Mánička

Mánička (in plural: máničky) is a Czech term used for young people with long hair, typically men, in Czechoslovakia through the 1960s and 1970s.

Following the February coup d'état of 1948, the new communist régime condemned some elements of the Western culture as an inherently decadent imperialist "import" into the socialist world.

[3] From the mid-1960s, the long-haired and "untidy" persons (so called "máničky" or "vlasatci" (in English: Mops)) were banned from entering pubs, cinema halls, theatres and using public transportation in several Czech cities and towns.

[3] In 1966, during a big campaign coordinated by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, around 4,000 young males were forced to cut their hair, often in prison cells under the supervision of the state police.

[3] According to the newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior in 1966 even compiled a detailed map of the frequency of occurrence of long-haired males in Czechoslovakia.

Similarly, an episode of the popular propagandistic TV series Thirty Cases of Major Zeman showed "máničky" as a harmful, criminal and drug-using social element.

Long-haired and intoxicated individuals in the episode called "Mimikry" (Mimicry, 1972) smuggle drugs with suspicious dealers from the Western imperialist world, they cause the death of a girl, and finally they attempt to flee to the West with a hijacked plane.

The Velvet Revolution and subsequent transformation of the Czechoslovak society into a democratic system caused significant changes, and long hair as a manifestation of defiance gradually lost the previous meaning of a "protest" act.

[2] "Máničky" had the support of numerous personalities in Czechoslovakia: former Czech President Václav Havel,[1] the poet Ivan Martin Jirous, the musician Milan Hlavsa and the politician Alexandr Vondra among others.

Screenshot from an episode of the propagandistic TV series Thirty Cases of Major Zeman , showing "máničky" as a harmful, criminal and drug-using social class.
Decision issued by the Municipal National Committee in Poděbrady prohibiting the entry of so-called "Mánička" into most public buildings (dated 10 October 1966).
The Plastic People of the Universe , veterans of the Czech cultural underground scene. Their performances were regularly visited by the long-haired "máničky" in the 1960s and 1970s.