The Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia
by Perhaps nobody should have been surprised about by the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. The fall of communism in Czechoslovakia was assisted by the decision of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev not to use the Soviet army to support the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe.
Communism in Czechoslovakia had never been particularly secure, as the Czechoslovak population at large was unenthusiastic about supporting their communist leaders. The communists had taken power in Czechoslovakia through a coup d’etat during 1948, yet it was only the presence of the Soviet army on Czechoslovakian soil that guaranteed the security of its pro-Moscow regime.
The fall of communism in Czechoslovakia was a result of many years of discontent with its communist regime and increased by the decreased levels of economic performance from the early 1970s. The Czechoslovakian communist regime just like the majority of its counterparts within Central and Eastern Europe lost creditability due to the economic stagnation and decline, which lowered already low standards of living.
The Czechoslovakian communist regime in the late 1980s was one of the most hard-line governments in Central and Eastern Europe yet it had lost all claims of legitimacy in the views of the majority of the Czechoslovak population. Ironically communism in Czechoslovakia had been the most reformist within the Warsaw Pact countries prior to the crushing the Prague Spring in 1968 by the Soviet army.
The fall of communism in Czechoslovakia demonstrated the ability of civil society to undermine and eventually overthrow the Czechoslovakian communist regime. Civil groups and dissidents particularly the author Vaclav Harvel were instrumental in organising the mass demonstrations that unexpectedly brought about the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia.
Ironically enough the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia ultimately led to the breakdown of the Czechoslovakian state itself, thankfully without the bloodshed witnessed in the former Yugoslavia.
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