Czech History
The Velvet Revolution
During the second half of the 1980s, the general situation in
Czechoslovakia became more easygoing, especially after the
introduction of Perestroika reforms in the Soviet Union. But
the Czechoslovak leadership - still headed by Gustav Husak, who had
assumed power after the Soviet Invasion of 1968 - was wary of
movements intended to "reform communism from within" and continued
to toe a hard line in Czechoslovakia, much to the chagrin of Mikhail
Gorbachev. But by 1988 there were organized demonstrations demanding
change - and just about one month after the fall of the Berlin Wall,
communism in Czechoslovakia became a casualty as well.
The six-week period between November 17th and December 29th, 1989, also
known as the "Velvet Revolution" brought about the bloodless
overthrow of the Czechoslovak communist regime. Almost immediately,
rumors (which have never been proved) began to circulate that the
impetus for the Velvet Revolution had come from a KGB provocateur
sent by Gorbacev, who wanted reform rather than hardline communists
in power. The theory goes that the popular demonstrations went
farther than Gorbachev and the KGB had intended. In part because of
this, the Czechs do not like the term "Velvet Revolution,"
preferring to call what happened "the November Events" (Listopadove
udalosti) or - sometimes - just "November" (Listopad). But we
digress. It all started on November 17, 1989 - fifty years to the day that
Czech students
had held a demonstration to protest the Nazi occupation of
Czechoslovakia. On this anniversary, students in the capital city of
Prague were again
protesting an oppressive regime. The protest began as a legal rally to commemorate the death of
Jan Opletal, but turned
instead into a demonstration demanding democratic reforms. Riot
police stopped the students (who were making their way from the
Czech National Cemetery at Vysehrad to Wenceslas Square) in Narodni
trida. After a stand-off in which the students offered flowers to
the riot police and showed no resistance, the police bagan beating
the young demonstrators with night sticks. In all, at least 167
people were injured.
One student was reportedly beaten to death, and - although this
was later proved false - this rumor served to crystallize support
for the students and their demands among the general public. In a
severe blow to the communists' morale, a number of workers' unions
immediately joined the students' cause.
From Saturday, November 18, until the general strike of November 27,
mass demonstrations took place in Prague, Bratislava, and elsewhere
- and public discussions instead of perfformances were held in
Czechoslovakia' theatres. During one of these discussions, at the
Cinoherni Klub theater on Sunday, November 19, the Civic Forum (OF)
was
established as the official "spokesgroup" for "the segment of the
Czechoslovak public which is ever more critical of the policy of the
present Czechoslovak leadership." The Civic Forum, led by the then-dissident Vaclav Havel, demanded
the resignation of the Communist government, the release of
prisoners of conscience, and investigations into the November 17th
police action. A similar initiative - the Public Against Violence
(VPN) - was born in Slovakia on November 20, 1989. Both of them
were joined en masse by Czechoslovak citizens - from university
students and staff to workers in factories and employees of other
institutions. It took about 2 weeks for the nation's media to begin
broadcasting reports of what was really going on in Prague, and in
the interim students travelled to cities and villages in the
countryside to rally support outside the capital.
The leaders of the Communist regime were totally unprepared to deal
with the popular unrest, even though communist regimes throughout
the region had been wobbling and toppling around them for some time. As the mass demonstrations continued - and more and more
Czechoslovaks supported the general strikes that were called - an
extraordinary session of the Czechoslovak Communist Party Central
Committee was called. The Presidium of the Communist Party resigned,
and a relatively unknown Party member, Karel Urbanek, was elected as
the new Communist Party leader. The public rejected these cosmetic
changes, which were intended to give the impression that the
Communist Party was being reformed from within as it had been in
1968. The people's dissatisfaction increased. Massive demonstrations of almost 750,000 people at Letna Park in
Prague on November 25 and 26, and the general strike on the 27th
were devastating for the communist regime. Prime Minister Ladislav
Adamec was
forced to hold talks with the Civic Forum, which was led by still-
dissident Vaclav Havel. The Civic Forum
presented a list of political demands at their second meeting with
Adamec, who agreed to form a new coalition government, and to
delete three articles - guaranteeing a leading role in political
life for the Czechoslovak Communist Party and for the National
Front, and mandating Marxist-Leninist education - from the
Constitution. These amendments were unanimously approved by the
communist
parliament the next day, on November 29, 1989.
Well, the old saying that 'if you give them an inch, they'll take a
mile' held true, and the communist capitulation led to increased
demands on the part of the demonstrators. A new government was
formed by Marian Calfa; it included just nine members of the
Czechoslovak Communist Party (several of whom actively cooperated
with the Civic Forum); two members of the Czechoslovak Socialist
Party; two members of the Czechoslovak People's Party; and seven
ministers with no party affiliation - all of latter were Civic Forum
or Public Against Violence activists. This new government was named by Czechoslovak President Gustav Husak
on December 10. The same evening, he went on television to announce
his resignation, and the Civic Forum cancelled a general strike
which had been scheduled for the next day.
At the 19th joint session of the two houses of the Federal
Assembly, Alexandr Dubcek - who had led the ill-fated Prague Spring
movement in the 1960's - was elected Speaker of the Federal
Assembly. One day later, the parliament elected the Civic Forum's
leader, Vaclav Havel, President of Czechoslovakia.
Despite their many shortcomings - not the least of which were
political inexperience and serious time pressures - the new
government and parliament were able to fill in many of the most
gaping gaps in
the Czechoslovak legal framework - concentrating in particular on
the areas of human rights and freedoms, private ownership, and
business law. They were also able to lay the framework for the first
free elections to be held in Czechoslovakia in more than 40 years. The results of the 1990 local and parliamentary elections in
Czechoslovakia, which were likened at the time to a referendum which
posed
the question "Communism, yes or no?" showed a sweeping victory for
the soon to be extinct Civic Forum (OF) in the Czech Republic, and
for the Public Against Violence (VPN) in Slovakia. In other words,
"Communism, no thanks."
The turnout for the local elections was more than 73 percent, and
for Parliamentary elections more than 96 percent of the population
went to the polls! Czech Petr Pithart of the Civic Forum was elected as Czech Premier,
Slovaks Vladimir Meciar and Marian Calfa, both of the Public Against
Violence (VPN), were elected Slovak and Federal Premier,
respectively. Vaclav Havel was re-elected as the Czechoslovak
President on July 5, 1990.
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