Interview
Dominik And Eamon Burgess: Velvet Revolution
About this feature
In this episode of Community Chest, Dominik and Eamon Burgess discuss the Velvet Revolution. Dominik shares his memories of student protests and the general strike, while the conversation covers the arrival of foreign consumer goods and Prague's architectural heritage. The discussion is followed by T. Rex's 'Children of the Revolution'.
On Community Chest, Dominik and Eamon Burgess discuss the Velvet Revolution. Dominik recalls his own participation in the student protests, the university sit-in and efforts to bring factory workers into the general strike. They discuss life under the communist regime, the peaceful transition and the social changes that followed, including Dominik's memory of imported yogurts and pornography appearing in shops. The conversation also turns to Prague, architecture and tourism. Dominik chooses T. Rex's 'Children of the Revolution' to follow the discussion.
Topics
- The Velvet Revolution and its peaceful nature compared to Romania.
- John Simpson's account of the revolution and the perspective of foreign journalists.
- Life in Czechoslovakia during the period of 'normalization' in the 70s and 80s.
- Social and economic impacts of the Velvet Revolution
- Prague's architectural heritage and tourism
- Czech cultural symbols and figures
Guests
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Dominik: Watching A Demonstration In Berlin, Autumn 1989
Community Chest · Spoken extract
In a Community Chest feature where Eamon Burgess interviews Dominik, Dominik says the next day is the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and that he was one of the revolutionaries. He then recalls a student trip to Berlin in October 1989, where he and friends watched a large East German demonstration and said it would never happen back home unless people like them did something about it. Less than a month later it did. The clip joins two extracts from the same recording.
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Passages from the recording
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I'm joined with by Aman Burges here. Good morning. Good morning, Dominic. And actually, it's been a mystery to me. I didn't know I was going to be a guest on your show. I didn't even know you were doing this show. You see, it's a perfect mystery. Absolutely, yeah. Agatha Christie has nothing on us.
When the when the revolution came, as one of the, a friend of mine made a list of the first things that came in, yeah, and they were they were foreign yogurts. Even though we had yogurts all the time, it was just foreign packaged yogurts, like with nice packaging, yeah, and pornography.
A fifteen percent, almost a fifteen percent representation in parliament. So, so there's not quite a few people who feel a certain amount of nostalgia for those times. And from a certain perspective, I can understand it. Of course, you know, personally, I would be a hypocrite. I would say there was better times because I would never have made it here.