Velvet Revolution - page 3 - The Slovak Spectator

Glossary: Velvet Revolution fails to fire student interest

Spectator College provides readers of The Slovak Spectator who are trying to improve their English with glossaries of useful and frequently used words and expressions from stories published as part of the Spectator College as well as in the rest of the newspaper.

Compiled by Spectator staff

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Comics tell the story of the Velvet Revolution for those who were not there

Each book is produced by a different duo of Slovak writers and illustrators.

Nina Hrabovská Francelová

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Velvet Revolution fails to fire student interest

Teenagers struggle to imagine life without freedoms.

Nina Hrabovská Francelová

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Memories of the Velvet Revolution

Researcher Ľubica Lacinová recalls her life under communism and the events of 1989 in a podcast interview.

Peter Dlhopolec

“I began to understand the world was divided and that what was happening in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) was not exactly what I wanted,” Pižurný says.

A. Pižurný on the 1989 Revolution: I did not want the world to be split

Anton Pižurný did not believe the communist regime could fall. Yet, he copied an illegal document that would help to bring about the revolution in his town.

Jana Plulíková's story is one of many collected by the Post Bellum organisation

J. Plulíková: We binned communism and went back to our own lives

Jana Plulíková did not understand communism as a child. At university, she and other like-minded students rigorously tried to bring it down. Successfully.

Part of SNP Square in front of the Old Market Hall (Stará Tržnica).

Will Bratislava become home to Velvet Revolution Square?

It is proposed that part of SNP Square, where mass rallies against the communist regime took place 30 years ago, should be named after the Velvet Revolution.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Three years of courage and freedom

The shared love of freedom, and the shared courage to defend and nurture it, will continue to sustain the relationship between the US and Slovakia for generations to come, US ambassador writes.

Adam Sterling

The communist police cars among protesters at the Candle Protest in Bratislava, March 25, 1988.

President Kiska: Candle Manifestation opened the door to big democratic change

Slovakia commemorates 31 years since the event, which heralded the upcoming revolution.

Compiled by Spectator staff

SNP Square during the Velvet Revolution.

Velvet Revolution: Few expected a smooth and non-violent transfer of power in the country

Images from the history of the Sme daily: The Revolution

Alexej Fulmek

Political analyst Miroslav Kusý has died

He was one of the first signatories of Charter 77. After the revolution, he co-founded several organisations and served as rector of Comenius University.

Compiled by Spectator staff

What to expect in 2019?

Five things that will shape Slovakia this year.

Nina Hrabovská Francelová

The courage to fight for democracy

Authoritarian societies squander the possibilities of human achievement, of lives lived to their fullest, writes the US ambassador to Slovakia.

Adam Sterling

Bratislava's SNP Square in November 1989

What we didn't know about our freedom

In 1989, we thought that once the job was done, we would only go out to the squares for Sunday walks.

Beata Balogová

After the 1989 revolution, everyone wnated to travel to the West, which caused long queues.

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What were the first foreign trips after the 1989 Velvet revolution like?

Slovaks tended to travel with canned meat and thermos flasks and sang on the buses for hours. When Italians saw a Czechoslovak bus, they locked the toilets. Very old buses – or anything that moved, in fact – were used for travelling. Sausage smells followed the tourists wherever they went and in many shops, signs saying “Do not steal, God sees you” welcomed them.

Ela Rybárová