The Forties / Fifties
January 19, rigged parliamentary elections handed power to the Soviet Russia controlled Polish People’s Party (PPR). End of the multiparty system in Poland and beginning of the Stalinist era.
H
August 31, after the ‘coalition era,’ a short democratic period after the war, rigging parliamentary elections in Hungary handed power to MKP (Magyar Kommunista Párt = Hungarian Communist Party). Beginning of the Stalinist era in Hungary.
February 25, Communist Coup in Czechoslovakia. KSČ (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), fully controlled by Soviet Russia, secured a majority in parliament by non-democratic and non-parliamentary means. Beginning of the Stalinist era in Czechoslovakia.
June 28-30, workers strike in Joseph Stalin (Hipolit Cegielski) factory, demonstrations and street fights in Poznań, suppressed by Polish Army and Police. End of Stalinism era in Poland. Newly established totalitarian government used more soft methods of social control. Polish state propaganda called this period of the thaw “odnowa” = renewal, until 1970.
H
October-November, Hungarian Revolution bloodily suppressed by the Soviets Army. Beginning of the Kádár era in Hungary, named after János Kádár who presided over the country holding various positions, until 1988.
For detailed chronology see: Glossary of Terms.
The Sixties
• September 1-6, first conference of the non-aligned countries in Belgrade.
October 28, destruction (blown up) of Stalin monument at Letná in Prague. End of Stalinism era in Czechoslovakia. The monument was unveiled May 1, 1955. It was designed by the sculptor Otakar Švec who committed suicide shortly before it was unveiled.
• March-August, Prague Spring, a short period of liberalization, democratization, and freedom of speech, under the one-party rule of KSČ. After the suppression of the Prague Spring by the armies of the Warsaw Pact, a period of restoration of totalitarian power began, called Normalization, which lasted until the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
For detailed chronology see: Glossary of Terms.
• August 22, the so-called baton law (Legal Measure of the Presidency of the Federal Assembly No. 99/1969 Coll.) entered into force, which was used for persecution against citizens opposed to the assaults of Warsaw Pact troops and situation in Czechoslovakia after the events of August 1968.
H
January 1, New Economy Mechanism was launched. Its aim was an economic recovery after the failure of the planned economy. In the frames of the ’conservative turn,’ Kádár revoked the reforms due to the pressure of the Soviet Union in November 1972.
January 1, establishment of the Czechoslovak Federation. Two semi-autonomous states come to existence on the territory of Czechoslovak Socialist Republic: the Czech Socialist Republic, and the Slovak Socialist Republic, each with its own one-chamber parliament (the Czech National Council and the Slovak National Council) and its own administration, despite the central government in capital Prague.
CZ
Three torches of 1969, this year there were three cases of self-immolation in protest against the suppression of the Prague Spring by the Warsaw Pact armies.
For details see: Glossary of Terms.
The Seventies
December 14-19, deteriorating economic conditions were caused by street demonstrations of workers in Gdańsk and other cities on the Polish Baltic coast. All were bloodily suppressed. As a result, a change of power took place to a more liberal one, which in these political conditions meant openness to a consumerist lifestyle, in a more Western manner. In culture and art development of new trends was possible, while at the same time the censorship and persecution of the political opposition continued.
CZ/SK
December 10, ÚV KSČ (Central Committee of the Communist Party) approved the document “Lessons from crisis development” in the party and society after XIII. congress of KSČ (the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia). The document represented a binding norm for explaining the events surrounding the Prague Spring, the definitive end of efforts to reform the system and the onset of normalization.
• May 31, inspections of library stocks in Czechoslovakia for the purpose of eliminating all publications with subversive and pro-Western political and ideological contents.
• Ludvík Vaculík established the samizdat Edition Padlock (Petlice) in Prague. Rostislav Valušek, Petr Mikeš and Eduard Zacha published the first samizdat edition under the title Friends’ Texts in Olomouc, even before Vaculík.
SK
November 2, Resolution of the II. Convention of the Union of Slovak Visual Artists, whose task was to condemn and persecute art, artists and theoreticians of progressive, modern tendencies of the sixties, perceived as Western bourgeois art of a hostile nature. After the congress, there were purges, bans on activities, exclusion from employment, ban on exhibiting and buying the works of excluded artists in state galleries, ban on the realization of works of art for architecture and public space.
H
1974-1988, Vojvodina (a territory with a vast Hungarian minority) granted autonomy by Yugoslavia.
For details see: Glossary of Terms.
September, KOR (Komitet Obrony Robotników = Workers’ Defense Committee) was established as the first organized opposition, operating in post-Yalta countries. It was formed by a dissident group of intellectuals, but their aim was to provide social assistance to the persecuted workers. Cooperation between these two social circles was established, and continued throughout all that period of totalitarian rule, until 1989.
January 6-7, the Declaration of Charter ‘77 was published in Prague.
For details see: Glossary of Terms.
H
• January 9, 34 Hungarian intellectuals signed a solidarity letter to Pavel Kohut, arrested spokesmen of Charter ’77. This was the first organized political action of the democratic opposition in Hungary.
• March, meeting of the népi (’popular-national’) writers and the forming democratic opposition in order to create an alternative aid organization that supports the ’counter-culture.’
The Eighties
August 14, began the workers’ strike organized by Lech Wałęsa in the Gdańsk Shipyard, and then all over the country, which resulted in the establishment of the first in the post-Yalta countries independent trade union Solidarność (Solidarity) on August 31 (August Agreement or Gdansk Agreement).
For details see: Glossary of Terms.
December 13, martial law in Poland. The Army takes control over the country. Until 1988, Solidarity was outlawed and operated illegally as an underground dissident movement led by Lech Wałęsa, but its structures were never broken up, despite persecution by the authorities, and was able to organize the strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard once again in 1988.
H
February, the Samizdat Boutique of László Rajk Jr. was opened: they produced samizdat publications on a weekly basis, including literature in 1956.
March 15, opposition held independent commemorations on the anniversary of the 1848/49 Revolution as the fight for freedom feast, and was repeated in the following years.
March 15, Imre Pozsgay’s speech at the official commemoration of the 1848/49 Revolution and Freedom Fight, addressing the possibilities of political and institutional reforms.
CZ
Original Video Journal, a samizdat news medium on videotapes, was founded in Prague. Until 1989 six issues were published.
March 25, a peaceful demonstration of Catholics for religious freedom and human rights took place in Bratislava. The participants held lit candles in their hands, so the demonstration entered history as a ‘candlelight demonstration’ (Candle Demonstration or Bratislava Good Friday). Police aggressively dispersed the demonstration with batons and water cannons. It is considered to be one of the most important demonstrations by citizens and believers against the Communist government in the post Prague Spring Czechoslovakia.
PL
April 21, in the conditions of a severe economic crisis, strikes of workers in Gdansk Shipyard and throughout Poland, as well as street demonstrations began again, and continued until early September, which led to the authorities’ consent to direct negotiations with the Solidarność and opposition leaders, known as a Round Table talks.
H
• January 30, the first public gathering of the Magyar Demokrata Fórum (Hungarian Democratic Forum), the future winner of the first free elections in 1990, was held in the Yurt Theatre (established in 1987) in Budapest.
• May 27, protests against the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Waterworks against the Austrian support of the project (the plan was authorized in 1977 by Hungary). On September 12 twenty thousand people protested against the construction of the waterworks. National and international protests continued throughout the following months. Eventually, the construction was suspended on May 13, 1989.
• June 8, The Association of Hungarian Architects was the first to protest against the plan to demolish Hungarian villages in Transylvania, Romania. On June 27 thousands protested against the same plans.
• November 13, Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége (Alliance of Free Democrats) was founded.
• February 6-April 5, Round Table talks in Warsaw between the opposition side led by Lech Wałęsa, and the government. The result of the negotiations was an agreement and consent of the authorities to the free, democratic parliament election and the re-legalization of the operation of the Solidarity trade union.
• June 4, first free, democratic parliamentary election in the post-Yalta countries of Central Europe after World War II took place, and were won by Solidarity, however, the government was guaranteed some seats to the Sejm (lower house), and elections to the Senate (upper house) were completely free.
November 9, fall of the Berlin Wall. The symbolic fall of the Iron Curtain.
CZ/SK
• January 15-21, Palach Week, a series of public events and demonstrations to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Jan Palach self-immolation in protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968 and normalization, brutally suppressed by the regime.
• November 17, beginning of the Velvet Revolution (termed Gentle Revolution in Slovakia after dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993). It ended in December 29 with the election of Václav Havel as the first democratically elected President in post-Yalta countries of Central Europe after World War II.
For detailed chronology see: Glossary of Terms.
H
• March, Hungarian Round Table Talks were established. Its aim was to provide a platform for discussion among the opposition groups and create a space for negotiations with the official authorities.
• May 8-9, János Kádár was dispensed from all of his functions. End of Kádár era.
• June 16, Reburial of Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs. The bier was set up at Hősök tere / Heroes’ Square and the funeral took place at the Rákoskeresztúr cemetery.
• August 19, Pan-European Picnic, a peace demonstration on the Hungarian side of the Hungarian-Austrian border. The event, during which the Austrian-Hungarian border got open and several thousands East Germans fled to West Germany through Hungary and Austria, caused a chain reaction that eventually led to the demolition of the Berlin Wall. Hungary permanently opened its border with Austria at midnight on September 10.
• October 23, events commemorating the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution become the beginning of peaceful pro-democratic changes in Hungary. Mátyás Szűrös announced the Republic of Hungary from the balcony of the Parliament.
The Nineties
• May, first free parliamentary elections in Hungary. József Antall became the Prime Minister.
• August 4, Árpád Göncz was elected by the National Assembly the President of the Republic of Hungary, until 2000.
PL
December 9, Lech Wałęsa became the first democratically elected President in post-World War II Poland, until 1995.
January 1, dissolution of the Czechoslovak Federative Republic into the independent Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.
The Two-thousands