The Velvet Revolution: 15 years later

This week is the 15th anniversary of the protests which eventually lead to the Velvet Revolution, the toppling of the communist regime in then-Czechoslovakia. Radio Prague is doing a series on the event.

The station reports that Czech Republic president Vaclav Klaus played down the role of the dissident elite, saying it was ordinary people, leading their everyday lives who should really be thanked for bringing down communism.

Hardly surprising since Klaus had very poor relations with his predecessor Vaclav Havel, who was also the most prominent dissident against the communist regime.

Klaus suggested that what really brought down the regime were ordinary Czechs. In the 70s and 80s, Klaus writes, people retreated into their own private world and helped the regime to collapse by putting all their imagination and energy into their private and family lives rather than the regime. Klaus interprets this as an effective act of passive resistance, rather than a sign of weakness.

Historian Bohumil Dolezal took issue with Klaus' characterization. "This was simply a populist gesture trying to flatter the average Czech that it was he who brought down the Communists and not the dissidents," he said.

"In my opinion, what Mr Klaus said about the role and significance of dissidents is politically aimed and I think there is a trend here today to marginalise and play down everything that is related to dissident activities. The amount that the dissidents managed to publish illegally here is huge, and they created an effective network to support people unjustly persecuted. In this way they continually monitored the situation and reminded the world outside what was happening here. There were all kinds of documents the dissidents published on human rights, and I know that people read them and actively sought them out. So the dissident movement did have a kind of intellectual influence on the minds and conscience of the people."

Strangely enough, there was no mention of the late US President Ronald Reagan, despite recent American hagiographies implying that he singlehandedly won the Cold War. Radio Prague wisely reserves most of the credit for those who actually risked their lives, liberty and personal security in this noble cause.