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A new book entitled "Students and Communist Rule between 1968 and 1989" has just appeared on the bookshelves. The aim is to highlight the special role Czech students played not only in overthrowing the communist regime fourteen years ago, but throughout the totalitarian era.

This month is the 14th anniversary of the dramatic events that in a matter of days brought down Czechoslovakia's communist regime. We remember the period as a bloodless or "velvet" revolution, but on the 17th November 1989, at the height of the student demonstration that sparked the revolution, a rumour spread like wildfire that a mathematics student from Prague's Charles University, a certain Martin Smid, had been beaten to death by the police. It was true that Martin had been at the demonstration, but as we hear from him now, rumours of his death

Almost fourteen years ago, the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe came crumbling down, starting a new era in the history of Europe. In Czechoslovakia, the events of November and December of 1989 came to be known as the "Velvet Revolution". Although they bear much in common, the revolutions in other countries of the region were not so peaceful and rapid. Professor Padraic Kenney from the Department of History at the University of Colorado is the author of a recently published book called "A Carnival of Revolution", which deals precisely

In this week's edition of our special on the history of Czech Radio, marking the station's 80th anniversary, Jan Velinger looks at the role of the station during the fall of Communism in 1989.

During the Velvet Revolution, Michal Lobkowicz found himself wanting to take part in the events that would change the course of his country's history. But while many were content with just being a part of the revolution, Michal Lobkowicz continued to pursue a career in politics, and in 1990 he was elected to the Czech parliament as a member of the Civic Democratic Party. In 1998, at the age of 34, he became defence minister in the interim government of Josef Tosovsky, and during his ministerial term he quit the Christian Democrats for the newly

There's a new art installation that has caught every body's attention in Prague - a giant red neon heart by renowned Czech artist Jiri David. Installed over Prague Castle, it's visible on the skyline from just about everywhere. The work is the second in a series of what Jiri David calls "contextual" art objects to decorate well-know sites in the city: last year a large neon crown of thorns decorated Prague's Rudolfinum Palace. In general, both installations have evoked positive reactions. The country's president, Vaclav Havel, was certainly pleased

Commemorative ceremonies took place across the Czech Republic on Sunday to mark the 13th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which ended four decades of communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia. Top officials and members of the public laid flower and lighted candles on Narodni Trida, the Prague street where the communist police brutally cracked down on a peaceful student demonstration, setting in motion events which toppled the communist regime. November 17th, marked as "freedom and democracy day" in the Czech Republic is also linked to student protests against the Nazi and communist regimes in earlier years.

Until 1989, the 17th of November was only remembered as International Students' Day in Czechoslovakia, commemorating the student resistance in the streets of Prague against the Nazi occupation in 1939. Thirteen years ago, the date took on a whole new meaning, although students had a lot to do with it too. On that day a peaceful gathering of university students was brutally cracked down by the police, an event which set the ball rolling and turned into what was dubbed the "Vevet Revolution".

Hello and thanks for tuning in to this final edition of Central Europe Today. Some 13 years ago, at the end of 1989, the Communist regimes of central and eastern Europe collapsed, bringing an end to four long decades of oppressive, totalitarian rule and yet, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia that have been independent democracies for over a decade are still referred to as post-Communist countries and their Communist background still remains very much alive today.

In 1989 Vaclav Bartuska was a student. The Berlin Wall fell on the 9th November, and in the days that followed voices for change became ever louder in communist Czechoslovakia. As someone who already had a reputation as a dissident, Vaclav's fellow students appointed him as a student leader. The events that followed were dramatic...