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Article: Rough velvet. (Czechoslovakia's gentle or "velvet" revolution)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 14, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WITH its street musicians and young people cheerfully competing to sell rival newspapers, Prague is so much jollier than it used to be. Why then the growing feeling that all is not quite well? The overthrow of communist rule in November was astonishingly rapid and civilized. The gentle or velvet" revolution, they called it. Yet not even Czechoslovaks can stay nice forever. Less than two months before the election on June 8th there are, inevitably, patches of Velcro among the velvet.
Czechs and Slovaks have been arguing with some passion over a hyphen: Slovaks are insisting that the new republic be called Czecho-Slovakia, Czechs are resisting what they see as an ...