Velvet Revolution

The "Velvet Revolution" (Czech: sametová revoluce, Slovak: ne?ná revolúcia) (November 16 - December 29 1989) refers to a bloodless revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the communist government there.

Open questions

Some events of the Velvet revolution have not been so far satisfactorily explained. For example,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• It is not clear to what extent it was spontaneous vs. orchestrated by the secret police. For example, the incident with the "dead student" was staged by secret police provocateur Martin Zif?ák, assisted with other secret agents (those who took him to hospital and initially disseminated the rumor). Zif?ák is currently a chairman of "Communist Party of Czechoslovakia", a non-parliamentary group willing to re-establish a Communist regime, with popular support below 1 %, and rejects all inquiries relating to his role in the revolution.
• Army and People's Militia were ready to attack the demonstrators, but did not get the order.
• Secret police carried out surveillance on all the leaders of the revolution and had the ability to arrest them. However, they did not do so and let the revolution progress.
• A Soviet military advisor was present in the control center of the police force, which beat the demonstrators on November 17. Supposedly, he did not intervene, but his role is not clear either.

Generally, it is assumed that there was a split between different factions of the Communist leadership (namely, young Communists anxious to replace old ones) and some of them tried to use the popular unrest to promote their agendas - ultimately ending the Communist rule.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~