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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

With just days remaining until the World Cup kicks off in South Africa, football fever is beginning to grip fans around the globe. The Czech Republic failed to qualify this year, but many will have fond memories of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, when supporters from Czechoslovakia were finally able to travel freely to a major soccer tournament.

Generation 89, currently underway in four European capitals, is a project intended to bring together young people from different backgrounds and different experiences to debate their common future in the European Union. Participants from nine EU member states are meeting in Bucharest, Brussels, Prague and Warsaw to talk about where they came from and where they want to go. The project was initiated by the Romanian Cultural Institute to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and co-financed by the European Commission.

A candidate standing for parliamentary elections for the Social Democratic Party in Liberec has withdrawn his name from the ballot after it was discovered that he was a member of the communist police force that attacked student demonstrators on November 17, 1989. The regional head of the Social Democrats told the news website iDnes that Radek Polma had withdrawn his candidacy on Friday to avoid influencing the election. Archives show Mr Polma as having been a constable in the cordon which rammed and then attempted to disperse the protestors. Mr Polma, who was then 19 years old, says that he had been stationed away from the clashes, in which numerous students were beaten and injured. The Social Democratic Party confirmed last month that he would be removed from the ballot if their candidate was found to have violently opposed the demonstration.

Since the fall of communism, Petr Pithart has been a central Czech political figure. As one of the first people to sign the human rights manifesto, Charter 77, he spent the last years of the communist regime as a political dissident. But as the regime collapsed in November 1989, he shot to prominence – firstly in Civic Forum, which brought together those fighting for an end to one-party rule, and then as the first post-communist prime minister of the Czech part of the Czechoslovak federation. Later he went on to be chairman of the Czech Senate and

In a memorable moment of history, dissent and playwright Václav Havel was elected the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia 20 years ago. His inauguration put the final seal on the country’s road to democracy. Two decades later, most Czechs believe Mr Havel’s role in the process was crucial.

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.

Exactly 20 years ago, during the Velvet Revolution, the country was flooded with posters, both home-produced and professionally printed, calling for change. They bore slogans like Free Elections, Teacher You Don’t Have to Lie to Us Anymore, and Havel to the Castle. Now many of those posters have been gathered in a fascinating new book.

This month, Czechs celebrate 20 years since the Velvet Revolution that overthrew the communist regime in their country. The fall of communism changed practically all aspects of life, including health care. Radio Prague finds out about the improvement and challenges of the Czech health care system two decades after the fall of communism.