This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. The "Velvet Revolution" took place between November 17 and December 29, 1989 and is known as the six-week relatively peaceful and bloodless period of demonstrations that saw the overthrow of the Soviet regime in the former Czechoslovakia.
The Czech Republic will commemorate the 20th anniversary with a wide range of events.
On November 17th, 2009 there will be a concert “Twenty Years Without the Curtain” of top young Czech artists performing at the Old Town Square (www.oponaops.eu). The National Museum will host an exhibition ‘Bee Free’ from November 17th-July 6th, 2010. Its aim is to recreate the atmosphere of the former communist regime—including a hot-air balloon from which Radio Free Europe dropped anti-communist pamphlets across former Czechoslovakia. (www.nm.cz)
The Stone Bell House in Prague will present a photography exhibition, “That Time in the East,” from October 28 to January 3rd, 2010, that emphasizes not radical political events but rather everyday life at a time of the Communist regime. (www.ghmp.cz/a_zvon.php#vyst1)
The Museum of Communism describes the life under totalitarianism from 1948 to 1989. Visitors can see an interrogation room, propaganda and artifacts, from statues and flags to a noose. The exhibition “Revolution Posters 1989” showcases posters and flyers that hang in public places around Czechoslovakia during the Communist Era. The exhibition is located front at Kampa Park in front of Mlynska Kavarna, Ricni 1, Prague 1. (www.muzeumkomunismu.cz)
For more information visit www.CzechTourism.com.
