Velvet Revolution

The "Velvet Revolution" (November 16 – December 29, 1989) refers to a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that sees the overthrow of the Communist government.

It is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989.On November 17, 1989 (Friday), riot police suppress a peaceful student demonstration in Prague.

That event sparks a series of popular demonstrations from November 19 to late December.

By November 20 the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague has swelled from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million.

A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, is held on November 27.With the collapse of other Communist governments, and increasing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces on November 28 that it will relinquish power and dismantle the single-party state.

Barbed wire and other obstructions are removed from the border with West Germany and Austria in early December.

On December 10, President Gustáv Husák appoints the first largely non-Communist government in Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigns.

Alexander Dubček is elected speaker of the federal parliament on December 28 and Václav Havel the President of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989.In June 1990 Czechoslovakia will hold its first democratic elections since 1946.

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