One of the best things about living in foreign countries is learning things that I would never have either the opportunity or desire to learn much about back home. And here in the Czech Republic, teaching well educated adults, I've been given a lot of opportunities to learn about Czech history, mostly from first hand accounts.
As the Czech Republic gets ready to commemorate the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism twenty years ago next Tuesday, I thought I would take the time to share some insight that my students have shared with me.
One of my students, Pavel, has shared a lot of his experiences growing up in a communistic society with me. He says his father had some trouble with the police because he was involved in some protests in the 60's. Because of this, Pavel wasn't allowed to go to high school. Even though he had some of the best marks of his class and successfully passed his entrance exams, he was told that there was no more room at the school. He was sent to a vocational high school where he learned some trade work and was eventually allowed to attend a regular high school. But this meant leaving his hometown and moving to Prague by himself at the age of 15.
He also told the story of his brother who left their hometown to study in another part of the country. He has to change his last name so no one would know he was related to the family, and Pavel was never allowed to talk about his brother in public.
Students tell me stories of "voting" during the communistic rule. It was reported that 99.99% of the people voted and they all voted for the communism leader. Well, this was obviously because they were given no other options. You had to go to the polling place on the day of the election and fill in the ballot, even though there was only one option. And if you chose to go into a private booth to fill in your answers (such as is common practice now) it would be noted and you would probably be questioned and black listed later.
I have another student, Josef, who told me his memories of the Velvet Revolution. He was actually involved in the revolution and participated by spreading the word throughout the towns and villages around the Czech Republic. He said he would make posters and traveled around the country posting the information to those who were out of touch with the happenings in the big city.
He also remembers the days before the revolution when he was a university student. He says he liked metal bands, such as Metallica, but he was only able to buy their music on black markets and had to be careful about it. Music that was ok'd by the regime? ABBA and Michael Jackson. He also said that some foreign products, like Coca Cola, were available in Czechoslovakia. But they were only in specialty stores which used some certain type of bank notes that only foreigns were able to obtain in exchange for their foreign money.
Now, about 15% of the Czech population still supports the communistic party. Who makes up this 15%?, I ask. Older, poor people is the answer. The small part of the population that actually benefited from communism.
Even though the Czech Republic is traditionally a Catholic country with beautiful cathedrals littering the countryside, there are very few people practicing religion today. Only about 25%. And in Prague, I hear it is even lower, more like 10%. I think this has to be one of the most - if not THE most- unreligious cities in the world. When I talk to some of my students in their 20's about religion, they say that they don't know a single person who attends church and believes in God. One student says she "goes to church" occasionally. When I ask her more about it, she says that she goes to see the cathedral, not to attend mass. Maybe she will attend mass on Christmas, she says. But she describes that mass as not being religious, more just well wishing for everyone. Surely much of this is due to the cummunistic rule that was in place for decades and did not allow religion. But, there are other countries that have been under communism for just as long. So what makes the Czech Republic different? I'm still not sure...
In one of my classes the word "confiscated" came up one day. When I tried to check my students' understanding of the word, I got a little bit of laughter along with this response: "If you've ever lived in a communistic country, you know the meaning of the word confiscated."
While most people I speak with seem to feel very strongly about communism and there are clearly still fresh wounds there, I have one student who doesn't seem to care too much. She says she thinks very few people's lives were changed by the fall of communism. Most people's everyday lives are the same as before, she says. But, I think she might be in the minority on this. While it's probably true that most people's lives didn't immediately change, I think everyone will cite plenty of differences between their past lives and today.
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