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Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, 1989 – In Pictures

theguardian.com

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Re: Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, 1989 – In Pictures

#11

Post by pvg »

pjc50 wrote: post #3

I once asked a Romainian colleague how the revolution went for him. The main thing he talked about was just how chaotic the post-revolution power struggle was. Having to argue an angry mob out of attacking the foreign students at his university. Two nearby Army units deciding that the other was a rebel faction and getting into a street battle with anti-tank guns. Widespread theft of basically everything from the coll…

Romania's revolution was the opposite of 'velvet' so there isn't a strong parallel there. Romania and Czechoslovakia were both in the Warsaw pact but on opposite ends of a broad spectrum. Czechoslovakia, a former industrialized democracy, had things like 'socialism with a human face', a sort of proto-perestroika that was suppressed by Soviet tanks in '68 and later a dissident movement well-known outside the country. In 1989 Romania was still a highly oppressive totalitarian state, eccentric cult-of-personality leadership and all.

Re: Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, 1989 – In Pictures

#13

Post by brokenkebab »

kioieiure wrote: post #9
rini17 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowhere I could find he was directly forced to resign by Moscow. Some sources say it was Stasi, others that it was his own party because of general political situation (there was mass exodus to West Germany underway). I am from Czechoslovakia, communists there similarly refused any reforms but I don't know of any initiative from Moscow to replace them.

I'm from Romania, there was a lot of talk that Gorbachev asked Ceausescu to resign, and offered him asylum in Russia, but I can't find a source for that. But look here, a soviet source says that Moscow would have intervened militarily to prevent Ceausescu's return: > “This victory will be a hundred times more valuable if it is won by the Romanian people themselves,” a senior Soviet official said. “We would definitely…

It's quite possible that USSR made overthrowing Ceausescu more probable (by clandestine negotiations rather), because after all in spite of being fellow socialists, Romanian regime had unfriendly relations with Kremlin in 80s. It however doesn't support the idea about Gorbi asking anybody to step down.

Re: Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, 1989 – In Pictures

#14

Post by [deleted] »

dvh wrote: post #10

I was seven when velvet revolution happened. I remember few days later when my father come home from work, I went to the door to greet him. He stepped in, put his suitcase on the floor, looked at me and said: "Well, from now on they will not call me comrade but mister". That was revolution for me. I was as grumpy kid as I am now adult, but I had quite reasonable parents. They would always asked me if I wanted to join…

[deleted]

Re: Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, 1989 – In Pictures

#15

Post by pvg »

dvh wrote: post #10

I was seven when velvet revolution happened. I remember few days later when my father come home from work, I went to the door to greet him. He stepped in, put his suitcase on the floor, looked at me and said: "Well, from now on they will not call me comrade but mister". That was revolution for me. I was as grumpy kid as I am now adult, but I had quite reasonable parents. They would always asked me if I wanted to join…

"Well, from now on they will not call me comrade but mister". That was revolution for me.

I was a bit older than you (and not Czech) but I also found this striking then. All over Eastern Europe the phraseology of communism simply melted away, down to everyday forms of address. And there were at least two generations of adults around who had never used anything else.

I lived in Vienna at the time of the Velvet Revolution and soon after the city was full of visiting Slovaks and Czechs, many arriving in rickety buses. As prone to high-faultin flights of fancy as any teenager, this seemed especially symbolic to me - the old imperial capital, all lit up for the holidays, welcoming what was once its biggest minority. As if saying we could, yet, erase the murderous divisions and follies of most of the 20th century. Not exactly how things worked out!

Re: Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, 1989 – In Pictures

#16

Post by Eugeleo »

On the 16th there were big protests again, as lots of people are generally unhappy with the state of affairs here in Czechia. Even Czechs no longer living here joined the protests in 63 cities around the world. CNN did a nice short article on it [1], if you'd like to read more about it.

[1]: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/16/europe/prague-velvet-revo...

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