Klub českého pohraničí

Klub českého pohraničí, zapsaný spolek (KČP) is a Czech registered association with nationwide scope that brings together former members, auxiliaries and employees of the Czechoslovak Border Guard and similar services, along with their sympathisers. Its stated ideology is a sharply left-wing, communist Czech nationalism with a tinge of proletarian internationalism. Although its statutes profile it as a non-political civic association, it is ideologically and organisationally close to the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and to national-social parties. The club publishes its own bulletin, Hraničář. Its central motto is 'Jen zůstane-li naše pohraničí české, zůstane českou i celá naše vlast' ('Only if our borderland remains Czech will our whole homeland remain Czech'). Its symbols are the head of a Chod dog as rendered by Mikoláš Aleš in a heraldic coat of arms and the Hussite chorale 'Ktož jsú boží bojovníci'. The club's origins lie in a Marxist-Leninist club of the 35th basic organisation of the Communist Party in Chomutov, within which the first Klub přátel českého pohraničí (Club of Friends of the Czech Borderland) was founded in May 1990, initially focused exclusively on Czech-German coexistence in the borderland and its interpretation. On 18 August 1991, the Klub českého pohraničí was founded alongside it in Chomutov. In February 1992, with supporters from the Děčín, Chomutov, Teplice and Ústí nad Labem districts, a preparatory committee of the North Bohemian Regional Council of the KČP was established, with Vladimír Šíma elected chairman. The preparatory committee drafted a framework programme and statutes and in July 1992 published the first issue of the magazine Hraničář, in which these documents appeared; Zdeněk Blahout was its first editor-in-chief. The club was registered by the Ministry of the Interior as a civic association on 22 July 1992. The KČP describes its activity as left-wing. It works to 'eliminate the negative influence of Sudeten German compatriot organisations and associations' and opposes 'efforts at the civic renewal of the Sudetenland'. It places strong emphasis on defending the post-war expulsion of Germans and on fighting against the (re-)Germanisation of the Sudetenland. It also opposes the Americanisation of culture and lifestyle. At the same time it declares proletarian internationalism, the strengthening of friendly relations among people living and working in border districts of neighbouring states, and cooperation with left-wing organisations of neighbouring states against social injustice and the impoverishment of working people in border regions. In its programme it calls itself an 'independent, democratic and patriotic association of citizens of the Czech Republic without distinction of nationality, race, sex, political affiliation or religious belief'. It cooperates, for example, with the German Revolutionary Union of Friendship, the Polish Patriotic Organisation and the Slav Committee, and seeks contacts with ethnographic organisations of the Lusatian Sorbs, the Society of Friends of Slovakia and left-wing social organisations in the borderlands of Bavaria and Austria. Among Czech organisations it reportedly cooperates, besides the KSČM, with the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters, the Patriotic Association of Anti-Fascists, the Circle of Citizens of the Czech Republic Expelled after 1938 from the Borderland, the Committee of National Culture, the Ludvík Svoboda Society, Free Thought and others. Representatives of all parliamentary parties are invited to KČP national assemblies, but only the KSČM and ČSSD have delegated representatives; at regional and local events it cooperates mainly with the KSČM.

The origins of the Klub českého pohraničí (KČP) lie in a Marxist-Leninist club of the 35th basic organisation of the Communist Party in Chomutov. Within that framework, the first Klub přátel českého pohraničí (Club of Friends of the Czech Borderland) was founded in May 1990, initially focused exclusively on Czech-German coexistence in the borderland and its interpretation. On 18 August 1991, the Klub českého pohraničí was founded alongside it in Chomutov. In February 1992, with the participation of supporters from the Děčín, Chomutov, Teplice and Ústí nad Labem districts, a preparatory committee of the North Bohemian Regional Council of the KČP was established; Vladimír Šíma was elected chairman of the North Bohemian Regional Council. The preparatory committee drafted a framework programme and statutes and in July 1992 published the first issue of the magazine Hraničář, in which these documents were published. Zdeněk Blahout was the first editor-in-chief of Hraničář. The club was registered by the Ministry of the Interior as a civic association on 22 July 1992. In its early period the club supported the preservation of the common Czech-Slovak state. It opposed the Czech Republic's membership in NATO and the European Union, the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, the construction of an American radar base in Czechia, and the deployment of Czech soldiers in foreign missions (especially Afghanistan) without UN approval, and it opposed the honouring of the Mašín brothers and similar people, whom it labels murderers and terrorists. In 1995 the first government report on extremism in Czechia mentioned the club as a security threat to the state, in the chapter on left-wing neo-Bolshevik groupings. It came to the attention of the Security Information Service (BIS) especially when it opposed the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union. According to Miroslav Mareš, the association displays certain extreme features but has no potential to overturn the political regime. In the 1990s, according to Jan Gerbert, Sládek's Republicans also sympathised with the club alongside the communist party; in 2004 Tomáš Vandas, chairman of the Workers' Party, spoke at a KČP meeting in Cheb. According to a 2009 article by Jan Gerbert in Lidové noviny, the club brings together former officers, soldiers, border guards, communists and their sympathisers frustrated by the fall of socialism; it has around 6,000 members and the potential to appeal both to supporters of the far left and the right. Nováková in 2008 gives a figure of 7,000 to 8,000 members, and the club reportedly keeps no central membership register. According to Nováková, members of the club and its sections are mainly those border guards who held higher positions, but also civilians from border districts who regard the border guards of the time as heroes and defenders of the homeland; the overwhelming majority of members are of retirement age. Although the association's chairman Karel Janda is a communist, he claims the club is not clearly politically organised or oriented, and that the reason for its shared address with the KSČM is a low rent offered to it. The club deals in detail especially with the history of the Border Guard of socialist Czechoslovakia, but it also embraces the legacy of Edvard Beneš and the tradition of Chod border guarding – the Chod dog is also in the KČP emblem. In its statutes it also embraces the heritage of the Hussite revolutionary movement and the national revival, and the ideas of Masaryk, Štefánik, Beneš and others for building the common state of the two brotherly nations of Czechs and Slovaks, as well as the activities of the State Defence Guard, the Financial Guard, border units of the National Security Corps (SNB) and the Border Guard. In its statutes it declares support for good relations with all nations on the principle of equality and respect for state sovereignty in accordance with fundamental human and civil rights. The club emphasises defending the protection of borders under socialist Czechoslovakia and opposes its criminalisation and scandalisation. In October 2025 the club launched a public protest campaign against the planned congress of the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft in Brno in 2026, and submitted a petition to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic under Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and Act No. 85/1990 Coll. on the right of petition, opposing the congress scheduled for 22–25 May 2026 in Brno.

• First Klub přátel českého pohraničí founded within the Marxist-Leninist club of the 35th basic organisation of the Communist Party in Chomutov.

• Klub českého pohraničí founded in Chomutov.

• Preparatory committee of the North Bohemian Regional Council of the KČP established; Vladimír Šíma elected chairman.

• First issue of the magazine Hraničář published; Zdeněk Blahout first editor-in-chief.

• KČP registered by the Ministry of the Interior as a civic association.

• First government report on extremism in Czechia mentions the club as a security threat in the chapter on left-wing neo-Bolshevik groupings.

• Tomáš Vandas, chairman of the Workers' Party, speaks at a KČP meeting in Cheb.

• KČP launches public protest campaign and submits a petition against the 2026 Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft congress in Brno.

Left-wing, communist Czech nationalist association of former border guards and sympathisers; self-described as non-political but ideologically close to KSČM.

• Hraničář

  Club bulletin, first published in July 1992.

• Protest against the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft congress in Brno 2026

1. 1Klub pohraničí, z.s. – official websiteklub-pohranici.cz
2. 2Klub českého pohraničí – Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Klub českého pohraničí – Czech Wikipediacs.wikipedia.org