Moravians (ethnic group)

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Moravians
Total population	373,000
Regions with significant populations	Czech Republic: 380,474 (2001)
Language	Moravian dialects of the Czech language.
Religion	Catholicism.
Related ethnic groups	Czechs, other Slavic peoples

This article deals with the modern national/ethnic group. For other meanings see Moravian.

Moravians (Moravané or colloquially Moraváci in Czech) are the Slavic inhabitants of modern Moravia, the easternmost part of the Czech Republic. They speak Moravian dialects of the Czech language or Standard Czech and are nowadays mostly considered a branch of the Czechs, though originally closely related also to the Slovaks (they were part of the same state during the time of Great Moravia).

1,363,000 citizens of the Czech Republic declared Moravian nationality in the 1991 census. The number dropped to 380,474, however, in the 2001 census - the persons previously declaring themselves as Moravians have declared to be Czechs in this census.

The question, whether Moravians do belong to the Czech nation or not, is still alive for some groups in Moravia. Some Moravians declare separate ethnicity in polls. However, the problem has almost no political dimension and for most people the question of a 'Moravian language' or a 'Moravian nation' is purely a part of folklore.

A reason for the disputes, whether Moravians do belong to Czechs or not, may be arising from the fact that, for far-off historical reasons, both the Czech expression for a Czech and that for a Bohemian are the same ('Čech'). Then theoretically it may not be clear, which category is mentioned. This leads some people (politicians, etc.) to address Bohemians, Moravians and sometimes even Silesians in their speeches.

Other reason is cultural difference. The south and middle Moravia, center of Moravians, is cleary more religious as the rest of Czech republic and is bastion of catholic church and christian democrats.

Only in the first years after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 a few Moravian political parties seemed to be able to gain some success in the elections. However they lost their strength much around the time of Dissolution of Czechoslovakia three years later when Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. According to some politologists most people in Moravia were afraid of the possibility of another division of the diminishing country.

To the north of Moravia is historically a part of Silesia (Slezsko in Czech, Śląsk in Polish, Schlesien in German), therefore a Moravian-Silesian Region (Kraj moravskoslezský) was created in 1990s.