I have to warn you -- I may be wrong in about anything here. Don't forget to check out the extensive information contained in Resources, too!

Before 11/17/89

The years that end with 8 or 9 and 20-year periods are somewhat magical for the modern Czech history. In 1848, there was an anti-Austrian uprising in the streets of Prague. In 1878, an academic fight -- with a massive impact on the society, though -- about the authenticity of ancient scrolls that would demonstrate the greatness and historically-based sovereignity of the Czech nation was reaching its peak. I don’t know what was happenning around 1898; but in 1918, the Czechs together with Slovaks formed an independent republic: Czechoslovakia. Hitler put an end to it in 1939 when he invaded it, after he had taken legally a big part of it thanks to a betrayal of former Czechoslovak allies France and the UK in 1938. In 1939 (November 17), his secret police murdered a Czech student Jan Opletal in an anti-Nazi demonstration.

In 1948, the communists took over in a coup d’état and started a period of Stalinism. They tried to replace it with a "socialism with human face" in 1968, but the Russians weren’t too excited about it and hopped in with tanks.

Although the Czechoslovak army was instructed not to resist, a number of revolting civilians were killed by the Warsaw Pact soldiers. Another people were murdered by their own police in 1969 riots that were intiated by the 1st aniversary of the invasion. The end of the "Prague Spring" is also often related to the name of Jan Palach, a student who set himself on fire at the beginning of 1969 to protest against the "normalization" and the increasing apathy of the Czechoslovak people.

The years 1988 and 1989 brought a new wave of demonstrations. Although everyone felt that something would happen (another 20 years passed, right?), the situation looked pretty bad. The gerontocracy of Czechoslovak communists had not caught at all the reform breeze from Gorbachev’s USSR and still ruled with a wrinkled, but still firm hand. The nation was apathetic, not believing in any possible change. The few dissidents were either arrested or had almost no impact on the society.

Therefore, the students were a potential force that could bring the change in. It was quite surprising to find out long after the revolution that the communists were not too afraid of us and that the dissidents did not believe us too much. Anyway, the students were the most frequent participators in demonstrations and these who felt the most intense need for truth. Just none in our age believed in communism. Yes, many of us -- including me -- were organized in the communist youth organization and did almost everything what we were required to do by the regime. But there was none who’d like it, including even those opportunists who made a career in the communist youth organizations and were collecting functions and benefits.

 

On 11/17/89

The November 17 was always celebrated as the "International Student Day" in Czechoslovakia, commemorating the Palach’s shooting in 1939 and subsequent terror on students. But in 1989, something weird happened. Various independent student groups planned an anti-regime demonstration, and the Communist Youth Organization had scheduled a commemorating meeting, too! The fact that the demonstration was therefore almost legal, attracted a lot of students. So it happened that the people who planned to participate in the anti-regime demonstration came in fact to an official meeting.

The main organizators of the demonstration was a relatively unknown student group STUHA. The "more known" dissidents did not even have too much an interest in this event, partially because it was partially co-organized with the official places. That was why almost none of the dissident tops came to the demonstration.

The official part ended and the crowd did not dissolve, but the opposite became the reality: even more people joined the demonstration. It eventually ended up in a wide and long avenue (Narodni Trida [Avenue of the Nation]) sieged by the police not allowing anyone to leave. In the night, the heavily armed riot police attacked the students in the blocked area with an unprecedented brutality, intentionally using previously unseen force and methods (dogs, armed cars, elite riot troops). They did not exclude anyone and especially brutal were to girls. The horror that was at Narodni trida is simply not possible to describe in words. Hundreds of people were seriously injured and suffered from the terror. Some of my friends are even today marked physically after the police brutality or they are mentally impaired after they went through the horrible experience.

This event, which started to be called the Massacre soon, ended the nation’s apathy. There were even rumors that a person was killed by the police. What a bitter analogy it was for all of us -- we realized that like the gestapo brutally massacred us just 50 years ago, the communist forces were all the same that days.

Well, and the rest is history. The students together with actors started an unlimited strike, which was almost immediately joined by formerly waiting dissidents. They were met by most of the Czechoslovak citizens in a general strike a week later. The communists tried to create a new, quasi-centrist central party commitee after another week of rebellions, but almost 1-million people demonstration said "No" to this policy just a day after. Loosing support from Moscow and suffering from internal fights among the secret police, reform communists and the hard-liners, the regime fell down as if it was made out of sand. At the end of December 1989, the first democratic government was formed and a former dissident Vaclav Havel was elected a president.

 

Velvet Revolution?

The relative ease and peacefullness of the revolution started to confuse a lot of people soon after the victory. The revolution was already called "Velvet Revolution" by the Western journalists, but a lot of Czechs and Slovaks did not know whether to like or hate this name. Many people felt that the hard-liners deserve the same fate that they prepared for so many members of our families, instead of quiet and "velvet" retirement days.

Other people weren’t sure whether they hadn’t participated in a high political game instead of a spontaneous popular uprising. Some notices indicated they might be right.

For example, the rumor about the dead student was most probably spread by the secret police themselves. One of its agents even played a "dead man" on the site of the demonstration, lying without any signs of life on the ground! The demonstration of the 11/17 was full of another police agents who infiltered the student movement, as well those who played demonstrators and were provocators allowing the police use a power on the demonstrators. Some of there were actually among the leaders who brought us intentionally to the terror place on the Narodni trida, where their armed colleagues were already waiting for us ready to give us a lesson that we won't forget until our deaths.

It was also obvious that ANY police action on 11/17 against the students, especially on the 50th anniversary of the 1939 events, will upset everyone and it’s hard to believe that the police top officers wouldn’t know it. It’s also difficult to understand why the communists hadn’t used more power or hadn’t called up for the army when the situation started looking bad for them later. Finally, there are some signs that the reform communists or possibly certain groups in the secret police wanted to put the hard-liners out of the running with the "help" of small street riots they planned to start with the Friday Massacre.

There are some signs that even various wings in the secret police had various intentions and informations concerning the demonstration. Even though it was called on just a medium-size state of readiness among the police forces on 11/17/89, another forces were preparing for the most brutal action ever.

Whatever is the truth, it still remains undiscovered. But we may be sure that the nation indeed shook the regime off with its own power, regardless all the political games. None can deny that the atmosphere of unity and love among the citizens of Czechoslovakia that we perceived during these revolutionary days will never come again, as it was unimaginable to come before; that the excitment of being suddenly free cannot be surpassed by almost anything; that the feeling of holding one’s own fate in one’s own hands is a reward of the highest possible rewards...