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Writers were at the forefront of the Velvet Revolution. But when the dust settled on the political changes they found a fast changing publishing revolution underway that left some of them sidelined. We look at the changes in the publishing and literary world over the last two decades.

A survey published by the polling agency STEM suggests that a majority of Czechs consider the Velvet Revolution to be significant not only to today but in the whole of modern Czech history. Perception of the event differed widely in the poll among different political sympathies, with supporters of the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party more reluctant to assess the events of 1989.According to the poll, most people are also of the opinion that the Civic Forum’s 1990 slogan “Back to Europe” has been fulfilled. 43 percent of people believe that the post-revolution era is among the best in Czech history.

Czech-Japanese entrepreneur Tomio Okamura is a household name in the Czech Republic, both for running a successful tourist business to representing one of the country’s largest tourist associations. As an expert in his field, Tomio makes numerous appearances on TV and radio and is also jury member on a well-known business reality programme. His success, in a way he says, is linked to one thing: the Velvet Revolution. Ahead of the upcoming 20th anniversary, Tomio agreed to come in to the studio to discuss how the fall off Communism changed his life.

The fall of communism turned around the lives of millions of people. In a special edition of Czechs Today we talk to a father and son of the same name about how this dramatic change affected their lives. Petr Cibulka senior was born in Opava and moved to Prague in August of 1989 –less than three months before the Velvet Revolution broke out. He now owns a hotel in Lednice, Moravia. His son Petr Cibulka junior belongs to the generation which was barely touched by the communist regime. He moved to Prague at the age of 15, later went for a study stay

November 17 is the anniversary of the start of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution. But what is less well known is that six days earlier it was preceded by what has been described as the “smog revolution”, when hundreds of people – angered by the appalling state of the local environment – took to the streets in the north Bohemian city of Teplice.

President Václav Klaus is making his own contribution to the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. The Czech president has penned his own assessment of how and why Communism collapsed and how the new leadership, including himself, dealt with the challenges in a book that has just been released.

The small patch of green outside Malostranská metro station in the centre of Prague has been hosting a bizarre outdoor display this month. Besides a monument to Czech WWII resistance fighters that was installed there in 2006, two new temporary memorials have been added recently to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. A wooden watchtower from a communist-era labour camp was raised there a couple of weeks ago and this past Sunday saw the unveiling of a most bizarre sculpture...

The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and Security Forces Archive on Monday announced the publication of details of the Communist regime’s intelligence service on the internet. The step is the first of its kind in a former Communist country according to the institute. It said the list of names includes 985 staff out of the total 1,028 working at the end of November 1989. Staff worked in foreign embassies and trade offices, in television and radio and at international institutions. The intelligence service was wound up in February 1990.

Twenty years after the fall of Czechoslovakia’s communist regime, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia has retained both its communist label and much of its ideology. In this edition of One on One, our guest is Josef Skála, who recently became one of the party’s deputy leaders. He shares his views on the totalitarian regime of the past and the party’s prospects in the future.

World leaders past and present on Monday gathered in Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The celebrations, which are expected to culminate with the toppling of a symbolic wall of dominoes, have attracted more than 100,000 people. One of them is Štepán Benda a Czech émigré who has lived in Berlin since 1968 when he emigrated from communist Czechoslovakia. He was there when the wall came down and earlier today he shared his memories of the historic event.