The Curtain Rises: Eastern Europe, 1989 : VOICES : ‘Comrade Teacher Says We Saw It All on TV’

Marie and Marek, ages 8 and 12, watched the revolution in Czechoslovakia on the TV set in their family’s apartment in a high-rise on the outskirts of Prague.

“Comrade teacher says we saw it all on TV, so we don’t have to talk about it in school,” said Marie, as she sits on her father’s lap. “We were on strike for one hour,” she added.

“The teacher told us that we wouldn’t have to learn Russian any more, and we were all happy,” added her brother.

Marek remembers watching the demonstrations last month:

“There was a demonstration and it was supposed to end, and the policemen got angry and went against them with sticks and shields and helmets and they had the helmets on. . . . The students were kneeling in front of them saying, ‘We have empty hands,’ and they beat them up.”

Would he go to a demonstration? “Yes . . . that there shouldn’t be Communists. That there should be freedom here.”

In the future, said Marie, “we’ll be able to travel more abroad, there will be different air to breathe, and there will be good things to buy.”

And are people happier now? “That depends,” said Marek. “The Russian teacher is not.”