Fortuitous Poem by Milan Kundera

Since there is no single historical event
We can count on being commonly known,
I must speak of events that took place
A few years ago as if there were a thousand years old:

In 1939, the German army entered Bohemia
And the Czech state ceased to exist.

In 1945 the Russian army entered Bohemia
And the country, one again, was called an independent republic.

The people were enthusiastic about the Russia that had driven out the Germans
And seeing in the Czech Communist Party its faithful arm, they became sympathetic to it.

So the Communists took power in February 1948
With neither bloodshed nor violence,
But greeted by the cheers of about half the nation.

And now, please note:
The half that did the cheering
Was the more dynamic,
The more intelligent,
The better.