The City of Truth

The obituary highlighted last week was not a personal account as much as a personal history. Below is a link connecting to a personal account taken as part of a project by Europeana.eu from Petr Janyska, a witness to the Velvet Revolution. The audio recording of his take on events accompanies photographs of a document calling for the general strike on November 27, 1989. Janyska describes this document, along with another from the Civic Forum which was a “public declaration of the opposition saying that the old regime is over and it was clear that the whole nation wanted something totally different.” His assertion that the declaration, which is not pictured, indicated the desire of the entire nation is not well supported. The Civic Forum formed quickly and was active in the major urban center of Prague. From The Walls Came Tumbling Down by Dr. Gale Stokes, we know that student teams carrying the message of revolution to the villages were shut out of some factories by the People’s Militia and scorned by certain peasants (p.182). This testimonial by Janyska may indicate his experience, and possibly those of Prague residents in November and December, thinking that the entire nation also favored change. However, it seems unlikely that the Civic Forum could truly speak for the whole nation, as portions of the population who either belonged to the party or could not conceive of the benefits of a new social and economic order, likely did not favor radical change.

“Petr Janyska,” 89 Voices, http://89voices.eu/post/52627521283/petr-janyska (Accessed March 10, 2014)

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The topic I outlined in class centers on a contrasts of the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia with the chaos and violence of the Yugoslav case. These two countries were multinational states. My plan would be to contrast the institutional continuity and discontinuity of central governmental institutions such as the armed forces, internal security and police, and civil service. I would also attempt to compare these cases with a counter-example in the form of German unification. In Germany the goal was integration of the German Democratic Republic state with that of the Federal Republic of Germany, and this was a similarly complicated process but in reverse. This paper would involve research into the records of the states in question, which might pose a problem. I also intend to use published work on the democratic transitions, which are easier to access. The political science dimension of this project may be more involved than a strictly historical treatment, and would present another challenge. As such I am also considering a study of Václav Havel. This would examine perceptions of him in the western consciousness and within Czechoslovakia, his legacy as the last leader of Czechoslovakia and as the first President of the Czech Republic, and his development as an artist making the transition to politician, and eventually elder statesman.