Moravians (ethnic group)

This article deals with the modern national/ethnic group. For other meanings see Moravian.

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Moravians are the Slavic inhabitants of modern Moravia, the easternmost part of the Czech Republic. They speak Moravian dialects of the Czech language and are nowadays mostly considered a branch of the Czechs.

Related Topics:
Slavic - Moravia - Czech Republic - Czech language - Czechs

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The question, whether Moravians do belong to the Czech nation or not, is still alive for some groups in Moravia. Some Moravians declare separate ethnicity in polls. However, the problem has almost no political dimension and for most people the question of a 'Moravian language' or a 'Moravian nation' is purely a part of folklore. A reason for the disputes, whether Moravians do belong to Czechs or not, may be arising from the fact that, for far-off historical reasons, both the Czech expression for a Czech and that for a Bohemian are the same ('Čech'). Then theoretically it may not be clear, which category is mentioned. This leads some people (politicians, etc.) to address Bohemians, Moravians and sometimes even Silesians in their speeches. Only in the first years after the Velvet Revolution a few Moravian political parties seemed to be able to gain some success in the elections. However they lost their strength much around the time of Velvet divorce when Czechoslovakia (peacefully) split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. According to some politologists most people in Moravia were afraid of the possibility of another division of the diminishing country.

Related Topics:
Nation - Ethnicity - Velvet Revolution - Velvet divorce - Czechoslovakia - Slovakia - Politologists

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To the north of Moravia (or rather a northern part of the Moravian region of the Czech Republic) is historically a part of Silesia (Slezsko in Czech, Śląsk in Polish, Schlesien in German), therefore a Moravian-Silesian Region (Kraj moravskoslezský) was created recently. The dialect has quite a strong Polish flavour.

Related Topics:
Silesia - Moravian-Silesian Region

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