Long Live the Revolution?

When I think about the anecdotes we’ve heard in the past several days about life under the Communist regime and about what the Czech Republic has been doing since the Velvet Revolution, I’m amazed at how far they’ve come but also saddened and angry to think about what people here and in so many other places suffered.

Yesterday, after we left Vaclav Havel’s office, we passed the Communism memorial, which was one of the most understated but effective and haunting memorials I’ve seen. There is a statue of a man on a staircase, and as you go up, there is less and less to him until there is nothing left. The plaque states that the memorial is dedicated not only to those who were killed during that time, but to all those whose lives were destroyed. That has stayed with me throughout the past two days, when we’re walking through the city or in a session, hearing from people who lived through it and helped bring down the regime, and seeing that has made all of this that much more powerful and meaningful. A protester recently set the memorial on fire, and there has been talk of the Communist Party gaining some influence in the Czech government after the October elections. It’s difficult to imagine why, after everything they’ve gone through, there would still be even this much support for Communist influence.

It’s also been interesting to hear about other post-Soviet countries, and the dynamics between the Czech Republic and these other nations. Yesterday, we heard from Jan Marian from the Czech Foreign Ministry, who discussed the state of the government and human rights in Belarus and how the Czech Republic is attempting to draw them out from under Russian influence. It’s disturbing to hear about these oppressive regimes and the gross human rights violations that are carried out regularly, but also somewhat inspiring to hear from people who are actively working to do something about it.