Twenty years ago a regime change accured in Czechoslovakia. By 1988 the anniversary of the crushing of the Prague Spring and the subsequent invasion by “friendly armies” in 1968 had become a pretext for protest actions.

In January 1989 unrest accured during remembrance meetings in honour of the student Jan Palach, who in January 1969 had set fire to himself as an act of protest. In the summer of 1989, several thoudand inhabitants of the German Democratic Republic emigrated via the Prague embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, prefiguring the changes that would take place to the political map of Europe.

The Communist regimes fell during the summer and autumn in practically all the Eastern Block countries. The regime change in Czechoslovakia was ignited by a peaceful demonstration of students marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Jan Opletal, executed by the Nazis, and the subsequent closing of universities at the beginning of World War II.

On 17 November in Narodni street in the centre of Prague the police brutally attacked unarmed demonstrators which sparked protests in factories, hundreds of thousands gathered in Prague and other cities, and democratic parties were formed. Under the force of these circumstances, the government soon resigned and at the end of 1989 Vaclav Havel was elected president.

In February 1990 an agreement paving the way for the departure of the Soviet Army from Czechoslovak territory was signed. This relatively peaceful change of regime began to be termed the “Velvet Revolution”. The 17th of November was declared the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy and a state holiday.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the totalitarian regime, a concert entitled 20 Years Without the Iron Curtain will take place in Národní street in Prague.