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New Consititution
A new constitution is drafted and Czechoslovakia becomes the new
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. This constitution limited the autonomy granted to the citizens. It combined the legislative and executive branches into one system. The document replaced another constitution that granted rather democratic rights to the people. Many citizens were confused when their country went from being democratic to strictly socialist. In the first years of the constitution, people were outraged by the new limit -
Prague Spring
In January, Dubcek was chosen as the new head of the Communist party and and began to liberalize the country and grant additional rights to citizens through common communist policies at the time. Then, in August Czechoslovakia was invaded by a Soviet-led military force to try to strengthen control of the central party. As a last result, the military took Dubcek to Moscow and forced him to make passionate appeal to the people Czechoslovak people to cooperate with the Soviets. After this event, c -
Milas Jakes replaces Husac as Communist Party Leader
Husak declared that Czechoslovakia would be following Gorbachev’s perestrioka, a policy which allowed some economic reform. It did not become reality because Husak resigned from his positions and could not follow through on his declaration. His resignation stemmed from the pressure of Moscow to maintain tight control over Czechoslovakia even though that was not Dubcek’s original intent as a leader. Milas Jakes becomes new communist party leader. This course of events marked the last years of co -
Mass Demonstratios Begin Against Govt.
Mass demonstration to mark the twentieth anniversary of the 1968 Soviet invasion of the country. In 1968, the Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia in order to stop the progression of Prague Spring which gave citizens more rights. The invasion led to a brutal end of a movement which would have moved their country further away from tyranny and more into a democratic state. The invasion was a topic of protest because many citizens felt that the immediate end to Prague Spring left them in a -
Pro-democracy Demonstrations Occur Nov 16-17
Pro-democracy demonstrations occur throughout the nation, especially in Prague and Bratislava. State police brutally break up demonstrations in Prague. Police brutality caused the group of protesters to grow from a group of 200,000 to 500,000. Many of the protesters were high school and college students of the new generation who believed much about the Communist party was backwards. They wished to overthrow party control and establish a new government. These demonstrations marked the beginni -
Start of Velvet Revolution
On this day government police broke up peaceful student demonstrations throughout the country, with major protests in Bratislava and Prague. In the following days, the number of protesters swelled from around two hundred to over five hundred thousand. These massive demonstrations manifested into a 2-hour general strike against the Communist government in which almost every citizen of Czechoslovakia participated. -
Period: to
Vevlet Revolution
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Communist Party Relinqueishes Government Control
Communist Party relinquishes control of the single-party state after general strike against the government throughout Czechoslovakia in the previous week. Many government officials felt pressure from the protesters and began to fear that violence against communism would soon be a realistic possibility. In an attempt to preserve the peace of their country, Dubcek decided to bow to mounting pressure and dismantle the last Communist government of Czechoslovakia. This event is considered one of th -
Vaclav Havel Elected President of Czechoslovakia
Gustav Husak appointed a largely democratic government and resigned. Shortly thereafter, Alexander Dubcek was elected speaker of the federal assembly. Vaclav Havel, the outspoken playwright who was persecuted under the Communist regime, was overwhelmingly elected President of Czechoslovakia in the first free elections in Czechoslovakia. With all of the different leaders at this time, many different viewpoints for what the government should look like arose. They did not share the same ideas for -
First Free Elections
The first free legislative elections since 1946 occur. The election was considered free and fair by international observers and was highly successful, with more than 95% of the population voting. Half of voters voted for the civic forum whereas only 13% voted for the Communist Party. The goal of the civic forum was to unite anti- authoritarian forces to overthrow the Communist regime. Even though the civic forum won the elections, the plans for accomplishing their goals were very loose. The out -
Disolution of Czechoslovakia
This date marks the official dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Plans arose for the division in 1968; however, they did not become fully separate states until January 3, 1993. During 1992 most of the parliamentary actions centered around the debate of creating separate states. Most leaders could no longer get along and had separate visions for their respective regions. This separation is also called the completion of the “velvet divorce” because even though it was a peaceful partition many of the le
