Introduction 1882 - I 1887 1891 - II 1895 - III 1898 1899 1900 1901 - IV 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 - V 1908 1910 1911 1912 - VI 1913 1914 1915 1916 1918 1919 1920 - Local Events 1920 - VII 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 - VIII 1927 1928

SOKOL POSTCARDS and Poster Stamps 1948 - XI - Prague (Click on any image to view an enlarged version) Official Poster Above: An amusing postcard advertising a Masqerade Ball at Palace Lucerna, a large hall in central Prague (owned by the grandfather of the first post-Communist president, V. Havel). This was the last Sokol event prior to the Communist takeover. Visiting card detailing the programme for 20 hours on 5th February 1948, - by invitation only Sokol riders by the equestrian section of Prague Sokol Costumes: masks, dinner jackets or uniforms, for the Masked Ball, with music by J. Maudr's Jazz Band. Ticket prices listed. The eleventh festival, in 1948, was the first one held post-WWII, and would have been banned by the new Communist government, but preparations had gone too far for them to prevent it. The spectacle "Faithful Forever" commemorated Sokols that died during the war. The number of participants of the festival exceeded 500,000. During the processions, there wer demonstrations against the communist regime and President Gottwald, leading to punishment of more than 1,000 Sokol members after the festival. Shortly thereafter the Communists created their own "Spartacist Games," which were boycotted by the true Sokols. No true Sokol games were held again until after the fall of the Communist regime, in 1989. Again there were both summer and winter games, and again postal cards were issued for each. There were two sets of 8 for the winter games, and for the summer games a set of 16 captioned in Czech plus a set of 8 captioned in Czech and French. Some of these are shown at the bottom of this page. In addition, two sets of postage stamps were issued for these games. These are shown along with a First Day souvenir folder at the bottom of the page. POSTER STAMPS There were two sets of "official" poster stamps issued for these Games. The first, below, consists of setenant blocks of ten designs. I have seen it in four languages - English, French, Spanish, and Russian. Surely it was issued in Czech as well! And how about German? No, probably not!     The second set is a single, simple design with a falcon, the symbol of Sokol ("sokol" means "falcon"). I have seen it in five colors. And above is a single stamp with the message Spoříme na XI. všesokolský slet (Save for the XI Slet), which must have been issued the prior year, and obviously was designed as a partner to the blue set above. RUDÉ PRÁVO Advertising Stamps Štefan Šuták sent me scans of his collection of poster stamps issued in 1948 by the Czech Communist newspaper Rudé Právo. Below is an example. CLICK HERE to see them all!   Membership stamps, 1948, 1949, 1950 I have not seen a lot of these, though they must be plentiful. Did every club have its own stamps, or were they issued at a higher level - per district / national? The lack of any ID except the COS logo suggests they are national, and the design was changed each year.   POST CARDS Three reproductions of cards/paintings from earlier Slets: 1887, 1895, 1901     Artists: Ženíšek, Preisler, Wachsmann     ------     --------- The cards below seem to have been the "official" set for this Slet, as not only do they comprise 12 designs, they were issued in at least NINE languages - I have Czech, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Slovak, Esperanto, and Danish. I am showing one example of each design, and all nine languages. Unfortunately, the backs of these cards have no text except "HP" in the bottom left corner, and the Slet logo at bottom center. All are exactly the same. EXAMPLE HERE                 --------- Postal Cards SUMMER GAMES (all 16 in Czech shown)                               WINTER GAMES 8 of 16 shown Postage Stamps Note the setenant labels - there were 12 of these per sheet, with 100 postage stamps. Image of a complete sheet HERE - (Image courtesy of Burda Auction House) ------------ Matchbox labels I suspect there are many more of these. In fact, I am surprised I have seen NO Sokol matchbox labels at all prior to 1948. ------------ Sokol pin ------------ POSTER STAMPS Local Slet and Stamp Exhibition (!) - Pisek SLET SOKOLSKÉ ŽUPY JERONYMOVY PISKU 1948 IV. VYSTAVA POSTOVNICH ZNAMEK

1929 1930 1931 1932 - IX 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 - X 1939 1943 - London 1946 1947 1948 - XI 1948 - Rudé Právo labels 1951 1989 1990 1994 - XII 1996 UNDATED Chile USA Slovak Catholic Sokol DTJ Orel YUNAK Links References Acknowledgments UPDATES