History of Kudrna Marches

How Žanek Kudrna went from Brno to Vienna and elsewhere

The 1982 march was attracted
by the columbine
Žanek Kudrna like this.


The soul of the Kudrnovs,
Vilda Dvořák.
photo archive of Vilda Dvořák

Kudrna goes to Vienna

„Kudrna is going around Brno, he is taking colomaz to Kojetín. Milej Kudrna, grease your bike so it doesn't squeak all over Brno,“ sings the song that inspired a group of enthusiasts to organise Kudrna's Vans.

We do not require accommodation in Vienna, said one whole family on the application form for the „Kudrna Goes to Vienna“ march in 1982. „Please, will there be any time off for shopping in Vienna?“ was the question of another applicant. „We would also like to know how the return trip back to the Czechoslovakia will be organised,“ asked another fully registered family.

„I wonder if a foreign currency pledge is necessary. If so, please disregard my application,“ wrote another. On the other hand, another supported his interest in participating by saying that he was a member of the SSM (Socialist Youth Union), ROH (Revolutionary Trade Union Movement), SČSP (Union of Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship) and that he was fulfilling the performance badge of hiking.

Progressive youth from Vienna

In front of Vienna, near Velky Mezirici
during the long-distance march „Kudrna goes
to Vienna“ passport control at the installed
barrier with customs. Who did not know his
passport number, the organizers
borrowed a tape measure to measure
the volume of their passport.
photo archive of Vilda Dvořák

By and large, some people „bought“ the organizers that the Czech Union of Physical Education and the Brno tourist union Lokomotiva, together with the „progressive youth organization in Vienna“ (in reality a local SSM organization) were organizing a long-distance march to Vienna, Austria. To a place where otherwise only a select few could go. In Czechoslovakia, firmly on the „western“ borders. In the midst of normalization.
„What do you Brnoers dare, it's too much. But those who can, can! I believe you will get to Vienna,“ was another envious message on the application form from Bohemia. But, needless to say, in the context of the then flourishing recession, it was in fact the eponymous village of Vienna, which lies just a few kilometres north of Velky Mezirici. From the Brno dam, it was reached via Veverská Bítýška through the valley of the Bílý brook and through Velká Bíteš, Ořechov and Kozlov for about sixty kilometres.
Vilém (called Vilda) Dvořák – a frequent organizer of „long-distance“ events in Brno and South Moravia – and his friends from the Lokomotiva Brno physical education unit were behind the idea of where the hypothetical Žanek Kudrna from the famous song could go. They started Kudrna's career in 1979.

Along the banks of six fine rivers

„It was then that we took over the organisation of the March around the Brno Dam from Lojza Růžička, a well-known Brno tourist and a man who was very instrumental in the development of tourist signs in our country,“ recalls Dvořák, whom everyone calls Vildo.
Since 1977, he and his friends also organised the „Spring Hike along the banks of six fine rivers“, when they marched all day and night for a hundred kilometres around the popular tramp streams Bobrava, Rokytná, Jihlava, Oslava, Bílý potok and Svratka. „We organised four editions in total, so that those who walked a maximum of 25 kilometres could gradually walk the entire hundred-kilometre circuit,“ explains Vilda Dvořák, adding that from June 1980 onwards, the newly established Kudrna and its vanders began to make the most of it. „That's when we thought that we could add joke tasks to the marching. For example, stamps at checkpoints were given only for singing or for some exercise,“ he smiles.

Noční lávka – v cíli pochodu „Jede
Kudrna do Vídně“ se pořádaly různé taškařice.
foto archiv Vildy Dvořáka


Hesla a vlajky – Akce Kudrnovců byla jedna
velká recese, která si utahovala z panujících
metod tehdejšího režimu.
foto archiv Vildy Dvořáka

Birth of Kudrna – „Kudrna goes around Brno“

As the main character of long-distance marches and other shenanigans, Kudrna was born as follows. „We were sitting in the Černohorská beer hall, where there is now a McDonald's on Masaryk Street, and we were thinking how to complete the Spartakiada march to Praha to the required length by some loops around Brno. This was so that we could complete the first degree credit route and be masters of hiking one day. Dvořák recalls how his friend Luboš Gross (called Tumba) suddenly said in pure Brno: „For four years I've had this idea in my head that we would walk around Brno according to the song 'Kudrna goes around Brno'.“ At that exact moment, Vilda Dvořák is said to have understood that he had been given the gift of his life. The very next day he ran with his friends to the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore Studies to get all the versions of the song collected by Sušil, Erben and others.

„We learned that Kudrna was a wheelwright who used to ride around Brno with a schmear in a wheelbarrow, so in the following years I became a complete expert in wheelwrighting,“ laughs Vilém Dvořák, who then travelled to various destinations „with Kudrna“ until, after the regime change, he and a group of organizers founded the present-day Brno travel agency Kudrna.

Kudrna's vandras were visited all year round. One of the oldest was the „March around the Brno Dam“, which is still called „Kudrna goes around Brno“. It is the only one in our country to be included in the „International Walking League IML“.

Pishingr (pišingr), bridge, passport number...

There were more applications for their vandras than the organizers could take. „Only a certain number of luggage could fit into the cars, and more people would not have been able to cram into the evening program with bands and various funny performances or to sleep in the gym,“ Dvořák explains, explaining how people arranged their attendance long in advance.

In addition to the night crossing of the footbridge with a wheelbarrow over the pond and the morning Kudrnaolympics with joke disciplines, the famous Kudrna's Pishingr was also created, which is still included in the price of the tours of the respective travel agency. „In Vienna, which was visited from ten different sides from 1982 to 1991, the gingerbread in the shape of a scarf was baked for us by members of the local Czechoslovak Women's Union,“ she recalls, and also remembers how, before Vienna, the passport numbers were checked from a tailor's tape measure at the customs barrier. Which was understood by one of the participants, who had already written in the application form: „Morning – 89, noon – 96, evening – 102.“

During the first year, however, a few of those who didn't get the joke prepared to emigrate. „The announcements, at which we were rolling with laughter, probably confused them a little,“ smiles Vilda Dvořák.
To explain: A passport is called a „pas“ in Czech. The waist is also called „pas“. People used to confuse the two.

Jana Soukupová, MF Dnes 4. února 2012