Václav Havel

Twenty-five years on from the Velvet Revolution

Havel navždy - Havel forever. © Ricky Yates — Havel navždy – Havel forever. © Ricky Yates

I had originally planned to write a blog post on this topic back in November 2014, immediately following the ‘Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day’ public holiday on Monday 17^th November, which officially marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution on 17^th November 1989. But rather than write an immediate reaction, I eventually decided that it was better to wait somewhat longer and give myself a little more time for both research and for reflection.

For although the events of 17^th November 1989 were what initially triggered the Velvet Revolution, it took several weeks before on 29^th December 1989, the previously Communist Party controlled rubber stamp Czechoslovak parliament, voted dissident playwright Václav Havel, to be the new President of Czechoslovakia with the promise of holding truly democratic parliamentary elections in the following year.

Therefore over the past two months, not only has the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution been commemorated, but also the twenty-fifth anniversary of Havel’s election as President, and in-between on 18^th December, the third anniversary of the death of Václav Havel on 18^th December 2011.

Placard from 17th November 2014 © Ricky Yates

With all these anniversaries, there has been an outpouring of appreciation for the late Václav Havel, well-illustrated by the large poster displayed on the front of the National Museum overlooking the top end of Václavské námestí / Wenceslas Square, and by this placard that I photographed on Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day. Much has been written in praise of his role in leading the dissident movement and bringing about a peaceful end to the Communist regime. Then as to how well as President, he represented the nation of Czechoslovakia 1989-1992; the Czech Republic 1993-2003.

The way Havel represented the nation, has been sharply contrasted with the behaviour of the current President, Miloš Zeman. Despite receiving just under 55% of the total vote in the presidential election held only two years ago, his level of support and popularity has since dropped considerably. In recent times, he has made statements questioning the economic sanctions being imposed on Russia for its military activity in Ukraine. He gave a live radio interview on Czech Radio in which he used foul language. Then in the days just before the Velvet Revolution anniversary, he tried to downplay the level of violence used by the riot police against the student demonstrators in 1989.

As a consequence, one of the major events on 17^th November, was a protest march to Prague Castle with the demonstrators waving red cards, calling for President Zeman to be ‘sent off!’ It should be noted that this demonstration took place in Prague where Zeman did not gain a majority of the votes cast in the 2013 presidential election. But even many of those who voted for him are now expressing considerable disappointment with his words and actions and his complete unwillingness to apologise for them. A majority of the population now see him as an embarrassment for the Czech nation, in stark contrast to the late President Havel.

With these anniversaries, many people have been looking back and reflecting on how much has changed here in the Czech Republic, from the situation that existed twenty-five years ago. One very obvious change is that the demonstration against the current President took place without being attacked by riot police! Expressing an opinion that differs from those in authority is now possible.

I have often read that Czech people always talk quietly, can be unfriendly towards foreigners and are difficult to get to know. The experience of myself and Sybille over the past six-plus years is that this generalisation is far from the truth. Where it may apply to some extent, is amongst older Czech people who experienced living under the Communist regime. You spoke quietly because you didn’t know who was listening. You didn’t make friends easily because you were never sure who was an informer. And for most of that generation, the only language they have is Czech, together with the Russian they were forced to learn and which most have since done their utmost to forget 🙂

However the reality now is, that every Czech aged thirty or under, has no recollection or personal experience of living under a Communist regime. Therefore a group of young Czechs together are likely to talk somewhat loudly, especially if they are enjoying a few beers at the same time! They also easily make friends with each other and are often friendly towards foreigners. This is helped by most educated younger Czechs being able to speak English and many of them being very keen to practice their English language skills.

All of this was clearly brought home to me once again last week and is what has prompted me to finally compile this blog post. Last Monday, Sybille and I visited Bar- Restaurant U Topolu, a favourite of ours as it is with many of the students from the nearby technical university. With no table being free, we asked three young ladies if we could share the free end of their table. Upon hearing us speaking to each other in English, they spoke to us in English. Having discovered that we were not tourists but lived here, they were more than happy to converse with us.

All three were in their final year at the technical university, studying architecture. They were out celebrating together, having each completed an important assignment which they had handed in that day. Judging by the number of ‘blades of grass’ * they would eventually need to cut, they had been celebrating for some time 🙂

They spoke freely about themselves, where they were from and what their aspirations were. They were keen to know about us, where we were from and whether we liked living here. When we said that our only real complaint is our difficulties with the Czech language, Lenka, (the most talkative of the three), admitted that even she struggled sometimes with getting her Czech right! This rather confirmed the complaint I’ve heard from a few older Czech people, that many younger Czechs don’t always speak their own language correctly.

These three young ladies are part of the new post-Velvet Revolution generation making the most of the educational and other opportunities that they now have and also knowing how to enjoy themselves at the same time. Open and friendly towards each other and even with English-speaking foreigners living among them.

* See this previous post and the comment on it by Sean.

Christmas Eve 2011 in Prague

24 December 1 — Tribute to former President Václav Havel in a lady’s fashion shop window © Ricky Yates

I’m writing this on Christmas Eve, just a few hours before setting out from the Chaplaincy Flat to St Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church in the centre of Prague, in order to celebrate our Christmas Midnight Eucharist which begins at 23.30 this evening. It is now dark and therefore in terms of the liturgical Church year, the season of Advent has ended and we have entered the Christmas season.

As I mentioned in my earlier blogpost entitled ‘Advent Sunday‘, this year, because of Christmas Day being on a Sunday, the preceding season of Advent has been a full four weeks long. Depending on which day of the week Christmas Day falls, in some years the fourth ‘week’ of Advent is only one or two days long. However, further to my blogpost of earlier this week, here in Prague the fourth week of Advent has been overshadowed by the death of former President Václav Havel last Sunday and the preparations for his state funeral which took place yesterday.

In that earlier post about Havel, I did say that, ‘as I previously understood it, the general consensus was that in many respects, Havel was more highly regarded outside of this country than within in it’. However, I did then go on to say that what I had then seen in the thirty hours following his death when I wrote that piece was rapidly changing that understanding. What I have observed since then has completely changed that view.

The photo above is probably the best way to illustrate what I mean. Here in the window of an upmarket lady’s fashion store ‘5^th Avenue’, a whole display window has been given over to a tribute to Havel with his picture, a number of votive candles, and a large flower arrangement. Even in our favourite local bar-restaurant U Topolu where we ate yesterday evening, in one corner was a picture of Havel pinned to the wall with a votive candle in front of it. I meant to take a picture of that as well but unfortunately failed to do so.

24 December 2 — Our Christmas Eve dinner © Ricky Yates

But with all of this going on, the city has also been busy getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Which of course raises the interesting question of when do you actually celebrate the festival. Here in the Czech Republic, the greater celebration takes place on Christmas Eve as it does in many other continental European countries. This is well illustrated by the wonderful Prague public transport system which goes onto a night timetable early in the afternoon of Christmas Eve but then runs a normal Sunday timetable on Christmas Day.

As my wife Sybille is German, having the main celebration on Christmas Eve is also her tradition. Therefore we had our Christmas Dinner this evening – a very tasty roast duck with vegetables. Appropriately, the duck had been reared and packaged in Germany but, as we frequently experience here, with a sticky label in Czech stuck over the German cooking instructions!

Veselé Vánoce – Happy Christmas

Václav Havel – death of a statesman

Yesterday, Sunday 18^th December, was a very significant day in the life of the Anglican Church here in the Czech Republic when we held our first ever service in Brno. However, just as I and five members of the Prague congregation were leaving Coffee Hour following our Sunday morning Eucharist in Prague in order to catch the train to Brno, news reached us of the death of Václav Havel, leading dissident during the communist era, first President of post-communist Czechoslovakia and, following the Velvet Divorce, President of the Czech Republic 1993 -2003.

I returned home from Brno, just after midnight last night, to find the death of Václav Havel as the leading news story on the BBC News website – the first time in over three years of living here in Prague that I can remember a news story from the Czech Republic being so featured. However, within a few hours, the story had lost top billing to the death of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. In many respects, this is understandable as the death of the North Korean leader means there is a great deal of concern around the world as to what future leadership will emerge within that unpredictable nuclear power.

Living here as a foreigner in the Czech Republic, I have been trying to get the measure of how Czech people feel about the death of one of their most famous citizens. As I had previously understood it, the general consensus was that in many respects, Havel was more highly regarded outside of this country than within in it. Judging by what has happened within the last 30 hours or so since his death, that understanding may well be wrong.

The picture above is of the front page of today’s edition of Dnes /’Today’, one of the leading Czech national newspapers. The first section of the paper, all sixteen pages of it, is completely given over to reports about a whole variety of aspects of the life and death of Václav Havel to the total exclusion of any other news. In the second section for regional news, the first three pages are given over to describing the reaction in Prague to Havel’s death. All of that I believe, speaks volumes – newspaper editors usually know what their readers want to read.

What will be totally new territory for this nation is the organisation of a state funeral at which the attendance of numerous major figures from around the world is expected. No Czech national of the stature of Václav Havel has died since the fall of communism just over twenty-two years ago. Preparations for this event, which it is currently suggested, will happen this coming Friday, will be interesting to observe. As for the first ever English-language Anglican Carol Service in Brno, a blog post will follow shortly.

The Velvet Revolution – 20 years on

Charcoal roasted ham being cooked on Old Town Square © Ricky Yates

Yesterday, Tuesday 17^th November 2009, marked the twentieth anniversary of the start of the events that led to the ‘Sametová Revoluce’, the Velvet Revolution, which saw the demise of the Communist government that had ruled Czechoslovakia for previous forty one years. As I mentioned in my recent blog post about Holidays and Celebrations in the Czech Republic, 17^th November is now kept as a public holiday entitled ‘Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day’.

Although not a Czech and having only lived here for 14 months, I was still interested to see how the momentous events of twenty years ago would be celebrated. So early yesterday afternoon, Sybille and I set out from our flat and travelled by bus and Metro to the centre of Prague, in order to soak up the atmosphere.

One thing the Czechs have become very good at is attaching a midweek public holiday to the nearest weekend and thus creating a long weekend. Therefore most schools and university faculties were also closed on Monday 16^th as students and staff were granted a Headteachers/Deans holiday. As one Czech parent said to me, “If it wasn’t granted as a holiday, most people would take it as one anyway!”

However, in contrast to those enjoying a four-day weekend, most retail outlets were open on Tuesday. Our local Billa Supermarket had a notice declaring that on 17^th November they would be open ‘normal Tuesday hours’. In Prague city centre, most shops, not just those aimed at tourists, were also open as normal for business. Twenty years on from the fall of communism, the capitalist free-market has well and truly established itself in the Czech Republic!

Display Board explaing the events of 1989 © Ricky Yates — Display Board explaining the events of 1989 © Ricky Yates

We went first to Staromestské námestí/Old Town Square where we understood various attractions had been laid on. We stupidly arrived two minutes too late and missed out on the thirty minute period when beer was being sold at the communist era price of just under 3 Kc for 0.5l. In UK terms that is about 10p a pint! However, we did enjoy some ham that had been freshly charcoal roasted over an open fire, accompanied by a cold beer. But for that privilege, we had to pay nearer the 2009 tourist price.

We then walked across to Václavské námestí/Wenceslas Square. At the Muzeum end of the square, were a series of display boards explaining in Czech and English, the events of 1989 that culminated in the capitulation of the Communist government and the election of the dissident playwright Václav Havel, as President on 29^th December that year. The first of these events were students gathering in Wenceslas Square to mark the twentieth anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach on 19^th January. This and subsequent gatherings in what has become known as ‘Palach Week’, were forcibly dispersed by the National Security Corps officers using batons and water cannons.

Candles and flowers at the memorial to Jan Palach & Jan Zajic © Ricky Yates

Between the site of the display boards and the towering statue of Sv. Václav/St. Wenceslas on his horse, there is a small memorial to Jan Palach and another self-immolator Jan Zajic. In front of the memorial, many people had laid flowers or lit votive candles and several more people came to light candles as we stood in silence in front of the memorial. It had just gone dark and the flickering light of the candles made for a quiet evocative atmosphere.

We then set off back down Wenceslas Square and turned left into Národní where the main action of the day was due to culminate. On 17^th November 1989, a large group of students who were trying to march from Albertov to Wenceslas Square, were attacked and severely beaten by riot police in Národní, the main thoroughfare from the banks of the River Vltava leading to the square. The reaction of the wider public to this violent action by the Communist authorities against their own people, was the catalyst for a series of daily demonstrations of an ever increasing size, which eventually brought about the end of the oppressive regime.

Yesterday, that march was re-enacted by several thousand people. Whilst also ending in Národní, instead of violence, more candles were lit at the site of the 1989 event, speeches were made and the national anthems of both the Czech Republic and Slovakia were sung. Suddenly, with very loud bangs and plumes of smoke, a ‘curtain’ of fireworks exploded symbolising the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Then, a street concert began, beamed and broadcast onto large screens erected at various points in the street, as well as live on Czech television.

Re-enactment of the 1989 demonstration in Národní © Ricky Yates; Note the somewhat less welcome post-communism arrival of 'Thai Massage' and the 'Admiral Casino'! — Re-enactment of the 1989 demonstration in Národní © Ricky Yates; Note the somewhat less welcome post-communism arrivals of 'Thai Massage' and the 'Crystal Palace Casino'!

One of the very good things about yesterday’s re-enactment was the number of young people who took part in it, as well as those who were re-tracing the steps that they themselves had walked twenty years before. I have often heard the complaint from numerous older Czech people who lived and suffered under the Communist regime, that the young people of today do not appreciate the freedom they have – the freedom to travel, to express their own views, to be educated rather than indoctrinated. Yesterday, at least some Czech twenty-somethings, did think it important to go out and commemorate such a significant event in the history of their country.

One rather ironic observation I noted was the role of the police. There was a sizeable police presence in central Prague overseeing yesterday’s events. They too all seemed rather young. Sybille wondered whether older officers, who might have been around twenty years ago, had been shipped off to the countryside for a few days! But instead of attacking the crowds, they were seeking to protect them, directing traffic away from streets pedestrianised for the day and ensuring that no one got hurt in the crush.

CNN News Crew in Wenceslas Square © Ricky Yates

The ultimate irony was in relation to the news media. On Wenceslas Square, we came across the mobile base for a CNN News crew. Under the awning attached to their van, they had a laptop computer set up which was showing clips of the events twenty years previously. The short bit I watched included a clip where a riot policeman deliberately comes across to the TV camera and puts his hat over the lens to try to prevent filming of the violence directed at the student protesters. Yesterday, one of the main police tasks was protecting TV vans and outside broadcasting facilities so that pictures of the events could reach the whole of the Czech Republic and the wider world!

Former Dissidents being interviewed for TV on Národní © Ricky Yates; If anyone can identify either of them, please let me know!