'Bleak Island'

The famous dissident petition Několik vět (Several Sentences) was launched 20 years ago. In retrospect, it might seem that the death knell for the Czechoslovak communist regime sounded back then in the summer of 1989. But this is not quite true. Long after Několik vět, Radio Free Europe (RFE) was still airing mocking accounts of Czechoslovakia as an "island of slightly reformed Stalinism" and a "bleak island".

Over the next three months, we will be presenting a series of reports on the inhabitants of this "island" in the year leading up to the big bang of 1989. The first instalment will take a look at the reasons for Czechoslovakia's "bleak island" reputation.

Only a fool would have stated in early 1989 that there was nothing going on. Dissidents had already held their first authorised rally in the Žižkov neighbourhood. In December 1988, the regime stopped blocking broadcasts of RFE and Voice of America (VoA), probably on orders from perestroika-embracing officials in Moscow. In January 1989, Polish communist leader

Wojciech Jaruzelski

came to Prague in an effort to convince his bewildered Czech comrades to meet with the opposition movement Solidarność. Around the same time, thousands of demonstrators were intently focused on their dream of toppling the regime in a week of rallies marking the 20th anniversary of