Cold War Communism Prague with a Local Historian Semiprivate

Jiri is an excellent guide with lots of local historical knowledge. He was flexible with giving us a last minute time slot for a tour. Would highly recommend this tour if you are interested in learning more about the communism period in the Czech Republic.

Great tour. Our guide (Hana) was very friendly and insightful, sharing her personal experience under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and prepared a lot of historical pictures of Nazi and Soviet occupation we could use to compare with the actual sights we visited in the present. On top of that, she showed around other interesting parts of Prague, gave us movie/documentary and other visit recommendations for our trip in Prague. Very great and insightful guide, would absolutely recommend.

I would highly recommend this tour. We covered a lot of ground—from WWI and WWII to the Cold War and changes after the Cold War—while seeing various historical sites related to this history. The perspective also was very grounded in real, personal experiences—making it unique and more memorable.

Jiří is more than just an excellent tour guide. He's a historian with a vast amount of knowledge that he shares throughout a 3-hour tour that goes swiftly because it is so informative. He was able to answer all of our questions, and as a family interested in history those questions were not always basic ones. His English is excellent and he is very likeable. He had spent a lot of time interviewing veterans of several countries to capture their stories and in doing so he is preserving an oral history that is rapidly disappearing. Although he says his expertise is WWII history, he seemed equally knowledgeable about Prague's Cold War era. I highly recommend Jiří as a tour guide!

Jiri is a great tour guide! He spoke English perfectly and has a friendly demeanor. He peppers his tour with his research and family’s experience. I visited Prague in 1990 just after the Velvet Revolution and Jiri brought life back to my memories. As a history teacher and researcher, I highly recommend this tour.

Hana was an experienced guide, sincere in her desire to provide us with a great experience. She lived through much of the period that interested us which gave her a perspective that we might not have had with a younger guide. She also took us to parts of the city we would have never found on her own and discussed art, modern politics and non communist related history such as the heroism of the heroic Czechs who attacked the Nazis who had occupied Prague. She shared several Hollywood interpretations of these and other events which I l look forward to watching. My one concern is that we started the tour in Wenceslas Square which is incredibly noisy because of construction and also because of endless fire trucks , police sirens etc, so we missed a lot of what she said for the first ten minutes Maybe it would be better to start the tour in a quiet care down the street.

Great tour. Hugely informative and moving. Putting a personal slant in history. Good value and friendly guide

He was incredible. His knowledge was vast and is passion for history infectious. We did a few tours with him. Very personable, he went at the right pace.

My wife and I had a three-hour tour with Jiri that became the highlight of our trip to Prague even before the tour began. I let Jiri know that my French Canadian father who never talked that much about his early life had earned his doctorate in chemical engineering in Prague back in the 1930s. I wasn’t sure of the year or which campus he attended. Jiri via text immediately told me he had access to the Charles University archives and would search the school records. Equipped only with my father’s name and birthdate, he proceeded to find my father’s registration entry, identifying his term in Prague (summer 1931 to April 1932), the campus he attended (Albertov, at what was the old German University and is now part of Charles University) and his teaching mentor for his doctorate. He also offered to take us to the campus as part of our tour. Jiri is passionate about Czech history, and that passion guarantees that you will have a memorable time with him. With our private group, Jiri combined elements of the WW II experience, the Prague Spring in 1968 and the Velvet Revolution in 1989. His well-researched stories come frequently with a personal touch - good chance you will have to shed a tear or two along the way. His collection of historical pictures helps to visualize all the drama that has unfolded in Prague during the 20th Century. His English is excellent, and you can tell he wants you to end the tour with a deeper understanding of the Prague experience. And as promised, at the end of the tour he took us to the Albertov campus about a 10-minute walk from the Dancing House, where I was able to see the same buildings where my Dad attended lectures 93 years ago, and the nearby student pub where he had no idea his son would visit almost 100 years later to raise a pint of Pilsner in his honour. All thanks to Jiri. I am indebted to the extra effort he expended to ensure we had a tour that we will never forget. I doubt if you will find a more informative, intelligent and conscientious tour guide than Jiri. Well done, and thank you!

Jiri was a wonderful guide. He was pleasant, easy going and very knowledgeable. He was very patient with all of our questions and presented the events in a logical manner. I highly recommend this tour for anyone interested in the communist era in the Czech Republic.