Visiting Prague

Summary: the non-violent revolution that took Czechoslovakia to the so deserved freedom.

To understand how the Velvet Revolution happened in Czechoslovakia it is necessary to know the political situation that prelude the revolution.
Gustav Husák was in the power from 1969, the year followed by the Prague Spring. His government was conducted by the Soviet Union, there was a secret police, StB punishing the dissidents, creating the fear and suspicion between the general public. Any action that represented a threat to the government the was punished by job loss demotion, denial of employment, denial of educational opportunities, housing restrictions and refusal to grant travel requests of those people. Books and films the government disliked were going straight to the blacklisting. It was also dangerous to have family in the west or have supported Dubček before or during the Prague Spring, opposing Soviet military occupation, promoting religion, boycotting rigged parliamentary elections or signing the Charter 77 or to have any connection to those who did. With a strong propaganda system this rules were all very well enforce, in schools, media and businesses belonged to the state. The strict supervision of the government made these easy means often used as an accusatory weapon against political and social rivals. When Mikhail Gorbachev rose to the power it was thought the living would improve in the Satellite States but he did very little for that to happen.
There were some tries to make the revolution happen although there were repressed by the police like the like the Candle Demonstration a year before the Velvet Revolution.
In other Communist Block countries people’s voices and revolutions started to be listened. Estonian Singing Revolution happen in 1987, a mass protest where Estonians sang all together against the Russian occupation with the solidarity of Poland’s government. In 1989 on August 23rd, two million people coming from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands along a 600km stretch of road between Tallinn Riga and Vilnius. Although the most important happened in 9th of November of 1989 the wall that separated Berlin had fallen the borders were not officially opened but people were already traveling without any prerequisite. This was the when in Czechoslovakia knew they had to put an end to the Iron Curtain and overthrow the Communist Regime.
The Velvet Revolution was a row of days where more and more people came to join the demonstration. It started on November 16th, the eve of the International Student’s Day, when a group of students started a peaceful protest against the Soviet Regime. the joined in Prague and ended with violence on Narodni Street near old Prague hotels, from the police part beating up the students. Nevertheless Czechs didn’t surrender and day after day there were demonstrations in the streets beginning a domino effect till December with more and more protestants. On 17th November the members of the Charter 77 and other dissident organizations reconstituted the Civic Forum (Public Against Violence for the territory of the Czech Republic), they called for the dismissal of top officials responsible for the violence, and an independent investigation of the incident and the release of all political prisoners. In 27th of November all citizens of Czechoslovakia involved in a general two-hour strike. The next demonstrations happened from that day on in the Wenceslas Square. Although, students and theaters were already in permanent strike. Most of the non-communist papers, who had been censored before started to be printed and bought.
A day after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia agrees to give up their monopoly on political power. In December 10th Husák resigned while Dubček is elected speaker of the federal parliament, eighteen days later Vaclav Havel is chosen to be the first president of free Czechoslovakia. As soon as Dubček arrived to the power the demonstrations stopped marking the end of the Velvet Revolution.

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