The tour, conducted by Thomas, took us to the other side of the Vltava River in Holešovice and mostly focused on young Czech artists who do graffiti and engage in expressive political activity; ethical hackers, the “parallel police” and the like. Thomas gave us a good background on what Czech thinking is relating to communism (memories of repression, suspicion of others) We traveled by foot and by tram and saw a boatload of very neat things, artist workspaces. We saw galleries being reclaimed from a massive slaughterhouse compound. Thomas explained that Czechs are not too keen on getting very friendly with strangers, a holdover from the communist era, when even a friend, coworker or family member might be an informant reporting back to the authorities on you. There was some optimism about trust in fellow human beings after liberation from the Nazis; some Czechs were hopeful about communism, but authoritarian rule from Moscow ensued. Lack of free, speech and imposed borders among other factors soured Czechs on communism. Due to these still poignant memories, they are very supportive of refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He pointed out a large mural on a building by Ukrainian artist entitled something like Red Demon. The Czech Republic has taken in about 1 million Ukrainian refugees a considerable number considering that the population is only 12 million. He said every seventh person you encounter in the city of Prague is Ukrainian.

The short version https://youtube.com/shorts/d2XIRoxhqB8

The medium version https://youtu.be/H-b4yD6SXdE

The longer version  https://youtu.be/9FRWovgloMA