Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
no trace of tank, podium or plaque on the square (which has been renamed náměstí Kin-
ských ). You can, however, still see the tank at the Vojenské technické museum (Military
Technical Museum) in Lešany, 40km or so southeast of Prague.
Early years of freedom
Czechoslovakia started the new decade full of optimism for what the future would bring. On
the surface, the country had a lot more going for it than its immediate neighbours (with the
possible exception of the GDR). The Communist Party had been swept from power without
bloodshed, and, unlike the rest of Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia had a strong interwar
democratictradition withwhichtoidentify-Masaryk'sFirstRepublic.DespiteCommunist
economic mismanagement, the country still had a relatively high standard of living, a skilled
workforce and a manageable foreign debt.
In reality, however, the situation was somewhat different. Not only was the country eco-
nomically in a worse state than most people had imagined, it was also environmentally dev-
astated, and its people were suffering from what Havel described as “post-prison psychosis”
- an inability to think or act for themselves. The country had to go through the painful trans-
ition “from being a big fish in a small pond to being a sickly adolescent trout in a hatchery”.
As a result, it came increasingly to rely on its new-found saviour, the humble playwright-
president, Václav Havel.
In most people's eyes, “Saint Václav” could do no wrong, though he himself was not out to
woo his electorate. His call for the rapid withdrawal of Soviet troops was popular enough,
but his apology for the postwar expulsion of Sudeten Germans was deeply resented, as was
hisgenerousamnestythateasedthecountry'sovercrowdedprisons.Theamnestywasblamed
by many for the huge rise in crime in 1990. Every vice in the topic - from racism to hom-
icide - raised its ugly head in the first year of freedom.
In addition, there was still a lot of talk about the possibility of “counter-revolution”, given
the thousands of unemployed StB (secret police) at large. Inevitably, accusations of previous
StB involvement rocked each political party in turn in the run-up to the first elections. The
controversial lustrace (literally “lustration” or cleansing) law, which barred all those on StB
files from public office for the following five years, ended the career of many public figures,
often on the basis of highly unreliable StB reports.
The 1990 elections
Despite all the inevitable hiccups, and the increasingly vocal Slovak nationalists, Civic For-
um/VPN remained high in the opinion polls. The June 1990 elections produced a record-
breaking 99 percent turnout. With around sixty percent of the vote, Civic Forum/VPN were
clear victors (the Communists won just thirteen percent) and Havel immediately set about
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