronome reads:

Metronome
Letenské sady
The Metronome, the work of sculptor Vratislav Karel Novák, was erected in 1991 atop the massive stone plinth that originally served as the base for the monument to Soviet leader Josef Vissarionovich Stalin. Work began on Prague's Stalin monument towards the end of 1949, and in May 1955, it was finally unveiled. The largest group sculpture in Europe during its existence, the monument had a reinforced-concrete structure faced with 235 granite blocks, weighing 17,000 tonnes and costing 140 million crowns to complete. The gigantic composition, by sculptor Otakar Švec and the architects Jiří and Vlasta [his wife] Štursa, did not tower for long over the medieval centre of Prague: in connection with Soviet criticism of Stalin's " cult of personality," the work was dynamited and removed towards the end of 1962.

The City of Prague has been considering several options for redevelopment of the site for years, including a plan to build an aquarium. The remaining socle is a popular meeting point for skateboarders.

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Stalin's Monument was a 15.5 m (51 ft) granite statue honoring Joseph Stalin in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was unveiled on 1 May 1955 after more than 5½ years of work, and was the world's largest representation of Stalin. The sculpture was demolished in 1962.

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Please read the linked article and write a little about the Tuzex shops.  Where were they?  What did they sell? How much did things cost in the stores?

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Tuzex was a series of state-run shops in Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1992 which did not accept normal Czechoslovak currency but only vouchers which could be purchased from banks using foreign currency. They supplied luxury items: local goods in short supply and in particular foreign goods. The Tuzex vouchers were effectively an unofficial parallel currency.

The Czechoslovak koruna (crown) was a soft currency, that is, not exchangeable for other currencies outside the country. In 1948 shops were established under the name Darex to sell goods to foreigners for foreign (hard) currency only (based on the earlier Torgsin shops in the Soviet Union). Later, these became open to ordinary citizens, but not for crowns. In 1950, to speed up transactions and limit fraud, foreign currency was first converted into Darex vouchers in values of crowns.

In 1957 the PZO (Foreign Trade Enterprise) Tuzex (a contraction of [domestic export]) was founded in order to get convertible foreign currency into the country. This currency came directly from foreigners visiting the country, but also from relatives or citizens working abroad, who could send currency to friends and family to buy items in Tuzex, with Tuzex vouchers instead of Darex ones. The vouchers could not be re-exchanged for foreign currency and were valid for a limited time. (The state would convert unused vouchers back to normal currency at a rate of 2 crowns per Tuzex crown, a fraction of their effective purchasing power.)

The first shop was established in Prague on Rytířská street, and the next in Bratislava. In 1961 there were 14 shops, rising to 170 in 1988.

However, the fact that otherwise unavailable luxuries could be purchased led to an unofficial or grey market (technically illegal but tolerated) buying Tuzex vouchers with Czechoslovak currency at a high premium, typically 5 to 1. The Darex and Tuzex vouchers were colloquially known as bony. The hustlers or spivs who would offer sell them on the street (close to Tuxex shop) were known as veksláci (from german wechsel - exchange) A 1987 film with title: ( vouchers and tranquility as a reference to Bonnie and Clyde) reflects the daily lives of petty criminals dealing with the vouchers.

Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the reformation of the country, citizens were able to travel abroad more freely and to legally deal with other currencies. In addition, improved domestic economy and more imports meant that Tuzex sales declined. The sale of Tuzex vouchers ceased on 30 June 1992.

As well as running the shops, the Tuzex corporation had activities in various countries in order to trade Czechoslovak goods and obtain supplies for the shops. This continued for a while after the closure of the shops in 1992 to complete contracts and for liquidation of the assets.

Tuzex vouchers were originally issued in values of 0.50, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 crowns and later 500 crowns. However, from 1958 there was a voucher of 71.50 crowns, being issued in exchange for US$10. Tuzex also issued vouchers to foreigners to buy motor fuel. In 1988 the first payment card in Czechoslovakia was introduced to allow cashless purchases at Tuzex stores.

Initially Tuzex stocked export-quality Czechoslovak products (e.g. fine chocolate, alcohol) at what would be a good price for foreigners, and Western products such as cigarettes. Better quality/style clothing became important, with Tuzex clothes becoming an indicator of success for some people. The clothes selection eventually included jeans (the first being the Italian brand Rifle in 1968) as the epitome of western or "Texas" clothing, white goods, and motor cars. The advantage in many cases was that such goods were available immediately instead of a long wait of possibly years.

In 1988 Tuzex had 170 shops which sold $250 million worth of goods, two-thirds western imports, and one-third export-quality items from Czechoslovakia.

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Tuzex was a series of state-run shops in Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1992 which did not accept normal Czechoslovak currency but only vouchers which could be purchased from banks using foreign currency. They supplied luxury items: local goods in short supply and in particular foreign goods.

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Write a little bit about Communist architecture.  What were the buildings like?  What were their purpose?  Did any of the ideas in the video seem interesting?

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Please use this column if you decide to write about something other than my suggestions.

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The Czech Republic has been a producer of fine crystal for hundreds of years with some towns and factories being centered on its production.   Nový Bor is one such town that has been producing fine crystal since at least 1870.  When Czechoslovakia came under the control of the communists many of the small glassblowing businesses were merged into large state owned businesses.  Despite these changes the glassblowing industry was fairly successful and even managed innovations in their craft and art despite the isolation imposed by the Iron Curtain. After the fall of communism many of the small companies returned to private hands.  Now glassblowing and Czech crystal remains an iconic product recognized around the world. Anyone who

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As someone who loves cooking, I chose to research Czech cuisine under communism. I came across a comprehensive article that broke down the effects of communist policies on food supply and preparation. Attached is a PDF of my summary, along with a link to the source.

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Madeline's response to Stalin's Monument

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Madeline's response to Stalin's Monument

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The Monument to Stalin only stood for seven years before it was destroyed due to a change in the political climate of the country. The sculptor was Otakar Švec who committed suicide a few days before the unveiling of the statue. He was the artist of many public sculptures including the Sunbeam Motorcyclist before it was destroyed by Hitler during his occupation of Prague. Švec had entered a contest to build a statue for Stalin without expecting to win and then was drawn in for years before eventually committing suicide. The giant sculpture, standing 51 feet high and 72 feet long, was worked on from 1949 until it was unveiled on May 1st, 1955. This statue was particularly unique because it was the largest group statue in Europe during that time and it also represented Stalin’s previous rule. The fall of Stalin came shortly after and the statue was a source of embarrassment to the Communist before until it was demolished by 1,800 pounds of explosives in 1962.

The statue was built in Letna Park and the remaining concrete slab where it had sat can still be visited today. This slab or base has been used for many different sculptures such as a metronome and a statue of Michael Jackson that stood 35 feet high. Not a great history but the people of Prague now use the spot as a popular meeting spot for skateboarders and there are plans to build an aquarium there.
As an American reading about this monument I was shocked by the artistic similarities I found between it and the monument of Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC. Pretty bad... but points out why research is very important when building monuments for EXTREMELY different people.

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Western music during Communist-controlled Czechoslovakia was widely suppressed. Western music and culture in general were seen as damaging to society, so it was natural that American rock and pop music would be restricted. Radio signals were often jammed to prevent people from getting access to it. Despite this, Czech civilians found ways to get around the ban, whether it be through illegally smuggling American music, recording and redistributing songs, or even covering American songs in their own language. Covers were technically fine, as long as the original lyrics were scrubbed and replaced with Czech. Civilians would also often set up illegal bazaars to sell and exchange illegally recorded records, turning up a generous profit; the average salary in the ‘80s was around 2,000 crowns and records could be bought and sold for 500 crowns. There would be some exceptions made over the years thanks to the restless hunger for American music, allowing some westerners to hold concerts, such as Louis Armstrong in 1968, and The Beach Boys in 1969. Overall, it was hard to maintain a complete ban on American music even under strict Communist control, as the desire for western music was evidently stronger than the forces that opposed it.

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Otakar Svec was the creator of the Stalin monument located in Letna Park, Prague, Czechoslovakia. The statue was incredibly large, measuring at 51 feet high and 72 feet long. It only stood for seven years; it had become increasingly embarrassing for members of the communist party in Czechoslovakia. Quite an apt metaphor for the effect communism had on the Czech republic, Otakar Svec had killed himself days before the unveiling of the monument. The oppressive Stalin regime, in the process of memorializing their leader, smothered the life of an artist, one who was considered to be a part of the First Republic, the independent Czechoslovak state between the world wars (Shimov, 2016). Poetically, however, in the 90s the space beneath the statue's plinth became a social site for art; first a pirate radio station operated there, and then it quickly became one of Prague's first rock clubs. Art was revived in the name of justice, hopefully giving some reprieve to the oppressed artist, Otakar Svec.

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Who was its creator? Where was it built?  Why was it different or unique?  Why do you think it was destroyed?

The Stalin monument was created in the Czech Republic in 1955 by sculptor Otakar Svec, only to be demolished a short seven years later. The monument was built to honor Joseph Stalin. During the de-Stalinization period, it was decided that the monument would be removed. I think it was destroyed because the people of Prague did not want their city to be represented by a ruthless dictator.