November 17 is a Czech national holiday, marking the start of the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989, which ended more than four decades of communist rule and propelled the country’s best-known proponent of human rights, the playwright Václav Havel, to the presidency. This year’s commemoration was an insult to the revolution’s legacy.
NEW YORK – November 17 is an important date in the Czech Republic. It is a national holiday marking the start of the 1989 “Velvet Revolution,” which ended – smoothly and nonviolently – more than four decades of hardline communist rule and soon propelled the country’s best-known proponent of human rights, the playwright Václav Havel, to the presidency. This year’s commemoration was an insult to the revolution’s legacy.
NEW YORK – November 17 is an important date in the Czech Republic. It is a national holiday marking the start of the 1989 “Velvet Revolution,” which ended – smoothly and nonviolently – more than four decades of hardline communist rule and soon propelled the country’s best-known proponent of human rights, the playwright Václav Havel, to the presidency. This year’s commemoration was an insult to the revolution’s legacy.