The Velvet Revolution was inarguably the most important event of the last century for what was then Czechoslovakia. Triggered by the collapse of surrounding Soviet satellite states, the (mostly) peaceful demonstrations that took place in November and December 1989 effectively put an end to decades of authoritarian rule.

Although the seeds of discontent had been sown long before by prominent dissidents like Vaclav Havel and the rock band the Plastic People of the Universe, it was actually university students who managed to implode these feelings into widespread action. It all started on November 16, 1989 in Bratislava, today the capital of an independent Slovakia. Students marched through the center of the city to commemorate the death of Jan Opletal, a Czech student who was murdered by the Nazis during WWII. Although armed forces were put on alert, in the end they weren’t deployed, and the students were allowed to march peacefully. They then sent a delegation to the Slovak Ministry of Education to discuss their demands.

The following day in Prague, the Socialist Union of Youth organized a mass protest in the city center. On Narodni Street, the protesters clashed violently with the police, supposedly leaving one protester dead (it was later revealed that the “dead protester” was actually a member of the secret police playing dead for reasons that have never come to light.) The idea that the police had killed a student infuriated the public, and contributed greatly to the rising wave of societal malevolence towards the Communists. That evening, students and actors in Prague decided to go on strike, and the theatres became headquarters for the resistance, which would later be baptized the Civic Forum.

By Sunday, November 19th, theatres in towns throughout Czechoslovakia had followed Prague’s lead. On television, the Communists pleaded for peace and for the public to return to business as usual. By then, it was too late – the flame had spread. The following day saw the first mass protests in Prague and Bratislava, and the first publication of non-Communist newspapers, providing information that contradicted what the ruling elite was putting out over the airwaves.

The Civic Forum had an ally in the form of Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec, who met regularly with representatives of the Civic Forum, and later Vaclav Havel. He assured the protesters that there would be no more violent action against them by the state.

The protests continued in Prague and Bratislava in the days that followed, while the Communists continued to maintain their hard-line approach, despite the fact that their support was diminishing. On Tuesday, November 21st, they brought in 4,000 members of the People’s Militia, a paramilitary unit answering directly to the Communist party that was later deemed an illegal organization. The Militia was originally contacted in order to crush the protests in Prague, but at the last minute, they were called off.

The next day, the first live reports of the protests appeared on the state-controlled Czechoslovak television, but were abruptly cut off when the present government was denounced in favor of Alexander Dubcek, who was deprived of his presidency when the Soviets invaded Prague in 1968. Dubcek himself delivered a speech in Bratislava, which contributed to the release of political prisoner Ján Čarnogurský, who would later become the Prime Minister of Slovakia.

A two-hour general strike was announced for the following Monday. By the end of the week, things had loosened to the extent that Civic Forum leader Vaclav Havel was given air time on national television. Czechoslovak TV and Radio announced that they would join the general strike on Monday. Over the weekend, the number of demonstrators in Prague reached 800,000, while Bratislava’s demonstrating population also reached its peak, at 100,000. Pravda, the central Communist newspaper of Slovakia, joined the opposition movement.

Things were clearly crumbling for the Communists. Monday’s two hour-long general strike was supported by 75% of the population. The Ministry of Culture began releasing anti-Communist books from ban in the libraries, effectively putting an end to censorship. This day, November 27th, effectively put an end to the “popular” phase of the Velvet Revolution, but not an end to the negotiations between the Communists, the Civic Forum and the Slovak faction the Public Against Violence. These negotiations, which took place throughout the month of December, would lead to the complete collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia.

The first major victory came on November 29th, when the Communists agreed to remove the Marxist party line from the Czechoslovak constitution. Barbed wire at the border to Austria, and later West Germany, was removed, allowing Czechoslovak citizens to “go west” for the first time in several decades.

Eventually, President Gustáv Husák was forced to resign after nominating a federal cabinet agreed upon between the Communists and the Civic Forum. The cabinet was headed by Marián Čalfa, who would play a key role in organizing the new government. Secret police hurriedly attempted to burn their files, although remnants would emerge throughout the following decade, resulting in numerous public scandals.

By the end of the month, the Federal Parliament had elected Vaclav Havel as the president of the new Czechoslovakia. Throughout December and the months that followed, the Communist Party lost the majority of its members – particularly those who had initially joined the Party in order to further their careers.

While the nation was finally free, there were a lot of new problems that would emerge in the following decade. The disagreements between Czechia and Slovakia would lead the two nations to split in 1993, in what was later baptized the “Velvet Divorce.” Crime also increased, which some blamed on the fact that Havel instituted a general pardoning policy that released a lot of petty criminals from prison. But generally, the population has been content since then, and views its many post-1989 problems as the price of freedom.


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