If you were in Prague around November 17, you have certainly noticed crowds of people celebrating and demonstrating, holding Czech flags, and maybe you wonder why. On what occasion so many people willingly go to the streets. Last weekend (November 17) was the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. The revolution is called the Velvet Revolution because no one was hurt. This revolution was very important for most Czechs and was preceded by many events.
We will start at the beginning when only one political party gained power with the majority of votes. This political party was called the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It was 1946 and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the main election and took over the government. This party used illegal, brutal practices against its opponents. It made a difference in virtually everything. For example, today, when you want something, you go to the store and buy it. Back then it didn't work like that … The economy was centrally planned by the Communists. The party decided when and how much to produce. Or how much and what kind of food people can get...
Or imagine that you want to go on holiday abroad, today it's so simple. If you have enough money, you buy a ticket or take a car and go. Previously, you had no opportunity to move freely. There was a curtain/line that closed us in the state and no one can cross it. Few people have tried, but either they died on the spot, went to jail and became enemies of the regime. Young people could not study or their studies were interrupted. People who did not fit the regime were thrown out of their jobs, beaten, interrogated, imprisoned...
Freedom completely disappeared from Czechoslovakia and people began to have enough with it. Especially the students who became the face of the revolution. On November 17, 1939, the Communist regime closed the Universities in Czechoslovakia, on the same day there was a demonstration against the regime in which young man Jan Opletal student of Faculty of Medicine was shot dead by the Public Security (the armed forces of the state).
Another student and another face of the revolution is undoubtedly Jan Palach, a young student who, in 1969 in protest against the regime, poured flammable flames on himself and set himself on fire at the top of Wenceslas Square. After a few days he died in the hospital of extensive burns.
Today you can find a monument commemorating the student Jan Palach under the big fountain at the newly reconstructed National Museum.
On November 17, 1989, a permitted demonstration took place in Prague. Students gathered at Albertov to demonstrate against the closure of Czech universities. On this day it has been 50 years since that happened. After this demonstration, most of the students moved to the city center, to Národní třída, where they were surrounded by Public Security (the armed forces of the state). The students just sat down on the street shouted slogans against the regime. They didn`t do anything wrong. Public Security starting to act by pushing the students out of the street. Because a large number of people were involved, it was unable to quickly clear the space, so the Public Security started to "beat the hell out of them". This act offended many people, and the Velvet Revolution began.
The places where demonstrations took place were mainly on Wenceslas Square or Letna Plain, where once up to 800,000 people gathered. In November 1989, the Civic Forum, a political party headed by former President Václav Havel, became popular amongst the Czech people thanks to Václav Havel's actions.
All these demonstrations happened thanks to the creators of the Civic Forum and brave people who were not afraid to say their opinion! These demonstrations led to the fall of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which resigned at the beginning of December 1989 and since then people could live freely in Czechoslovakia. That is why it's so important to defend democracy these days...
From our external collaborator Tereza Kultová