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Czech president Václav Klaus underlined the links between the events of 1989 and the more tragic events of 1939 during a visit to Prague’s Hlávkova students’ hall of residence on Tuesday. Nazi authorities rounded up around 1,200 students and executed nine of them on November 17, 1939. All Czech universities and centres of learning were closed. The clamp down was a reaction to demonstrations that had followed the death of one student, Jan Opletal.

President Klaus pointed out that the commemoration of the first event led to the second and the Velvet Revolution. He warned that proponents of Nazi and Communist ideologies still sought to impose their ideas at any price. He was later heckled when he laid a wreath at the plaque commemorating the police attack on students in 1989.

Our special programme marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism was recorded on November 9 in front of a live audience at Prague’s celebrated film and TV academy. Radio Prague’s Jan Richter chaired a fascinating and lively discussion about the Velvet Revolution, its legacy and meaning for today. On the panel were: Jiří Stránský: a Czech writer who spent much of the 1950s in communist prisons; Václav Bartuška: a student activist at the time of the revolution and the first person to be given access to the StB (secret police) files – he

Celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution began at the weekend and, of course, they began with Václav Havel. The dissident playwright cum philosopher-president was the main figure behind the bloodless uprising that toppled 40 years of communism within just a few weeks. At the weekend, Mr Havel held a semi-private concert to commemorate the music that accompanied the overthrow of communism, inviting Joan Baez, Lou Reed, and Suzanne Vega, among others. In exclusive interviews, Radio Prague spoke to some of the guests who

The former president and one of the key figures of the Velvet Revolution Václav Havel marked on Saturday the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism. A conference “Freedom and its Enemies”, held at Charles University, was followed by a concert “It’s Here at Last”, featuring artists such as Joan Baez, Suzanne Vega and Lou Reed.

President Václav Klaus has hailed his predecessor in office Václav Havel as the central figure of the Velvet Revolution which toppled the communist regime. Sitting next to Mr. Havel at a concert to mark 20 years of freedom and democracy, Mr. Klaus had warm words for his ideological rival, saying that whatever differences they may have on internal and external issues, he perceives Václav Havel as the man who had made all this possible, the central figure of the Velvet Revolution. He said it was now up to the Czechs how they would use the freedom they had acquired.

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.