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On Thursday, November 17th, the Czech Republic marked 22 years since the start of the Velvet Revolution as well as the 72nd anniversary of the events of November 1939 which resulted in the closure of all Czech universities by the Nazis and reprisals against students and intellectuals. But many Czechs used the holiday to voice their discontent with the current government policies.

In related news, November 17th saw a number of demonstrations – including an anti-government protest happening – in and around Prague. Protestors against the current centre-right government and its reform plans met at Old Town Square while around 2,000 gathered at the biggest such event on Wenceslas Square. The day also saw demonstrations by ultra-right-wing extremists from the so-called Workers Party for Social Justice at several locations, including Jungmann Square, where around 300 supporters turned out. Not far off, opponents against Neo-Nazism gathered at their own meeting. Several hundred police monitored the situation; no incidents were reported.

This Thursday marks 22 years since the start of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia that brought down the country’s Communist regime. On November 17, 1989, the communist police cracked down on a student demonstration on Prague’s Národní třída (National street) setting in motion a series of countrywide protests that eventually led to the fall of the totalitarian regime. The 17th of November is also the important anniversary of a student march against the Nazi occupation in 1939, which was brutally suppressed. As a result the Nazis raided university campuses and executing nine students without trial. The protest also served as a pretext for further reprisals against Czech intellectuals. Some 1,200 people were sent to concentration camps and all Czech universities were closed.

Early on Thursday, President Klaus, Prime Minister Nečas, the defence minister and other politicians marked the anniversary with a wreath laid at the Hlavka student residence hall while the Hussite hymn was sung. President Klaus outlined key differences, in his view, between the protests in 1939 and 1989, chief among them – he said – that the Communist system had been ready to fall, while the Nazis in 1939 were at the height of their power. November 17 has also seen other commemorative events in the capital: chief among them has been the lighting of candles and laying of flowers and wreaths at the 1989 memorial at Národní třída. Visiting there a little later on Thursday, Mr Klaus wished Václav Havel – conspicuously absent this year because of continuing health problems – early recovery.

A spokesman for the Prague Archbishopric has explained what led to its failure to invite the former president and leading Czech dissident Václav Havel to this year’s celebrations of the 21st anniversary of the fall of communism in St Vitus Cathedral. The spokesman said the omission was regrettable and had been caused by the hectic preparations surrounding the event. The event was attended by the country’s leading dignitaries including President Klaus, Prime Minister Nečas and Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka. Václav Havel, who is considered a symbol of the Velvet Revolution, reportedly heard about the event on the radio.

Czechs are marking the anniversary of the fall of communism in their country 21 years ago. On November 17, 1989, then-Czechoslovakia’s communist police cracked down on a student demonstration on Prague’s Národní třída (National street) setting in motion a series of massive protests that eventually brought down the country’s totalitarian regime. On Wednesday, the president, the prime minister and other politicians, and members of the public marked the anniversary by lighting candles or laying flowers at the memorial at Národní třída as well as other key sites.

On the day, Czechs also marked the anniversary of the student march in 1939 against the Nazi occupation, which was brutally suppressed. The Nazis raided university campuses, executing nine students without trial while deporting 1,200 to concentration camps. All Czech universities were then closed. On Wednesday evening commemorative events in the country will conclude with a prayer at Prague’s St Vitus Cathedral, followed by speeches by the president as well as Church and university representatives.

Václav Havel – the former dissident turned president following the Velvet Revolution - discussed steps the Czechs had taken since 1989, saying that the basic direction was right. He made the statement while recalling the days after November 1989 at a commemorative act honouring students who stood up to the former Communist regime. At the same time, the former president indicated he was sorry that the Czech Republic had echoed some mistakes made by democracies established earlier. He said on the whole he was not disappointed - pointing out that the country was experiencing the longest period of security in its history.

Twenty-one years ago on Wednesday, on November 17, 1989, a student march was brutally attacked by the police in Prague’s Národní Street; that event sparked a public revolt against the regime and eventually led to the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. In today’s special programme, we walk along Národní Street, or Národní třída, a remarkable boulevard which is home to the National Theatre, Prague’s most famous delicatessen, a jazz club where Bill Clinton played, and some of the city’s greatest cafés: a street where history was made two decades

Sixty-five years ago on August 2, the Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš published the Beneš decrees, one of the most important and most controversial chapters in Czech history. The Beneš decrees declared that German and Hungarian minorities living in Czechoslovakia were to be stripped of their Czechoslovak citizenship if they had acquired German or Hungarian citizenship. Historians believe that those decrees furnished the basis for the expulsion of some three million Germans and 80,000 Hungarians from Czechoslovak lands in the 1940s. After the Velvet Revolution, the Beneš decrees became a frequent topic of discussion in Czech-German and Czech-Austrian relations. In 1997, the Czech Republic and Germany signed the Czech-German declaration of mutual relations. Both countries apologized for the wrong they had done and pledged to respect each others’ legitimacy.

Jan Bubeník was one of the organisers of a student march in Prague on November 17, 1989 to mark the anniversary of a Nazi crackdown on Czech universities 50 years previously. When the marchers carried on to Národní St in the centre of the city they were brutally attacked by police, an incident which set in train the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. Bubeník quickly became one of the student leaders of the Velvet Revolution, and even served briefly as a member of parliament. Today he runs a successful recruitment agency. At its Prague offices

Svoboda? Svoboda! (Freedom? Freedom!) is the name of an international theatre project that culminates at Prague’s Archa theatre on Friday night. Involving theatre groups and contemporary history institutes from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany, the show provides a forum for examination of the states’ recent communist past, and asks – what kind of freedom did they achieve in 20 years? Ahead of Friday’s event, I found out more from the director of Divadlo Archa, Ondřej Hrab.