1202 Ch. 29 • Democracy and the Collapse of Communism

Czechoslovakia. From Moscow, Gorbachev advised the Czechoslovak lead­
ers not to use force. Negotiations between the government and Havel and
other representatives of Civic Forum began on November 26. That day,
more than half of the top leadership within the party was purged. Two days
later, Civic Forum demanded the formation of a new government.
The Communist-dominated Federal Assembly voted to end the party’s
domination of political life. On December 10, the first cabinet in Czecho­
slovakia since 1948 not dominated by Communists was sworn in. The gen­
eral strike ended, and more than a third of the members of the Communist
Party resigned during the first two weeks of December. The Federal Assem­
bly unanimously elected Havel president of Czechoslovakia. What Havel
called a “velvet revolution” had succeeded, led by writers, actors, and stu­
dents. Free elections gave Civic Forum and its allies a majority of seats.
Price controls ended. Havel quickly announced that Czechoslovakia “must
return to Europe,” suggesting that its future lay with the West.
The new government of Czechoslovakia immediately faced not only the
problem of creating viable democratic institutions and establishing a mar­
ket economy, but also of tensions between Czechs and Slovaks. Although
the two peoples shared seventy years of common political history, much
separated them. The Czech part of the state was more urban, prosperous,
and Protestant than Slovakia, which was more rural and Catholic. Slovak
nationalists, particularly on the right, called for the creation of an inde­

Vaclav Havel, leader of the Civic Forum and first president elected under free elec­

tions in Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communists in 1989, reads the names

of members of Czechoslovakia’s first non-Communist government since 1948.