First day in Prague and Czech history

After a seven hour train journey from Budapest the next (first) day in Prague I hired a private tour guide. I had found a guide through Trip Advisor and was very pleased that Peter who works through a group called Lucy tours and he arrived at the AirBnB to pick me up. He was a most interesting guide. One of his grandparents had worked for the Communists and the other was an academic. Peter’s two parents were only born in the 1950’s. They were mathematicians. Peter was a certified trained tourist guide and his knowledge of Prague and Czech history was exceptional. 

The Czech recent history is fairly similar to Hungary but the years slightly different.  The recent and past history is very complicated and for anyone who wants clarification they should refer to Wikipedia. 

The territory was part of the Austria - Hungarian empire (the Hapsburgs) and was known as the Bohemian kingdom until after WWI. It was then known as the first Czechoslovak Republic. In 1938 the Germans (Nazis) occupied the Sudetenland (the northern part of Czechoslovakia).   During WWII Czech resistance fighters, who were trained by SOE in Britain managed to assassinate Richard Heydrich said to be the mastermind behind the Holocaust but there were terrible reprisals by the Nazis. Czech pilots flew in the Battle of Britain along with Polish Pilots.    After WWII in 1946 the Czech people voted to support the Communists. In February 1948 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power in a Coup de’Etat. (On December 26th 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved).  In November 1989 the Velvet Revolution occurred in Czechoslovakia taking back control from the communists.  On January 1st 1993 the Velvet Divorce occurred and Czech and Slovakia became separate states. Czech joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.