Established in 1862, the Sokol (Falcon) gymnastic-cum-paramilitary organization created the foundations of contemporary concepts of the Czech nation. During the interwar years, the many thousands of synchronized displays given by the Sokol clubs came to symbolize the popularization of the nationalist ideology and the notion of society’s mental and physical renewal. The organization, which had sympathized with National Socialism, was declared illegal by both the Nazis and later on the communist authorities of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1948.
Borcy (Fellas) is a male Sokol collective which was reactivated in the nineteen nineties and invokes the organization’s pre-war traditions.

Magnum photographer Rafal Milach photographed the 16th Sokol Rally in Prague.

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