Related articles

Za Svobodu! – called Be Free! in English – is the title of an exhibition the Czech National Museum opened on Tuesday’s anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution. It is located in the institution’s new building, the former home of Czechoslovakia’s Federal Assembly, and is co-curated by Lucie Swierczeková.

The world of sport was quick to rally to the calls for change after the brutal suppression of the students’ march on November 17. Within a few days footballers and ice hockey players came out in what amounted to a strike until the country’s destiny was settled.

Several months ahead of the Velvet Revolution Michal Horáček, a well-known lyricist, and rock performer Michael Kocáb founded the initiative Most (Bridge), aimed at creating a platform to allow the then-Communist regime to communicate with the dissidents it so often jailed. At first, the effort was viewed as naïve, but within several months the situation changed dramatically. After police violently cracked down on students on November 17, the initiative grew in importance, and eventually did succeed in bringing Communist leaders and dissidents to

Rundown buildings, empty shop-windows and ever-present grayness – that’s the focus of a new photography exhibition called ‘Tady bylo Husákovo’ – ‘This Once Was Husák’s Country’, which is now on display at Prague’s Louvre Gallery. The collection of photographs by Lubomír Kotek documents the atmosphere of Prague streets in the years preceding the Velvet Revolution.

The people of the Czech Republic have been marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution, which led to the collapse of the country’s Communist government after over four decades of repression. The main event on Tuesday was the re-enactment in Prague of the student demonstration that sparked those changes in 1989.

Modlitba pro Martu, A Prayer for Marta, is a song that for many people will be forever associated with Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution of 1989. Performed by the 1960s Czech pop star Marta Kubišová, it had previously come to symbolise resistance to the 1968 Soviet-led invasion.

Police detained 36 people following a demonstration by right-wing extremists on Tuesday. Around 300 people took part mid-day in the unofficial demonstration near Prague’s National Theatre including the chairman of the extreme right-wing Workers’ Party, Tomáš Vandas. Police moved on the demonstration which threatened to clash with events planned to mark the anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution. Scuffles laetr broke out near the river at Výton after police blocked the extremists from re-entering Narodní třída.

Czech president Václav Klaus underlined the links between the events of 1989 and the more tragic events of 1939 during a visit to Prague’s Hlávkova students’ hall of residence on Tuesday. Nazi authorities rounded up around 1,200 students and executed nine of them on November 17, 1939. All Czech universities and centres of learning were closed. The clamp down was a reaction to demonstrations that had followed the death of one student, Jan Opletal.

President Klaus pointed out that the commemoration of the first event led to the second and the Velvet Revolution. He warned that proponents of Nazi and Communist ideologies still sought to impose their ideas at any price. He was later heckled when he laid a wreath at the plaque commemorating the police attack on students in 1989.

Prime Minister Jan Fischer warned at a commemorative conference on Tuesday of the dangers of a dysfunctional democracy. He said that the Czech Republic had all the institutional requirements of a free and functioning democracy but citizens still had to play their part in making it work properly. The Prime Minister warned that the rise in violence, selfishness, xenophobia, racism and disconnection from society all contributed to a dysfunctional democracy. The right institutions were just packaging without the parallel moral contribution from citizens, he added.

Czechs on Tuesday began to mark the 20th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution with a series of commemorative events, exhibitions and concerts across the country. In Prague alone around 20 special events are being staged on November 17. Czech television will during the afternoon and early evening recreate the events surrounding the students’ march in Prague whose brutal suppression sparked the civic protests that were to topple the Communist regime.

Around 4,500 people took part in a march retracing the students’ steps 20 years ago. The event organised by the civic association Opona will end in Narodní třída with speeches and a concert. Speakers will include Chinese journalist Kao Ju and Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov. The students’ demonstration of 1989 had been authorised by the authorities to mark international students’ day and the martyrdom of Jan Opletal and other students during the Nazi occupation of the country 50 years earlier.