Prior to the revolution:
The Communist Party seized power
on 25 February 1948. No official opposition parties operated thereafter.
Dissidents (notably Charter 77 and Civic Forum) created Music Clubs (on a
limited basis as only allowed NGOs) and published home-made periodicals (samizdat).
Charter 77 was quashed by the government and its signed members were persecuted
until the fall of the regime in Czechoslovakia. Later, with the advent of the
Civic Forum, independence could truly be seen on the horizon. Until
Independence Day on 17 November 1989, the populace faced persecution by the
authorities from the secret police. Thus, the general public did not openly
support the dissidents for fear of dismissal from work or school. Writers or
filmmakers could have their books or films banned for a "negative attitude
towards the socialist regime". They also didn't allow Czechs and Slovaks
to travel to other non-communist countries. Following this they banned music
from foreign countries. This blacklisting included children of former
entrepreneurs or non-Communist politicians, having family members living in the
West, having supported Alexander Dubček during the Prague Spring, opposing
Soviet military occupation, promoting religion, boycotting (rigged)
parliamentary elections or signing Charter 77 or associating with those who
did. These rules were easy to enforce, as all schools, media and businesses
belonged to the state. They were under direct supervision and often were used
as accusatory weapons against rivals.
The nature of blacklisting changed gradually after the introduction of
Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika
(restructuring) in 1985. The Czechoslovak Communist leadership verbally
supported Perestroika, but made few changes. Speaking about the Prague Spring
of 1968 was taboo. The first anti-government demonstrations occurred in 1988
(the Candle Demonstration, for example) and 1989, but these were dispersed and
participants were repressed by the police.
By the late 1980s, discontent with living standards and economic
inadequacy gave way to popular support for economic reform. Citizens began to
challenge the system more openly. By 1989, citizens who had been complacent
were willing to openly express their discontent with the regime. Numerous
important figures as well as ordinary workers signed petitions in support of
Václav Havel during his imprisonment in 1989. Reform-minded attitudes were also
reflected by the many individuals who signed a petition that circulated in the
summer of 1989 calling for the end of censorship and the beginning of
fundamental political reform. The
immediate impetus for the revolution came from developments in neighbouring
countries and in the Czechoslovak capital. From August, East German citizens
had occupied the West German Embassy in Prague and demanded exile to West
Germany. In the days following 3 November, thousands of East Germans left
Prague by train to West Germany. On 9 November, the Berlin Wall fell, removing
the need for the detour. By 16 November,
many of Czechoslovakia's neighbours were beginning to shed authoritarian rule.
The citizens of Czechoslovakia watched these events on TV through both foreign
and domestic channels. The Soviet Union also supported a change in the ruling
elite of Czechoslovakia, although it did not anticipate the overthrow of the
Communist regime.
Chronology:
16 November:
On the eve of International
Students Day (the 50th anniversary of Sonderaktion Prag, the 1939 storming of
Prague universities by the Nazis), Slovak high school and university students
organised a peaceful demonstration in the centre of Bratislava. The Communist
Party of Slovakia had expected trouble, and the mere fact that the
demonstration was organised was viewed as a problem by the Party. Armed forces
were put on alert before the demonstration. In the end, however, the students
moved through the city peacefully and sent a delegation to the Slovak Ministry
of Education to discuss their demands.
17 November:
New movements led by Václav Havel
surfaced, invoking the idea of a united society where the state would
politically restructure.The Socialist Union of Youth (SSM/SZM, proxy of
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) organised a mass demonstration on 17
November to commemorate International Students Day and the fiftieth anniversary
of the murder of student Jan Opletal[6] by the Nazi government. Most members of
SSM were privately opposed to the Communist leadership, but were afraid of
speaking up for fear of persecution. This demonstration gave average students
an opportunity to join others and express their opinions. By 16:00, about
15,000 people joined the demonstration. They walked (per the strategy of
founders of Stuha movement, Jiří Dienstbier and Šimon Pánek) to Karel Hynek
Mácha's grave at Vyšehrad Cemetery and — after the official end of the march —
continued into the centre of Prague,
carrying banners and chanting anti-Communist slogans. At about 19:30, the demonstrators were
stopped by a cordon of riot police at Národní Street. They blocked all escape
routes and attacked the students. Once all the protesters dispersed, one of the
participants, secret police agent Ludvík Zifčák,[citation needed] was lying on
the street. Zifčák was not physically hurt or pretending to be dead; he was
overcome by emotion. Policemen carried his motionless body to an
ambulance. The atmosphere of fear and
hopelessness gave birth to a hoax about a dead student. The story was made up
by Dragomíra Dražská as she awaited treatment after she was hurt during the
riot. Dražská worked at the college and shared her hoax with several people the
next day, including the wife of journalist Petr Uhl [cs], a correspondent for
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. This incident mobilised the people and
triggered the revolution.[citation needed] That same evening, students and
theatre actors agreed to go on strike.
18 November:
Two students visited Prime
Minister Ladislav Adamec at his private residence and described to him what
happened on Národní Street. The strike at the Realistic Theatre was declared
and other theatres quickly followed. The theaters opened their stages only for
public discussions. At the initiative of
students from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the students in Prague
went on strike. This strike was joined by university students throughout
Czechoslovakia. Theatre employees and actors in Prague supported the strike.
Instead of going on stage, actors read a proclamation by the students and
artists to the audience, calling for a general strike on 27 November. Home-made posters and proclamations were
posted. As all media (radio, TV, newspapers) were strictly controlled by the
Communist Party (see Mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia), this was the only
way to spread the message. In the
evening, Radio Free Europe reported that a student (named as Martin Šmíd) was
killed by the police during the previous day's demonstration. Although the
report was false, it heightened the feeling of crisis, and persuaded some
hesitant citizens to overcome their fear and join the protests.
19 November:
Theatres in Bratislava, Brno,
Ostrava and other towns went on strike. Members of artistic and literary
associations as well as organisations and institutions joined the strike. Members of a civic initiative met with the Prime
Minister, who told them he was twice prohibited from resigning his post and
that change requires mass demonstrations like those in East Germany (some
250,000 students). He asked them to keep the number of "casualties"
during the expected change to a minimum.
About 500 Slovak artists, scientists and leaders met at the Art Forum
(Umelecká beseda) in Bratislava at 17:00. They denounced the attack against the
students in Prague on 17 November and formed Public Against Violence, which
would become the leading force behind the opposition movement in Slovakia. Its
founding members included Milan Kňažko, Ján Budaj [cs] and others. Actors and members of the audience in a
Prague theatre, together with Václav Havel and other prominent members of
Charter 77 and other dissident organisations, established the Civic Forum
(Občanské fórum, an equivalent of the Slovak Public Against Violence for the
territory of the Czech Republic) as a mass popular movement for reforms. 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. College students went on
strike. On television, government officials called for peace and a return to
the city's normal business. An interview with Martin Šmíd was broadcast to
persuade the public that nobody had been killed, but the quality of the
recording was low and rumours continued. It would take several more days to
confirm that nobody was killed, and by then the revolution had gained further
momentum. The leaders of the Democratic
Initiative presented several demands, including the resignation of the
government, effective 25 November, and the formation of a temporary government
composed of non-compromised members of the current government.
20 November:
Students and theatres went on
"permanent" strike. Police stopped a demonstration from continuing
toward Prague Castle, which would have entered the striking theatres. Civic
Forum representatives negotiated unofficially with Adamec without Havel, and
Adamec was sympathetic to the students' demands. However, he was outvoted in a
special cabinet meeting the same day. The government, in an official statement,
made no concessions. Civic Forum added a
demand: the abolition of the "ruling position" of the Communist Party
from the Constitution. Non-Communist newspapers published information that
contradicted the Communist interpretation. The first mass demonstration in
Prague (100,000 people) and the first demonstrations in Bratislava occurred.
21 November:
The first official meeting of the
Civic Forum with the Prime Minister took place. The Prime Minister agreed to
personally guarantee that no violence would be used against the people; however
he would "protect socialism, about which no discussion is
possible".[5] An organised mass demonstration took place in Wenceslas
Square in central Prague (demonstrations recurred there throughout the
following days). Actors and students travelled to factories inside and outside
Prague to gain support for their colleagues in other cities. A mass demonstration erupted in Hviezdoslav
Square in downtown Bratislava (in the following days, it moved to the Square of
the Slovak National Uprising). The students presented demands and asked the
people to participate in the general strike planned for Monday, 27 November. A
separate demonstration demanded the release of the political prisoner Ján
Čarnogurský (later Prime Minister of Slovakia) in front of the Palace of
Justice. Alexander Dubček addressed this demonstration—his first appearance
during the Velvet Revolution. As a result, Čarnogurský was released on 23
November. Further demonstrations followed in all major cities of
Czechoslovakia. Cardinal František
Tomášek, the Roman Catholic primate of the Bohemian lands, declared his support
for the students and issued a declaration criticising the current government's
policies. For the first time during the Velvet Revolution, the
"radical" demand to abolish the article of the Constitution
establishing the "leading role" of the Communist Party was expressed
by Ľubomír Feldek at a meeting of Public Against Violence. In the evening, Miloš Jakeš, the chairman of
the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, gave a special address on Federal
Television. He said that order must be preserved, that socialism was the only
alternative for Czechoslovakia, and criticised protest groups. Government
officials, especially the Head of the Communist Party Miloš Jakeš, kept their
hard-line position. During the night, they had summoned 4,000 members of the
"People's Militias" (Lidové milice, a paramilitary organisation
subordinated directly to the Communist Party) to Prague to crush the protests,
but called them off.
22 November:
Civic Forum announced a two-hour
general strike for Monday, 27 November. The first live reports from the
demonstration in Wenceslas Square appeared on Federal Television (and were
quickly cut off, after one of the participants denounced the present government
in favour of Alexander Dubček). Striking
students forced the representatives of the Slovak government and of the
Communist Party of Slovakia to participate in a dialogue, in which the official
representatives were immediately put on the defensive. Employees of the Slovak
section of the Federal Television required the leaders of the Federal Television
to provide true information on the events in the country; otherwise they would
initiate a strike of TV employees. Uncensored live reports from demonstrations
in Bratislava began.
23 November:
The evening news showed factory
workers heckling Miroslav Štěpán, the Prague Communist Secretary. The military
informed the Communist leadership of its readiness to act (ultimately, it was
never used against demonstrators). The military and the Ministry of Defense
were preparing for actions against the opposition. Immediately after the
meeting, however, the Minister of Defence delivered a TV address announcing
that the army would never undertake action against the people and called for an
end to demonstrations.
24 November:
The entire Presidium, including
General Secretary Miloš Jakeš, resigned, and Karel Urbánek, a more moderate
Communist, was named General Secretary. Federal Television showed pictures from
17 November for the first time and presented the first television address of
Václav Havel, dealing mostly with the planned general strike.[9] Czechoslovak
TV and Radio announced that they would join the general strike. A discussion
with representatives of the opposition was broadcast by the Slovak section of
Federal Television.[10] The opposition was represented by Ján Budaj, Fedor Gál
and Vladimír Ondruš, while the Communists were represented by Štefan Chudoba
(director of Bratislava automotive company), Peter Weiss (secretary of the
Institute of Marx-Leninism of the Communist party of Slovakia) and the director
of Steelworks Kosice. It was the first free discussion on Czechoslovak
television since its inception. As a result, the editorial staff of Slovak
newspapers started to join the opposition.
25 November:
25 November, people flow from the Prague
cathedral (where ended a mass in honour of canonisation of Agnes of Bohemia)
and from the metro station Hradčanská to Letná Plain. The new Communist
leadership held a press conference, including Miroslav Štěpán while excluding
Ladislav Adamec, but did not address the demands of the demonstrators. Later
that day, Štěpán resigned as Prague Secretary. The number of participants in
the regular anti-government demonstration in Prague-Letná reached an estimated
800,000 people. Demonstrations in Bratislava peaked at around 100,000
participants.
26 November:
Prime Minister Adamec met with
Havel for the first time. The editorial staff of Slovakia's Pravda, the central
newspaper of the Communist Party of Slovakia, joined the opposition.
27 November:
A successful two-hour general strike
led by the civic movements strengthened what were at first a set of moderate
demands into cries for a new government.[8] The strike took place throughout
the country between 12:00 and 14:00, supported by a reported 75% of the
population. The Ministry of Culture released anti-Communist literature for
public checkouts in libraries, effectively ending decades of censorship. Civic
Forum demonstrated its capacity to disrupt the political order and thereby
establish itself as the legitimate voice of the nation in negotiations with the
state.[5] The civic movements mobilised support for the general strike.
29 November:
The Federal Assembly deleted the
provision in the constitution referring to the "leading role" of the
Communist Party, officially ending Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
10 December:
President Gustáv Husák swore in
the first government in 41 years that was not dominated by the Communist Party.
He resigned shortly afterward.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution
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