Summary
Summary

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today)
Published by: Historický ústav SAV
Summary/Abstract: November 17th 1989 is one of the most important milestones in the Slovak and Czech history in the 20th century. It initiated deep social changes and it led to global changes of the political system, and in consequence it opened the way for a Slovak and Czech society’s way towards democracy – political and economic plurality, civic and political freedom. It was put an end to the monopole of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, that continuously held the political power in country since the coup d’état in February 1948 and forced the Slovak and Czech society to accept its will through directives, and often frequently, by using the force. Both societies as well as national minorities living in Czechoslovakia expected from the November ’89 not only some partial corrections of socialism, what was the case more than twenty years before during the crucial events of the Czechoslovak Spring in 1968. In November 1989, the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia wanted something more – their allegations were going behind the frames of the existing socio-political system. They had enough experience with the practices and the policy of the communist regime, more than years before they were able to compare the existing political situation and the economic conditions with the situation in the democratic Europe in order to formulate more concrete expectations concerning the future. The distance between the people and the policy of the communist regime was more and more evident, as they confronted their own conditions with the situation in the democratic countries of Western Europe. On the other hand, there was a part of society that was relatively satisfied by some social conveniences offered by the socialist system, although these conveniences were often insufficient and strictly limited by the stagnating and unproductive economic system. The leaders of communist party were aware of the fact that their normalization-policy and incapability to introduce essential corrections of the political mechanism felt into the contradiction with changing inner political and social atmosphere in Czechoslovakia.

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