The Year of Miracles. Czechoslovakia and the collapse of the Soviet bloc (17. 11. 2020)

Exhibition date: 17 November 2021
Place.
Author of texts and selection of visual documentation.
Archive: ABS, ČTK, Libri prohibiti and National Archive
Photos: ČTK, Libri prohibiti, National Archive, Fortepan, Museum of National History (Romania), Institute for Contemporary History of the CAS, Ośrodek "Pamięć i Przyszłość", Institute of Memory of the Nation, Czech Television, Wikimedia Commons, personal archives

Organised by the European Conservatives and Reformists
Partner.

The exhibition was created for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the communist regime. It was first exhibited on the initiative of Alexander Vondra in November 2019 in the European Parliament under the auspices of the ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists). The partner of the exhibition is Libri Prohibiti, a library of samizdat and exile literature, which has provided the visual material for the exhibition. The main theme of the exhibition is the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in the international context - especially in the context of the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Attention is therefore paid not only to the domestic events of 1987-1989, but also to the major milestones in the internal development of other Soviet bloc states, with an overlap to 1991. Developments in the various Soviet satellites greatly influenced each other, just as they were influenced by the consequences of the global superpower struggle. There is eloquent talk of a domino effect, as a result of which millions of people gained freedom and satellite states gained independence. The Year of Miracles was also an important turning point in European history, as it opened a new chapter in European integration.

To mark the anniversary of 17 November 1989, the Museum of the Memory of the Twentieth Century, in cooperation with the Polish Institute and the Libri prohibiti Library, prepared two exhibitions about these important historical events at its new headquarters in the Piast House in Hradčany - one of which was this exhibition. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was not possible to allow interested parties to visit the exhibitions in person, so the museum has prepared guided tours of them, which are available online from 17 November 2020. On this occasion, the museum's future headquarters, the House of the Passionists in Hradčany, was also presented. The past activities of this Prague institution, which celebrated its first anniversary on 17 November 2020, were also presented. Petr Blažek, historian and member of the museum's board of trustees, and Maciej Ruczaj, director of the Polish Institute in Prague, spoke about the exhibitions. Alexander Vondra, former spokesman for Charter 77 and co-founder of the Civic Forum, also spoke. The tour was accompanied by a few songs by Jaroslav Hutka, an actor of the November 1989 events, folk singer, dissident and signatory of Charter 77.