The fall of the communist totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia triggered a brutal police crackdown on a permitted student demonstration in Prague. The demonstration and police crackdown on November 17, 1989 led to the events known as the Velvet Revolution, which marked a fundamental democratization turn in Czechoslovakia. Since 2001, Slovakia has been commemorating the event, from which 33 years will pass on Thursday, November 17, as a national holiday - the Day of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy.
November 17 has also been the International Student Day since the Second World War. On October 28, 1939, a student demonstration was held in Prague on the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic. At the same time, it became a protest against the Nazi occupation of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. At the assembly, baker's apprentice Václav Sedláček was killed and medical student Jan Opletal was seriously injured, who succumbed to his injuries on November 11, and on November 17 the Reich Protector ordered the closure of Czech universities. Since 1941, the world public has commemorated this day as International Student Day. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of these events, a permitted student demonstration took place in Prague. The gathering began on Friday, November 17, 1989 in the afternoon at the Charles University campus in Albertovo. The students set off in the direction of Vyšehrad along a pre-approved route. After 6 p.m., a short memorial service was held at the grave of Karel Hynk Mácha in Vyšehrad. However, in a tense atmosphere, the demonstrators went to the city center unplanned. They held lit candles in their hands and chanted slogans for freedom. Law enforcement closed Prague's Národná street, and after eight o'clock in the evening, the police intervention began. Members of the Special Purpose Department, the so-called Red berets, beating and arresting demonstrators. During the intervention, 600 people were injured, of which seven were seriously injured.
Information about the brutal police intervention spread quickly, including the news about the killing of student Martin Šmíd. However, it turned out to be false. Already during the following weekend, November 18 and 19, 1989, the Civic Forum (OF) was established in Prague and the Verejnost proti násiliu (VPN) in Bratislava. Students and actors went on strike. Initially, they primarily demanded an investigation into the police intervention. Demands for the Communist Party to relinquish its monopoly of power gradually increased.
Demonstrations were held in the squares of Bratislava, Prague, but also in other cities, which resulted in a two-hour general strike on November 27, 1989. The Communist Party lost its leadership on November 29, when the federal parliament approved changes to the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR). . After the first unsuccessful attempt on December 3, President Gustáv Husák appointed on December 10 a government of national understanding headed by Prime Minister Marián Čalfa and with the representation of non-communists. Towards the end of the year, on December 29, 1989, the deputies unanimously elected Václav Havel as president. At the same time, independent deputies were co-opted into the parliament.
The first free elections were held on 8 and 9 June 1990. The day before the violently suppressed demonstration of Prague university students on November 17, 1989, Bratislava students also showed considerable courage. On November 16, 1989, they wrote the opening chapter or prologue of the Gentle Revolution by participating in an unauthorized demonstration in Bratislava.
