Changes wrought by the Velvet Revolution

From left to right: Rasto Gallo, Igor Mikolaska and Peter Vaščák

In May, Isabelle du Moulin wrote to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library from the Bay School in San Francisco, asking to use some of our oral histories for a research project she was conducting on the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. She recently sent us her finished paper. Here are some excerpts from her work:

In 1989, a wave of protests swept across Eastern Europe. In November of 1989, the Czechoslovak people began to take action as well, demanding free elections and an end to the communist regime that had existed for more than 40 years. After less than a month of protests, the Communist government was forced to negotiate and was soon replaced by a transitional government. Václav Havel, a leader of the protest movement, was elected president the following month, becoming Czechoslovakia’s first non-Communist leader since 1948. This Velvet Revolution, named for its smooth, nonviolent, nature, changed the lives of everyone living in the country – from students, to families, to all working citizens. 

The Velvet Revolution led to a multitude of systemic changes that transformed education, migration, and the economic market in Czechoslovakia, greatly affecting the lives of people across the country… To understand the effects of the Velvet Revolution on the Czechoslovak population, one must take a closer look at the ways in which individual lives have been shaped by this event in history. 

Rasto Gallo immediately took advantage of the new academic options that became available after changes were made in the education system. Peter Vaščák, though young at the time, was profoundly impacted by the Revolution and the changes that resulted – in particular, the opening of the borders which allowed him to reunite with his father, who had left the country illegally. Tomas Votocek, a carpenter, was able to start his own company because of the privatization of business—one of many steps in the economic transition from communism to capitalism. These individuals’ perspectives each represent the larger story of each community’s collective narrative.

Rasto Gallo was born in Slovakia in 1970. He grew up in Banská Bystrica where he spent his free time playing the piano, as well as hiking and skiing in the nearby mountains. He began learning English while attending gymnázium, the equivalent to an American college preparatory high school today. Gallo was very interested in the popular Western music of the time, and it was his passion for this music that furthered his knowledge of the English language. As he says, “I wanted to know what [the artists] were singing about… I translated all their lyrics, and that’s how I really got much better at English.” After gymnázium, Gallo went on to study music education at a teacher’s college in Banská Bystrica. His first year at university was marked by the protests of the Velvet Revolution. Gallo himself was out in the streets almost every day, supporting the protest movement. Many other students as well, like Ondrej Krejci, who partook in a strike at his high school, participated in the events of the Revolution. 

For many students, it was hard to study the subjects they were passionate about before the Revolution… Afterwards, however, Gallo was able to study English, which led to many new career opportunities, both in and out of the country. These changes to the education system applied to elementary schools as well. Igor Mikolaska, who was ten at the time of the Revolution, remembers that Russian was no longer mandatory after the Revolution, and that German became an option—Igor immediately switched.

The reunification of families and even the ability to travel without fear were direct results of the Velvet Revolution, which had life-changing consequences for many people. Peter Vaščák was born in Bratislava in 1981 and grew up with his father, mother, and sister. They were living on the border with Austria, says Vaščák: “I remember the barbed wire fence and the soldiers… They were just walking [along] the fence the whole time with German shepherds and AK-47s. They were watching for people [trying] to escape.” In 1989, Vaščák’s father obtained a permit through his job as an air traffic controller which allowed him to travel to the United States for one month. He did not return. While watching the protests of the Velvet Revolution on TV, Vaščák, who lived on the twelfth floor of an apartment building, remembers yelling off the balcony, “Open the border, open the border!” He explains, “[My father] was gone, and we couldn’t get to the United States because they didn’t want to give us visas.” Vaščák’s father, like many other escapees, could not return to Czechoslovakia because he had left the country illegally. 

Matt Carnogursky left Czechoslovakia in 1983 when he booked a two week trip to Italy through a travel agency—he was 23 years old at the time, and was close to graduation at a technical university in Bratislava. Carnogursky did not return to Czechoslovakia until the Revolution, six years later. Before the Revolution, Carnogursky did not dare go back because, technically, he had committed a criminal offense. But, as he explains, “The first time we went there was literally a few weeks after the Revolution, and I could not even believe when my dad said, ‘Come back, come and visit. It’s no problem… It’s completely free, everything changed.’”

… These stories of individual experience reveal much about the impact of the Velvet Revolution. There were many more opportunities for education, travel and business. The strict laws of the communist regime gave way to new freedoms, a more relaxed civil society and, for many people, the opportunity to reunite with loved ones and fulfill dreams of travel or enterprise. The rapid response and willingness of individuals to make major changes in their lives, such as emigration, show the importance of the changes post-Revolution and indicate that many people had been waiting for their chance. The effects of these changes can still be seen and inform our understanding of the Czech Republic and Slovakia today.