Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs.
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia included students and older dissidents. The result was the end of 41 years of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent dismantling of the command economy and conversion to a parliamentary republic.
Václav Klaus is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second and last prime minister of the Czech Republic while it was a federal subject of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, and then as the first prime minister of the newly independent Czech Republic from 1993 to 1998.
The last period in Czechoslovak history began with the Velvet Revolution from 17 to 28 November 1989 that overthrew the communist government, and ended with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993.
Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Němec, Václav Benda, Ladislav Hejdánek, Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, Martin Palouš, Pavel Kohout, and Ladislav Lis. Spreading the text of the document was considered a political crime by the Czechoslovak government. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, many of the members of the initiative played important roles in Czech and Slovak politics.
With the collapse of the Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, the independent country of Czechoslovakia was formed as a result of the critical intervention of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, among others.
The Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The corresponding movement in Slovakia was called Public Against Violence.
Czech National Social Party is a civic nationalist political party in the Czech Republic, that once played an important role in Czechoslovakia during the interwar period. It was established in 1897 by break-away groups from both the national liberal Young Czech Party and the Czech Social Democratic Party, with a stress on achieving independence of the Czech lands from Austria-Hungary. Its variant of socialism was moderate and reformist rather than a Marxist one. After the National Labour Party dissolved and merged with National Socialists in 1930, the party also became the refuge for Czech liberals. Its best-known member was Edvard Beneš, a co-founder of Czechoslovakia and the country's second President during the 1930s and 1940s.
This article gives an overview of liberalism in the Czech Republic. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it is not necessary that parties label themselves as a liberal party.
Public Against Violence was a political movement established in Bratislava, Slovakia in November 1989. It was the Slovak counterpart of the Czech Civic Forum.
Marián Čalfa is a Slovak former politician, who served as prime minister of Czechoslovakia during and after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, as well as de facto acting President for 19 days. He was a key figure in the smooth transfer of power from Communist rule to democracy.
Jiří Bartoška is a Czech theatre, television, and film actor and president of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. His most notable film roles include performances in Sekal Has to Die (1998), All My Loved Ones (1999), and Tiger Theory (2016), as well as the television series Sanitka (1984) and Neviditelní (2014).
Ludvík Vaculík was a Czech writer and journalist. He was born in Brumov, Moravian Wallachia. A prominent samizdat writer, he was best known as the author of the "Two Thousand Words" manifesto of June 1968.
Monika MacDonagh-Pajerová is a Czech activist, university teacher and former diplomat. She was the leading personality from the 1989 Velvet Revolution and chairperson of the pro-European organization ANO pro Evropu which campaigned for Czech membership of the European Union and higher public understanding of European issues.
Luboš Dobrovský was a Czech journalist and politician, who served as Czechoslovak Minister of Defence.
Pavel Bergmann was a Czech historian, philosopher, a signatory of the Charter 77 manifesto, and a founding member of the Civic Forum.
Valtr Komarek was a Czech economist, forecaster and politician. A participant in the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Komárek subsequently entered politics a part of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), leading the party into elections in 1992, and serving as honorary chairman of the party from March 2011. He also served as First Deputy Minister of National Understanding, and as an MP in the Federal Assembly. He is considered one of the key figures of the Velvet Revolution and post-revolution politics and economics.
The American Czech and Slovak Association (ACSA), originally American Czechoslovak Society (ACS), was a Washington, D.C. based national organization with a mission to facilitate contacts and cooperation between people, institutions and organizations in the United States and the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and assist in the transition to democracy and market economy in Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution, which ended Communist rule in the country. It was founded in 1990, and in 1994 it served as a foundation for the new American Friends of the Czech Republic (AFoCR).
Jan Lacina is a Czech politician, since October 2022 Councillor of Prague 6 district, and since October 2021 a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. He is the vice-chairman of the Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, a member of the Media Affairs Committee, a member of the Standing Committee on the Control of the National Security Office and the Permanent Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he serves in the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy and the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media.
Events from the year 1989 in Czechoslovakia. The year was marked by the Velvet Revolution, which started with student demonstrations on 17 November. It ended with the resignation of the President and Prime Minister, the end of the dominance of the Communist Party and the election of the Václav Havel, the first President of free Czechoslovakia.
