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Czechs mark the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy on Sunday, a public holiday. In Prague’s Národní třída, top Czech officials, lawmakers, freedom fighters and other public figures are to pay tribute to students who triggered the Velvet Revolution of 1989, eventually toppling the communist regime. Another event, held at a student dorm in the centre of the capital, commemorate the Nazi oppression of Czech university students in 1939. Speaking at the student halls, Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok told the gathering the legacy of November 17 must be passed on to younger generations.

A number of right-wing extremist groups are planning on staging demonstrations in the center of Prague on Sunday during celebrations of a state holiday marking the Day of Freedom and Democracy. The Worker’ Youth group is planning on marching from Wenceslas Square through the historical center of the city. Traditionally on November 17th, the Czech Republic commemorates Nazi repressions of Czechoslovak university students in 1939 and the student demonstrations in 1989, which eventually led to the fall of the Communist regime.

Miloš Zeman, 68, is regarded as one of the most significant Czech politicians of the last two decades. He transformed the Social Democrats into an election-winning force and was prime minister from 1998 to 2002, under a controversial “opposition agreement” with the Civic Democrats, the party’s nominal chief rivals. Accused by some of coarsening political discourse in the Czech Republic, he failed to become Czech president in bicameral elections in 2003. Karel Schwarzenberg, who is 75, is an immensely wealthy titled prince whose family fled Czechoslovakia after the Communist coup of 1948; after serving as chairman of the International Helsinki Committee, a human rights body, he returned after 1989’s Velvet Revolution and was chancellor to President Václav Havel, to whom he remained close.

The Czech Republic on Saturday marked the 23rd anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which toppled the communist rule in the country. Top Czech officials commemorated the student march of November 1989 which led to the fall of the communist regime, as well as the Nazi persecution of Czech students from 50 years before. But this year, the anniversary was partly overshadowed by anti-government rallies held in Prague and other places in protest against the government’s austerity programme.

In an address, President Klaus said gatherings such as the one at the student dormitory were held to ensure that people did not forget the past. He said he was concerned that Czechs were now living in what he would characterise as an era of “forgetting and gestures”. Mr. Klaus said he would not describe contemporary society as an information society but rather as an “uninformed society” in which traditional values were being damaged and defiled, adding that gestures and words were being applauded, not actions and principled and consistent behavior. Later, at the memorial on Národní St., the president was met by supporters and opponents; members of the pro-Klaus D.O.S.T. group shouted long live Klaus, while a young man carrying a Czech flag declared that the president was a thief who had robbed and sold off the country.

A number of Slovak rock bands are playing a concert at Prague’s Rock Café on Saturday night to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution and the upcoming 20th anniversary of the split of Czechoslovakia. The groups Polemic, Billy Barman and Živé kvety will perform at the downtown venue, which is located only metres away from the Velvet Revolution memorial on Národní St. A spokesperson for the organisers said the Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg would appear, as would the former Slovak prime minister, Iveta Radičová, who now heads the Slovak Institute in Prague.

Events have been held in the Czech Republic to mark the country’s day of the fight for freedom and democracy, which is a state holiday. On Saturday morning the Czech president, Václav Klaus, the prime minister, Petr Nečas, and other senior state officials took part in a ceremony at a Prague hall of residence where there is a memorial to student victims of Nazi persecution in 1939. A march commemorating those students sparked the beginning of the Velvet Revolution on November 17 1989 and people on Saturday also gathered and lit candles at a memorial at the spot where riot police attacked participants on Prague’s Národní St.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas said with regard to Saturday’s events linked to resistance in the past to Nazism and Communism that Czech people had not lost and would not lose their historical memory. He said the fact that freedom and democracy were not taken for granted in the Czech Republic was constantly being confirmed. Mr. Nečas also said that the success of the Communist Party in recent regional and Senate elections represented a certain “memento”, the Czech News Agency reported.

On November 17 1990, the first anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution, George Bush Sr. became the first American president to visit Czechoslovakia in the country’s 70-year history. This was a time of strong pro-American feeling here, and during their brief stay George and Barbara Bush were welcomed with genuine enthusiasm. Over a hundred thousand people gathered on Wenceslas Square to hear the president speak:

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.