UBC July 2026 - Prague Spring and Velvet Revolution

Photo by Josef Litoš on Unsplash

Today's post is a bit of a history lesson, but I will try to keep it light, OK?

I mean, Prague Spring and Velvet Revolution sound more like cheer and comfort than violence, right?

If you're like me, in geography class you learned that the largest countries in terms of landmass were the Soviet Union, Canada, USA, China and Brazil. So far, so good.

But then, in 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 independent countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Are you getting dizzy reading these names? I am...

Suddenly, the map of the world looked completely different from the one we had learned in school. My son later had to study all of them, plus the former Yugoslavian countries; I didn’t envy him, that’s for sure.

And then there were the countries that officially remained independent, but for decades were heavily controlled or strongly influenced by the Soviet regime after World War II.

Countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Romania and Bulgaria. They were part of the Soviet sphere of influence behind the so-called “Iron Curtain,” where communist governments aligned closely with Moscow shaped everyday life, politics and travel for millions of people.

For ordinary people, this meant far more than just different borders on a map. Travel to Western countries was heavily restricted. Foreign newspapers, music and films were censored. Speaking too openly against the government could cost you your job, and this was very real (I’ll share an example in an upcoming post), your education, or worse. Secret police monitored citizens, and elections were not truly free.

Many goods people in the West took for granted, from Coca-Cola (which suddenly makes Kofola feel like a very logical cultural response, doesn’t it?) and jeans to bananas and modern electronics, were rare, expensive, or sometimes simply unavailable. People often stood in long lines for basic products, while at the same time building strong communities, creativity, and resilience within the limits of the system.

Over time, more and more people in countries like Czechoslovakia became frustrated with censorship, lack of freedom, economic stagnation and the constant control of daily life. Many compared their situation with life in Western Europe and felt left behind, especially as information slowly filtered across borders through radio, television and personal contacts.

One major turning point was the Prague Spring of 1968. Under reform leader Alexander Dubček, Czechoslovakia attempted to create “socialism with a human face,” allowing more freedom of speech, less censorship and greater personal liberties. For a brief moment, there was real hope that the system could become more open and humane. But the Soviet leadership feared these reforms would weaken communist control across Eastern Europe. In August 1968, troops from the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia and crushed the movement. The invasion deeply shocked the population and led to years of renewed repression.

Still, the desire for freedom did not disappear. Writers, students, artists and ordinary citizens continued speaking out despite the risks. Movements such as Charter 77 called for human rights and political freedoms, and by the late 1980s, growing protests together with weakening Soviet control under Mikhail Gorbachev led to peaceful revolutions across Eastern Europe, including the Velvet Revolution of 1989 in Czechoslovakia, which ended communist rule without major bloodshed.

So yes, “cheer and comfort” might be a slightly romantic label for events that came out of decades of tension, fear, and persistence. But I do think there is something remarkable in how these shifts eventually led to peaceful change, and how much they were driven by ordinary people simply wanting more freedom. 

What’s your view?