This Tuesday the Czech Republic and Slovakia celebrated 20 years since the fall of communism. The collapse was dubbed the "Velvet Revolution" for its seemingly smooth transition from totalitarian communism to parliamentary democracy. I thought it might be interesting to find out how someone from our generation experienced the regime and the transition. Handily, my wife Gabina fits the bill.
Gabina was born in 1976. She is part of the Czechoslovakian baby-boom of the 1970s, the so-called Husak generation. Husak was the president from 1969 to 1987. Gabina's age means she was a child during the regime's final decade and a teen during the fall.
Before the interview began, Gabina was at pains to stress that hers is just one person's experience. People in Prague or the families of dissidents would have experienced the regime differently. Her parents rarely spoke about politics and the family spent their free-time at the cottage [Because of travel restrictions, many families had a cottage where they sepnt weekends and summers.] or with the grandparents.
My first assumption was that schooling had to be very different.
"I can't really compare schooling here to school outside. Of course, text books were changed to show events in line with the regime. Required books for literature were either by communist authors or showed social injustice. A lot of the choices were simply boring. For most of us, the best option was Winnetou."
From a modern point of view, the focus on social injustice doesn't seem so bad. Superficially, at least, the approach of communist education may seem more progressive. When I put this to Gabina she said, "It's okay if you choose it yourself. But if you have to read it, it's different. When you're forced to do something it doesn't make you interested in it."
Not all of her recollections of her childhood are totally grim though.
"We had, a still have, a cartoon series called Vecernicek. And there was one show from Russia about a wolf and a rabbit called "Just Wait". It was something like "Tom and Jerry". I liked that very much. We played sport. I played volleyball."
"Of course, we couldn't travel, but that was also because my parents couldn't afford it. We just accepted this. I don't think the things we did as children were significantly different from kids in the West, apart from having to go to the Pioneers. This was a weekly club we had to go to or we had to bring a letter from out parents to explain why we couldn't come."
"We played games. Of course, there was a strong political emphasis. We had to wear the uniforms. When there was a major event like the 1st of May, the best ones [pioneers] were chosen to accompany the politicians. We had to stand guard in front of the flag or wave."
Apart from the Pioneers, kids often attended summer camp where they played sport, went on trips, played music and learned camping skills, among other things.
"I can recall one morning when we were woken up by gunfire. The militia came, were standing outside and firing blanks. We were really scared. They were laughing saying it was a joke. When we calmed down we were allowed to shoot at the targets."
As anyone who has read about the period will know, clothes and other consumer goods were hard to come by.
"I got most of my clothes from my older cousins or my grandmother sewed new clothes. This wasn't a problem. Everyone looked the same. Only a few kids had real jeans or nice t-shirts. It was usually someone with relatives outside."
"I didn't really buy music, so that was not issue for me. New books only arrived on Thursday mornings. There was always a crowd of people waiting. The number of books was restricted. You were usually only allowed a maximum of one or two per time. If you wanted more you had to go back to the end of the line. This was the highlight of my week. It was the only time I could buy interesting titles. When you managed to get a book you really wanted, there was a feeling of sheer joy. You can't get this same feeling now."
When I asked if this was the only thing she missed, Gabina said, " I would say so. Nowadays, when you can get anyting at anytime you don't appreciate things as much. I definitely don't miss queuing for everything like we once did."
At the moment before the revolution, Gabina says she was not really aware that something would change.
"For a child from a small town, there was no hint. But for people in Prague who had been going to demonstrations since January '89, they may have been aware that something would change. It was not so easy to organise larger demonstrations here because everyone knew everyone."
"The first information we received was on the 18th. Not much of course because television and radio were still censored. Nobody knew how accurate the information was or what to expect from it. University students who had been involved in the demonstrations made trips out of Prague to inform people. It took days for people to realise what was happening."
"A couple of days after the 17th my parents took us [Gabina and her brother] to a demonstration in out town. They tried to explain the situation to us. I had the feeling something important was happening but I couldn't understand the change. This was one of the first times my parents spoke with us about the regime."
"Later that month, I was in Prague with Mum and people stopped for one minute and jangled their keys. We were in the centre of the city. It was a grey November day. The sky was grey; the buildings were grey; the clothes were grey, and people were smiling. This is the first time I remember seeing people looking happy."
