UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

16-18th February 2006

Friday 17 February 10:00 – 11:30: Panel D2: Rewritten and Remembered History

Deanna Gayle Wooley (Indiana University): ‘Ten years later: defining and redefining the "velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia’

The exceptionalism of the 1989 Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution" derives from its non-violence and the non-political, inclusive character of Civic Forum, the main negotiating body opposite the Communist Party. However, there was a marked lack of consensus in Czech society in the 1990s concerning the meaning of 1989 and its connection to contemporary social and political life. This paper investigates the revolution's tenth anniversary as an example of changes in the boundary between contemporary politics and historical commemoration, treating two broader topics in light of the post-communist environment. On the one hand, the connection between politics and history, including public commemoration, follows a different tradition in Eastern Europe than in the West. In the final years of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, particular historical anniversaries became beacons for growing public antagonism, culminating in the November 17 student-led demonstration whose brutal suppression sparked the widespread public protests that led to the collapse of the communist system. On the other hand, post-revolutionary governments since the French Revolution have had to contend with the tension between their efforts to implement a new foundation of historical legitimacy and the interpretations of other groups with first-hand experience of the events. The topic of coming to terms with history is present across Eastern Europe, and constitutes a large facet of the 1989 commemoration in the Czech Republic as well.

However, the November 17 anniversary presents a particularly interesting study due to the apparent lack of interest in it from both the Czech government and the wider public. This perceived apathy is widely attributed to disappointment in the transition process and the problematic relationship between society and anti-communist dissidents such as former President Vaclav Havel who were directly involved in the negotiations to transfer power from the communists. Yet the public and scholarly discourse in the Czech Republic surrounding 1989 by no means includes references to only well-known dissidents. Indeed, memorial acts during the 1990s emphasized the social group most traditionally associated with November 17 - the students. During the 1999 commemoration, organized mainly by ex-student leaders and attracting a considerable amount of public attention, a group of these ex-students spearheaded a massive petition movement aimed at the current democratic political leadership (including former members of Civic Forum) and the unreformed Communist Party. This perceived attempt at a "second revolution" (an idea which first appeared in 1990), and the debate it engendered over the meaning and ownership of the events of 1989, highlights the multi-faceted array of possible representations and interpretations that remain active components of dealing with the past in the Czech lands.

This paper investigates the Velvet Revolution's tenth anniversary utilizing traditional historical methodologies and oral history with anthropological influences. The dynamics surrounding the ex-students' petition movement and the movement's public and political reception are analyzed using excerpts from the interviews, archival and other documentation, and comparisons with other post-communist commemorations in the former Eastern Bloc.