Sheet CZ 2015 - Fight for Czech Statehood 1915

Sheet Czech Republic 2015 - Struggle for Czech Statehood 1915.

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Sheet Czech Republic 2015 - The Struggle for Czech Statehood 1915.
Author: Jan Maget
Printing sheets: 3 AP
Perforation: RZ 11 ¾
Printing method: full-color offset
Print run: 51,000 pcs
Issue number: A865/866
Release date: 14.10.2015

Specification:
The sheet includes these two stamps:

catalog number 0865: size 40 x 50 mm, denomination 27,- CZK
catalog number 0866: size 40 x 50 mm, denomination 27,- CZK
The stamps depict war motifs.

On the first stamp is the unveiling of the monument to Master Jan Hus on the 500th anniversary of his burning. The long-prepared celebrations were banned, but the unveiling of the monument to Master Jan Hus on the day of the 500th anniversary of his burning was nevertheless a clear demonstration of very specific national aspirations.

To the figure of Master Jan Hus and the Hussite warriors, a group of post-White Mountain exiles was added, reminding of the despair over the loss of the homeland.

The lands of the Czech Crown were truly strangled in their own development, which was then at the cultural peak of Europe. Tolerance and coexistence between Catholics and reformers were unknown elsewhere. Czech was the official language and, thanks to the translators of the Unity of Brethren (Kralice Bible), elevated to a language capable of expressing every emotional and legal aspect of human existence. On the shield with the chalice, which is also on our coupon, is an inscription that had great significance and was also binding for Šaloun's monument scenario: "The truth will set us free." The desire to live in Truth eventually made it onto the presidential flag.

In the left coupon of the sheet, the flag of the "Nazdar" company commemorates the formation of the Legions in France and their combat deployment in the area around Arras. Below the flag is a copy of the cross of John of Luxembourg from Crécy. In the area of northwestern France, Czechs and their representatives have been militarily engaged since the Middle Ages, thus reminding of our statehood. Near the village of La Targette near Arras is the cemetery of Czechoslovak members of the "Nazdar" company, which was decimated here in the Battle of Arras on May 9, 1915. In 1924, on the initiative of the Association of Czechoslovak Volunteers in France, a site was purchased here for the construction of a memorial for fallen Czechoslovak soldiers in France, and gradually their remains were gathered here from all battlefields of the Western Front from 1915–1918. After 1945, the remains of fallen Czechoslovak soldiers from 1940 and the end of World War II at Dunkirk, including 29 of our airmen, were transferred here. In the middle of the cemetery stands a stone cross, which is a copy of the "Czech Cross" (Croix de Bohême), whose original stands in the fields near Crécy-en-Ponthieu and commemorates the death of the blind Czech King John of Luxembourg in battle on August 26, 1346.

The tombstones have a uniform design (cross for Christians, rounded stone for other faiths) and bear the name of the fallen, rank, unit, and date of death, if known, with the uniform addendum MORT POUR LA PATRIE (Died for the Homeland). In the left coupon is M. R. Štefánik in an aviator's helmet. The beginning of the war did not surprise Štefánik, he saw in the war mainly the possibility of Slovak independence, which he immediately associated with the Czechs from the beginning. At the beginning of 1915, he obtained a pilot's diploma and the rank of corporal. Even as an aviator, he constantly had in mind the independence of Czechs and Slovaks and attempted to create a Czecho-Slovak volunteer unit. At the beginning of September 1915, he was sent to the Serbian front, where he further developed this effort. After the defeat of Serbia, Štefánik returned to Paris, where he met with the most important politicians: Prime Minister Aristide Briand and the most influential man at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Philippe Berthelot. Štefánik continued to promote the plan to create a Czecho-Slovak state. On December 13, 1915, he met with E. Beneš, and both agreed on Štefánik's and Masaryk's concept of an independent state. Štefánik's new role, which he set for himself, was to create a single control center for the joint resistance of Czechs and Slovaks and also to create an independent Czecho-Slovak army and promote it among politicians.

He also informed Prime Minister Aristide Briand about these plans and arranged his meeting with Masaryk. The meeting between Masaryk and Briand was successful, and Masaryk won Briand over to his concept of solving the Central European question.

In the lower left part of the sheet is a tangle of still living and already dead, fiercely attacking and helplessly falling Czechs in the uniforms of opposing armies against the background of crosses, symbols of suffering and hope. There are also fictional police portraits of Czech politicians K. Kramář and A. Rašín, sentenced to death, the future Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. War hysteria led the monarchy to tighten sanctions against national expressions. T. G. Masaryk and E. Beneš emigrated to avoid persecution. Czech associations were dissolved, the use of Czech in official communication was banned. Books about Czech history, Czech magazines were banned, censorship "cleaned" textbooks and theater repertoires, school libraries were closed. At the bottom of the sheet is depicted a war "Pieta". In the upper left part is a reminder of one of the most insidious weapons - the use of poison gas at Ypres. The idea of using poison gases was first introduced by the Germans. The gas was delivered to the front lines in metal cylinders. On the given day, if the wind was right, the valves on the cylinders were opened, and the gas was allowed to escape. The deadly cloud was blown by the wind across no man's land to the enemy lines. On April 22, 1915, after two days of enemy artillery fire that destroyed the medieval town of Ypres, British soldiers noticed a yellow-green cloud rising above the German trenches. The cloud hit the left flank of the British lines. The deadly cloud of chlorine struck the French units, mostly from Algeria. They were helpless against the gas and fled the battlefield. Canadian units, which were also reached by the edge of the cloud, held on bravely. They defended against the gas with primitive means available to them. Soldiers, for example, breathed through urine-soaked socks. A month of continuous fighting later, on May 24, 1915, the Germans once again ordered a gas attack on Ypres. This time the gas hit Canadian units. They held on, but at the cost of terrible losses. In the upper right is a view of a naval conflict. From our Czech perspective, naval engagements at the Dardanelles against Turkey are not so closely watched, but one of the main creators of the landing concept at Gallipoli on the Dardanelles is the personality of W. Churchill, and that is from the perspective of the further fate of the world, unmistakable. The landing failed and in a way was the cause of the defeat and exodus of the Serbian army. The fate of Serbia was decided in the Dardanelles. As long as the British invasion, the Battle of Gallipoli, was ongoing, Bulgaria did not dare to attack Serbia, rather help from Greece and Romania was expected. When it became clear that the British attack on Gallipoli was losing steam, the situation on the Balkan battlefield suddenly changed. The attack on Serbia began on October 6, 1915. The Bulgarian attack was led through the Morava Valley, and the Austro-Hungarian army attacked Belgrade. The battle for Belgrade was incredibly brutal, but even with the help of British and French artillery, the Serbs had no chance against such overwhelming odds. The remnants of the army retreated under appalling conditions through Albania and Montenegro to the Adriatic coast. Serbian historiography often calls this period the Serbian Golgotha.

In the lower right are some of the actors of the world conflict: Russian Tsar Nicholas II, General Hindenburg, later German president, English King George V, Emperor Wilhelm II of Prussia, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Japanese Emperor Taisho (Yoshihito), Emperor Franz Joseph I, and the already mentioned W. Churchill, at that time the First Lord of the Admiralty - Minister of the Navy.

In the right part of the upper coupon is a portrait of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. During the First World War, Masaryk abandoned his original view that Austria-Hungary could be reformed into a modern union of autonomous countries. Masaryk left for Switzerland in January 1915. He presented the British Foreign Minister with a memorandum Independent Bohemia, in which he proposed "the re-establishment of Bohemia as an independent state." He also proposed a personal union between Serbia and the Czechoslovak state. On July 6, 1915, he delivered his famous speech in the Reformation Hall of the University of Geneva on the 500th anniversary of Hus's burning, in which he declared a fight against Habsburg domination: "We condemn violence, we do not want and will not use it. However, against violence, we will defend ourselves even with iron." In nearby Chamonix under Mont Blanc in France, Masaryk met with Štefánik. Masaryk admired the organization and good secrecy of the Sicilian Mafia, so the Czech resistance organization, as a secret society, was called the Czech Mafia. It was these "Mafiosi" who became the driving force of our resistance during the First World War, and Professor Masaryk influenced them from exile. At the axis of the sheet at the very bottom is a red poppy flower. "In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row," these words from the poem by Canadian Lieutenant John McCrae, which he wrote in 1915 in honor of a fallen friend, quickly spread and contributed to the poppy being associated with remembrance for the fallen victims of war conflicts. For centuries, poppies have been sprouting on all battlefields. It is probably due to the lime that penetrates the soil from the rubble.

Above all events, the flags of the participating states fly. In this sheet, the red and white bicolor is already subtly emerging.

On the left edge of the sheet, a silver foil in the form of two Hussite banners is applied. We will continue with this addition in further series.

source: ceskaposta.cz