Editing Velvet Revolution (section)

===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.