Our Revolution Will Not Be Velvet
In 2024 Right Wing Populism is the Communism of 1989 Czechoslovakia
In January 1989, 20 years after Jan Palach’s death, the clandestine resistance movement formed after the Soviets crushed the promise of Prague Spring planned what they dubbed “Palach Week.” For the first time since Palach’s self-immolation, they would go to the place where he fell in Wenceslas Square for as public memorial and protest against the ongoing Soviet occupation. Nearly 5,000 people came out the first evening of that week — an unthinkable number since the Prague Spring. It set the stage for what became known as the Velvet Revolution.
On Nov. 17, 1989, student protesters filled the streets of Prague. It was eight days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the same tide of freedom that had swept Berlin seemed to have come to the Czech capital. Police tried to beat back the demonstrators, hoping to tamp down the demand for freedom, but the people seemed to have grown immune to the brutality of the regime; the show of force only galvanized the resistance.
The students were joined in the coming days by Czechoslovak citizens of all ages. By Nov. 20, a half-million Czechs and Slovaks filled Prague’s streets and took over Wenceslas Square. The Communists were forced out. By the end of 1989, Czechoslovakia was on its way to having an elected President for the first time since 1948.
The events of those world-changing days would come to be known as the Velvet Revolution. But, while the Velvet Revolution was over relatively quickly, it had been decades in the making.
The Failed “Prague Spring”
In January of 1968, the USSR gave the leadership of Czechoslovakia to someone new: Alexander Dubček. Dubček had fought against German forces during WWII, joining the communist party in his country after the end of the war. He rose through the ranks, serving in the parliament and general assembly as part of a new generation of Slovak communists. Compared to his successor, the Stalinist Antonin Novotny, Dubček was liberal. Within months, he implemented governmental and economic reforms and allowed citizens increased freedom of speech, including freedom of the press. The people of Czechoslovakia embraced the changes and the period of Dubček’s liberalism became known as Prague Spring.
Like the spring, it was fleeting. By August of 1968 the Soviet Union had enough. A more liberal Czechoslovakia was a threat to its regional power and could signal weakness on the world stage. Over half a million Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia; Soviet tanks rolled through the narrow streets of Prague, crushing mostly student-led protests. Soviet loyalist Gustav Husak replaced Dubcek and returned the country to an authoritarian communist regime — but something had changed.