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.
