The Journals

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My Diary
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Events from the Friday demonstration on 11/17/89 until the first day of strike on my high-school are covered. It includes several recorded stories from the 11/17 massacre as I recorded them at that time. Plus, there are few extra comments I added in 1996.

NOTE: To see how the events from the days described in this and the following diary were reported in the US press, check out Resources->Articles.
 

The "Kraft Book" Diary
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This diary begins almost where mine ended. The days from 11/18 till the general strike on 11/28 are recorded here in the eyes of a university student, member of the college strike committee. It was published as a chapter of a book called "The Kraft Book", an autobiography book by a young Czech author.
 

Geary's 1969 Story
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This story is not diary in the right meaning of the word and neither is related to the November '89... But this text is so exceptional that I simply must put it here: it's a detailed description of a young American who unwillingly participated in the 1969 Anti-Soviet riots in Prague got into real troubles, eventually ending up as a political prisoner in Czechoslovakia. It's a very interesting look on the Czech totality from the close perspective with foreign eyes... and a description of the last (and only) attempt to fight back by my parents' generation, followed by full 20 years of stillness and totalitarian rule. Until we got old enough.

DON'T MISS THIS: On another place here, I'm including a narrative from the other side of the barricade: a communist propaganda piece celebrating the life of one communist militia trooper who participated in the 1969 terror. He was most probably one of the guys who showed Geary the "real life" of communism.

 

Mark's 1990 Diary
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The revolution itself was certainly "interesting", but the time shortly after it was wild as well. It was the time of "transformation" when anything was possible and everything was being built - although only few people knew what to build and even fewer knew how to build. The sweet times of real freedom, the 2 years of Czech "summer of love"! In 1990, Mark Griffiths was a British traveler bound to his 140mph bike and his diary takes us into that exciting time of Czechoslovakia and the whole Eastern Bloc. This is the first public appearance of the journal, so I want to thank Mark for sending it to me.