Embracing christianity - west or east? focus on Moravia, closer or looser links? focus on Bohemia; from the periphery to the core - between pope and emperor. Fiefs and estates in the gothic sunshine, the hidden rifts; reforming christianity - the chalice versus the cross, the path of revolution, the chalice side by side with the cross, the warring estates; failure to sustain the impetus - impulses from abroad, north or south?, the ban on pluralism, escape to baroque; rebirth of national consciousness - new breezes from the west, the school of adolescence, the stops and starts ahead, land and language; from ethnic to political nation - school for parliamentarianism, national or class consciousness?, trying out democracy, a nation state or state of nationalities?; in the frontline again - between swastika and Red Star, disturbing the balance, east or west?, the new rebirth, miracle of the velvet revolution.