BRATISLAVA, Slovakia—Thousands of people in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia went to the streets in recent days to commemorate the so-called “Velvet Revolution”: the non-violent movement that 20 years ago caused the fall of the communist regime in then Czechoslovakia.
The revolution was labeled as “velvet” by a Czech journalist and the term quickly spread in foreign media. It was called as such due to its non-violent nature, since no one was killed during the overthrow of the communist rule.
In Prague, tens of thousands gathered on Nov. 17 to commemorate the Velvet Revolution. A concert called “20 Years Without Curtain” launched the career of former dissident and the first post-communist President Vaclav Havel.
Concerts, rallies, and re-enactments of the communist state were organized to recall the events in 1989, when student demonstrations in Prague, suppressed by the riot police, sparked other mass protests on the streets, ultimately leading to the collapse of the Communist Party’s power.
The first attempt by reformist members of the Communist Party to improve the regime was called “Socialism with a human face,” and it was violently suppressed in 1968 by the armed forces of the Soviet-led Warsaw pact.
Purges followed in the Communist Party and in a period called “normalization,” the regime maintained its power for another 20 years. During this time, the opposition in the Czech Republic was formed under the informal lead of Vaclav Havel, playwright and essayist. In Slovakia, most dissidents were members of the Catholic Church or environmentalists.
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