we are not like them!

in 1968, realizing the unpopularity of the communist party in czech, the leader of the party decided to reform itself, creating more freedom in czech. the movement is known as the prague spring.

however, it was quickly shut down by the soviet union, with the invasion of czech by more than 200000 troops.

starting from 1985, with gorbachev's coming to power, things started to change. in '88, the 20th anniversary of the prague spring, there was large demonstration. in november '89, in response to the collapse of the nearby communist party's regimes, college students in prague initiated a peaceful demonstration, which was ended by violence from the police. large scale strikes led by the students ensued, whose culmination was a demonstration of 0.5 million citizens of prague. the parents all backed up their younger generation. on that occasion, vaclav havel, in an attempt to calm the crowd, told them "we are not like them", and the demonstration remained peaceful.

on 11/28/89, the party gave up the power, and a new era began.