Letter from Europe: Czechoslovakia's quiet revolution.

Nation, The, January, 1990 by Singer, Daniel

LETTER FROM EUROPE

Czechoslovakia's Quiet Revolution

"Havel to the castle": In the doubly festive mood just before Christmas the heart of Prague was full of posters bearing that slogan and a picture of Vaclav Havel, the famous playwright, his shirt open at the neck, looking implish, irreverent and very youthful for his 53 years. There were also less numerous pictures of a more dignified Havel, with suit and tie, as if somebody had subsequently decided that people want a more respectable image of a man who would occupy the presidential palace. When events move so fast it is necessary to improvise.

I had come to Czechoslovakia with one obvious question in mind. Stalin's exported revolution had collapsed throughout Eastern Europe. On its...