Talks about Communism...it's only the beginning

It’s really interesting to talk about the Velvet Revolution. I definitely didn’t have any concept of what actually happened here before I started reading about it…and reading about it is nothing in comparison to hearing about it from people who experienced it firsthand. I was talking last night with Tomas and Zuzana about the control of the church by the Communist party. I also talked with Vladya tonight. At lunch the other day we were also asking our language teacher, Lida, about the Revolution as well. In terms of what we think about as 1989 in the U.S., we always think about East Germany and the Berlin wall. The Revolutions of all of eastern Europe tend to get lumped together. However, each had very different experiences under Communism, and very different outcomes as well. Lida talked about it in the sense of feeling like you were schizophrenic. You would live a life with your family that you could sometimes live around your closest friends (still with caution), but then you would live a totally different life in the workplace and on the outside. It was hard, because things were not necessarily bad under communism. Prices were cheap, everyone had food, and everyone worked. It was hard in the Czech Republic, because Communism came about in a democratic way. There are people now (that are not Communists) who say that many things were better under Communism. It’s hard, because Communism is always taboo in American culture. Zuzana’s father was a Protestant preacher under Communism, and he basically became a “dissident.” The Communist party took control over all of the church property throughout the country, and then started controlling the salaries of all of the ministers. So basically, if you didn’t preach what the Communist party liked (…or if your sermons became too political), you were removed from your church. The Communist control of the church definitely is one of the major causes for the extreme amount of Atheism in the country.

I definitely want to talk more about the Revolution with my family…but I think I will probably get the whole story by bits and pieces…stories that are remembered at various moments. Even Vladya says that Tomas and Zuzana don’t really understand. They were in College during the revolution (…and actually were married 3 months before it), and don’t really appreciate the past before the revolution. He actually equated people’s willingness to maintain the status quo in the Czech Republic with the Nazis in Germany. He talked about how people will just keep going along with something if it is working at the time…even if there is something better, it is too much effort, too much risk to break out of the mold. Havel (the first Czech president) says something very similar in his essay Power of the Powerless. He says that people adapt to the conditions in which they live…but in doing so, they help to create those conditions. So basically, people adapted to Communism, and helped to perpetuate, even if they were not directly involved.

I definitely am excited to learn more about the democratic development of the Czech Republic. I’ve already started analyzing how I feel about the U.S. political system…but don’t worry, there will be more to come on that.