Despite the systematic imprisonment and repression of those involved with Charter 77, the movement eventually made a major contribution to the Velvet Revolution that completely ended the regime, in which formerly imprisonment underground writer Václav Havel became President.
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.
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th century, coinciding with the rise of authoritarian governments in countries such as Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Francoist Spain, the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Turkey, Iran, China, and Turkmenistan. In the Western world, there are historical examples of people who have been considered and have considered themselves dissidents, such as the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. In totalitarian countries, dissidents are often incarcerated or executed without explicit political accusations, or due to infringements of the very same laws they are opposing, or because they are supporting civil liberties such as freedom of speech.
From the Communist coup d'état in February 1948 to the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Czechoslovakia was ruled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The country belonged to the Eastern Bloc and was a member of the Warsaw Pact and of Comecon. During the era of Communist Party rule, thousands of Czechoslovaks faced political persecution for various offences, such as trying to emigrate across the Iron Curtain.
In the history of Czechoslovakia, normalization is a name commonly given to the period following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and up to the glasnost era of liberalization that began in the Soviet Union and its neighboring nations in 1987. It was characterized by the restoration of the conditions prevailing before the Prague Spring reform period led by the First Secretary Alexander Dubček of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) earlier in 1968 and the subsequent preservation of the new status quo. Some historians date the period from the signing of the Moscow Protocol by Dubček and the other jailed Czechoslovak leaders on 26 August 1968, while others date it from the replacement of Dubček by Gustáv Husák on 17 April 1969, followed by the official normalization policies referred to as Husakism. The policy ended either with Husák's removal as leader of the Party on 17 December 1987, or with the beginning of the Velvet Revolution on 17 November 1989, which would see the resignation of the entire Communist Party leadership within a week and an end to Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
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.
Petr Pithart is a Czech politician, lawyer and political scientist who served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 6 February 1990 to 2 July 1992. He was also the Senator for Chrudim from 1996 to 2012 and served as President of the Senate from 8 January 1996 to 16 December 1998 and again from 19 December 2000 to 15 December 2004.
Ivan Martin Jirous was a Czech poet and dissident, best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech underground during the communist regime. He is more frequently known as Magor, which can be roughly translated as "shithead", "loony", or "fool", a nickname given to him by the experimental poet Eugen Brikcius.
The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) is a Czech rock band from Prague. They are considered the foremost representatives of Prague's underground culture (1968–1989), which defied Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Members of the band often suffered serious repercussions, including arrests and prosecution, because of their non-conformist ideals. The group continues to perform, despite the death in 2001 of its founder, main composer, and bassist, Milan Hlavsa. Up to 2023, they had released nine studio albums and over a dozen live albums.
Milan "Mejla" Hlavsa was the founder, chief songwriter, and original bassist of the Czech band the Plastic People of the Universe, which was part of the inspiration for the anti-establishment movement Charter 77.
Mánička is a Czech term used for young people with long hair, typically men, in Czechoslovakia through the 1960s and 1970s. Long hair for males during this time was considered an expression of political and social attitudes in communist Czechoslovakia.
The Sixtiers were representatives of а new generation of the Soviet Intelligentsia, who entered the cultural and political life of the USSR during the late 1950s and 1960s, after the Khrushchev Thaw. Most of them were born between 1925 and 1945, and their worldviews were formed by years of Stalin's repressions and purges, which affected many of the Sixtiers' immediate families, and World War II, in which many of them had volunteered to fight.
Jaroslav Šabata was a Czech political scientist, psychologist, and dissident during Czechoslovakia's Communist era. A leading dissident based in Brno, Šabata was a signatory of Charter 77 in 1977. He served as the spokesman of Charter 77, the organization named for the document, from 1978 to 1981.
Lucerna Music Bar is a concert club in Prague, Czech Republic. It is housed within Lucerna Palace.
Jiří Dienstbier Jr. is a Czech politician, lawyer and the Senator for Kladno from 2011 to 2020, representing the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). He previously served as Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation in Bohuslav Sobotka's cabinet, and at various points he has been Deputy Leader of ČSSD, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and shadow minister of Justice. He was also the ČSSD candidate for the first direct presidential elections in the Czech Republic in 2013.
Pavel Bergmann was a Czech historian, philosopher, a signatory of the Charter 77 manifesto, and a founding member of the Civic Forum.
Rudolf Battěk was a Czech sociologist, politician, and political dissident during Czechoslovakia Communist era.
Eva Kantůrková is a Czech author and screenwriter. A communist in her early years, she joined the Czech dissident movement after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and was one of the signatories of Charter 77. In her novels, short stories, historical essays, and diaries, she has chronicled the repression of Czech dissidents and explored themes of political and personal disillusionment.
Jiřina Šiklová was a Czech sociologist notable for her political engagement and studies of gender in the Czech Republic and former Soviet countries. She was an active campaigner for political reform in Communist Czechoslovakia and was a signatory of Charter 77.
Jan Petránek was a Czech journalist, commentator and dissident during communist era of Czechoslovakia. He was a signatory of Charter 77.
Juliana Jirousová was a Czech artist and painter, known for her paintings of Roman Catholic saints. Jirousová was an anti-Communist dissident during the communist era in Czechoslovakia and a signatory of Charter 77. Her former husband, poet Ivan Martin Jirous, was also a dissident and major figure in the underground movement during the Normalization period.
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