Editing Velvet Revolution (section)

==Chronology==

===16 November===
On the eve of [[International Students Day]] (the 50th anniversary of ''Sonderaktion Prag'', the 1939 storming of Prague universities by the Nazis), Slovak high school and university students organised a peaceful demonstration in the centre of [[Bratislava]]. The [[Communist Party of Slovakia (1939)|Communist Party of Slovakia]] had expected trouble, and the mere fact that the demonstration was organised was viewed as a problem by the Party.  Armed forces were put on alert before the demonstration. In the end, however, the students moved through the city peacefully and sent a delegation to the Slovak Ministry of Education to discuss their demands.

===17 November===
[[File:Velvet Revolution monument at Národní street.JPG|thumb|Memorial of the student demonstrations of 17 November, in Prague]]

New movements led by Václav Havel surfaced, invoking the idea of a united society where the state would politically restructure.<ref name="Glenn"/> The [[Czechoslovak Socialist Youth Union|Socialist Youth Union]] (SSM/SZM, proxy of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]]) organised a mass demonstration on 17 November to commemorate [[International Students Day]] and the fiftieth anniversary of the murder of student [[Jan Opletal]]<ref name="Opletal">Kurtz, Lester. [https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/czechoslovakias-velvet-revolution-1989/ "Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution (1989)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107005129/https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/czechoslovakias-velvet-revolution-1989/ |date=7 November 2017 }}. March 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2017.</ref> by the Nazi government.<ref name="Glenn">Glenn, John K. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3005794.pdf “Competing Challengers and Contested Outcomes to State Breakdown: The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia”]. September 1999.  Social Forces. 78:187–211. Retrieved 11 March 2009.</ref>

Most members of SSM were privately opposed to the Communist leadership, but were afraid of speaking up for fear of persecution. This demonstration gave average students an opportunity to join others and express their opinions. By 16:00 (4:00 pm), about 15,000 people joined the demonstration. They walked (per the [[strategy]] of founders of [[Stuha]] movement, [[Jiří Dienstbier Jr.|Jiří Dienstbier]] and [[Šimon Pánek]]) to [[Karel Hynek Mácha]]'s grave at [[Vyšehrad Cemetery]] and – after the official end of the march – continued into the centre of Prague,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.totalita.cz/1989/1989_1117_dem_04.php |title=Sametová revoluce – trasa demonstrace: TOTALITA |publisher=Totalita.cz |access-date=24 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105160931/http://www.totalita.cz/1989/1989_1117_dem_04.php |archive-date=5 November 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> carrying banners and chanting anti-Communist slogans.

At about 19:30 (7:30pm), the demonstrators were stopped by a cordon of riot police at Národní Street. They blocked all escape routes and attacked the students. Once all the protesters dispersed, one of the participants, [[State Security (Czechoslovakia)|secret police]] agent Ludvík Zifčák,{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} was lying on the street. Zifčák was not physically hurt or pretending to be dead; he simply fainted{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}. Policemen carried his motionless body to an ambulance.

The atmosphere of fear and hopelessness gave birth to a [[hoax]] about a dead student named [[Martin Šmíd]]. The story was made up by [[Martin Šmíd|Drahomíra Dražská]] as she awaited treatment after she was hurt during the riot. Dražská worked at the college and shared her hoax with several people the next day, including the wife of journalist [[Petr Uhl]], a correspondent for [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]. This incident mobilised the people and triggered the revolution.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} That same evening, students and theatre actors agreed to go on strike.

===18 November===
Two students visited Prime Minister [[Ladislav Adamec]] at his private residence and described to him what happened on Národní Street. The strike at the Realistic Theatre was declared and other theatres quickly followed.  The theaters opened their stages only for public discussions.

At the initiative of students from the [[Academy of Performing Arts in Prague]], the students in Prague went on strike. This strike was joined by university students throughout Czechoslovakia. Theatre employees and actors in Prague supported the strike. Instead of going on stage, actors read a proclamation by the students and artists to the audience, calling for a general strike on 27 November.

Home-made posters and proclamations were posted. As all media (radio, TV, newspapers) were strictly controlled by the Communist Party (see [[Mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia]]), this was the only way to spread the message.

In the evening, [[Radio Free Europe]] reported that a student (named as [[Martin Šmíd]]) was killed by the police during the previous day's demonstration. Although the report was false, it heightened the feeling of crisis, and persuaded some hesitant citizens to overcome their fear and join the protests.<ref name="Glenn" />

===19 November===
[[File:Bratislava Slovakia 213.JPG|thumb|Memorial of the Velvet revolution in [[Bratislava]] (Námestie SNP), [[Slovakia]]:<br /> {{"'}}Only those who struggle for their freedom are worthy of it.' <br /> At this place in November 1989 we decided to take our responsibility for the future into our own hands. We decided to put an end to communism and to establish freedom and democracy."]]

Theatres in [[Bratislava]], [[Brno]], [[Ostrava]] and other towns went on strike. Members of artistic and literary associations as well as organisations and institutions joined the strike.

Members of a civic initiative met with the Prime Minister, who told them he was twice prohibited from resigning his post and that change requires mass demonstrations like those in East Germany (some 250,000 students). He asked them to keep the number of "casualties" during the expected change to a minimum.

About 500 Slovak artists, scientists and leaders met at the Art Forum (Umelecká beseda) in Bratislava at 17:00. They denounced the attack against the students in Prague on 17 November and formed [[Public Against Violence]], which would become the leading force behind the opposition movement in Slovakia. Its founding members included [[Milan Kňažko]], [[Ján Budaj]] and others.

Actors and members of the audience in a Prague theatre, together with [[Václav Havel]] and other prominent members of [[Charter 77]] and other dissident organisations, established the [[Civic Forum]] (Občanské fórum, an equivalent of the Slovak Public Against Violence for the territory of the Czech Republic) as a mass popular movement for reforms. They called for the dismissal of top officials responsible for the violence, and an independent investigation of the incident and the release of all [[political prisoner]]s.

College students went on strike. On television, government officials called for peace and a return to the city's normal business. An interview with Martin Šmíd was broadcast to persuade the public that nobody had been killed, but the quality of the recording was low and rumours continued. It would take several more days to confirm that nobody was killed, and by then the revolution had gained further momentum.

The leaders of the Democratic Initiative presented several demands, including the resignation of the government, effective 25 November, and the formation of a temporary government composed of non-compromised members of the current government.<ref name="Shepherd, Robin H 2000">Shepherd, Robin H. E. (2000). ''Czechoslovakia' The Velvet Revolution and Beyond''. New York: [[St. Martin's Press]].</ref>

===20 November===
[[File:Prague November89 - Wenceslas Monument.jpg|thumb|[[Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia|St. Wenceslas]] Monument]]

Students and theatres went on "permanent" strike. Police stopped a demonstration from continuing toward Prague Castle, which would have entered the striking theatres.<ref name="Glenn"/>

Civic Forum representatives negotiated unofficially with Adamec without Havel, and Adamec was sympathetic to the students' demands. However, he was outvoted in a special cabinet meeting the same day. The government, in an official statement, made no concessions.

Civic Forum added a demand: the abolition of the "ruling position" of the Communist Party from the Constitution. Non-Communist newspapers published information that contradicted the Communist interpretation. The first mass demonstration in Prague (100,000 people) and the first demonstrations in Bratislava occurred.

===21 November===
[[File:Praha 1989, Václavské náměstí, dav.jpg|thumb|People on the Wenceslas Square in Prague]]
[[File:Praha 1989, Václavské náměstí, svatý Vojtěch s transparentem.jpg|thumb|A statue of [[Saint Adalbert of Prague]] with a streamer and banners]]

The first official meeting of the Civic Forum with the Prime Minister took place. The Prime Minister agreed to personally guarantee that no violence would be used against the people; however he would "protect socialism, about which no discussion is possible".<ref name="Glenn"/>  An organised mass demonstration took place in [[Wenceslas Square]] in central Prague (demonstrations recurred there throughout the following days). Actors and students travelled to factories inside and outside Prague to gain support for their colleagues in other cities.

A mass demonstration erupted in [[Hviezdoslavovo námestie (Bratislava)|Hviezdoslav Square]] in downtown Bratislava (in the following days, it moved to the Square of the Slovak National Uprising). The students presented demands and asked the people to participate in the general strike planned for Monday, 27 November. A separate demonstration demanded the release of the political prisoner [[Ján Čarnogurský]] (later Prime Minister of Slovakia) in front of the Palace of Justice. Alexander Dubček addressed this demonstration – his first appearance during the Velvet Revolution. As a result, Čarnogurský was released on 23 November. Further demonstrations followed in all major cities of Czechoslovakia.

[[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[František Tomášek]], the [[Roman Catholic church|Roman Catholic]] primate of the Bohemian lands, declared his support for the students and issued a declaration criticising the current government's policies. For the first time during the Velvet Revolution, the "radical" demand to abolish the article of the Constitution establishing the "leading role" of the Communist Party was expressed by [[Ľubomír Feldek]] at a meeting of Public Against Violence.

In the evening, [[Miloš Jakeš]], the chairman of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, gave a special address on Federal Television. He said that order must be preserved, that socialism was the only alternative for Czechoslovakia, and criticised protest groups. Government officials, especially the Head of the Communist Party Miloš Jakeš, kept their hard-line position. During the night, they had summoned 4,000 members of the "[[People's Militias (Czechoslovakia)|People's Militias]]" (''Lidové milice'', a paramilitary organisation subordinated directly to the Communist Party) to Prague to crush the protests, but called them off.

===22 November===
Civic Forum announced a two-hour general strike for Monday, 27 November. The first live reports from the demonstration in Wenceslas Square appeared on Federal Television (and were quickly cut off, after one of the participants denounced the present government in favour of Alexander Dubček).

Striking students forced the representatives of the Slovak government and of the Communist Party of Slovakia to participate in a dialogue, in which the official representatives were immediately put on the defensive. Employees of the Slovak section of the Federal Television required the leaders of the Federal Television to provide true information on the events in the country; otherwise they would initiate a strike of TV employees. Uncensored live reports from demonstrations in Bratislava began.

===23 November===
The evening news showed factory workers heckling [[Miroslav Štěpán]], the Prague Communist Secretary. The military informed the Communist leadership of its readiness to act (ultimately, it was never used against demonstrators). The military and the Ministry of Defense were preparing for actions against the opposition. Immediately after the meeting, however, the Minister of Defence delivered a TV address announcing that the army would never undertake action against the people and called for an end to demonstrations.

===24 November===
The entire Presidium, including General Secretary [[Miloš Jakeš]], resigned, and [[Karel Urbánek]], a more moderate Communist, was named General Secretary. Federal Television showed pictures from 17 November for the first time and presented the first television address of Václav Havel, dealing mostly with the planned general strike.<ref name="video">{{YouTube|id=v6FeW7__f6U|title=Prvé vysielanie záberov zo 17. novembra 1989}} Federal Television showed pictures from 17 November for the first time  transmitted one week later on 24 Nov.</ref> Czechoslovak TV and Radio announced that they would join the general strike. A discussion with representatives of the opposition was broadcast by the Slovak section of Federal Television.<ref>Stanislav Háber: Ako vzniklo prvé Štúdio dialóg [http://translate.google.sk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=sk&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.exil.sk%2F%3Fid%3D312%26tree_id%3D99600&act=url "How the first Studio Dialogue was created"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105160619/http://translate.google.sk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=sk&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.exil.sk%2F%3Fid%3D312%26tree_id%3D99600&act=url |date=5 November 2013 }}, Slovak v exile, 17 November 2004</ref> The opposition was represented by Ján Budaj, Fedor Gál and Vladimír Ondruš, while the Communists were represented by Štefan Chudoba (director of Bratislava automotive company), Peter Weiss (secretary of the Institute of Marx-Leninism of the Communist party of Slovakia) and the director of [[U. S. Steel Košice|Steelworks Košice]]. It was the first free discussion on Czechoslovak television since its inception. As a result, the editorial staff of Slovak newspapers started to join the opposition.

===25 November===
[[File:Praha 1989-11-25, Hradčanská, dav se valí na Letnou.jpg|thumb|25 November, people flow from the Prague cathedral (where ended a mass in honour of canonisation of [[Agnes of Bohemia]]) and from the metro station Hradčanská to Letná Plain.]]

The new Communist leadership held a press conference, including Miroslav Štěpán while excluding Ladislav Adamec, but did not address the demands of the demonstrators. Later that day, Štěpán resigned as Prague Secretary. The number of participants in the regular anti-government demonstration in Prague-Letná reached an estimated 800,000 people. Demonstrations in Bratislava peaked at around 100,000 participants.

===26 November===
Prime Minister Adamec met with Havel for the first time. The editorial staff of Slovakia's [[Pravda (Slovakia)|Pravda]], the central newspaper of the Communist Party of Slovakia, joined the opposition.

===27 November===
[[File:Praha 1989, generálnímu tajemníkovi generální stávku (01).jpg|thumb|"To the general secretary – a general strike!!!" An appeal with portrait of [[Miloš Jakeš]], who resigned on 24 November]]

A successful two-hour general strike led by the civic movements strengthened what were at first a set of moderate demands into cries for a new government.<ref name="Shepherd, Robin H 2000" /> The strike took place throughout the country between 12:00 and 14:00, supported by a reported 75% of the population. The Ministry of Culture released anti-Communist literature for public checkouts in libraries, effectively ending decades of [[censorship]]. Civic Forum demonstrated its capacity to disrupt the political order and thereby establish itself as the legitimate voice of the nation in negotiations with the state.<ref name="Glenn" /> The civic movements mobilised support for the general strike.<ref name="Shepherd, Robin H 2000" />

===28 November===
The Federal Assembly deleted the provision in the constitution referring to the "[[Vanguardism#Political party|leading role]]" of the Communist Party, officially ending Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

===10 December===
President [[Gustáv Husák]] swore in the first government in 41 years that was not dominated by the Communist Party. He resigned shortly afterward.