As the trailblazing Velvet Revolution took place, many foreign to Czechoslovakia intensely paid attention. Some eyewitnesses photographed and recorded violence against protesters by riot gear police. Others made efforts to report the incidences and progress to the world as the revolution proceeded. The efforts of both protesters and witnesses to the revolution made way for a freer Czechoslovakia.
Vlasta Adele Vraz : A Czech-American during Communist Czechoslovakia
Vlasta Adele Vraz was a Czech-American who served as the director of American Relief for Czechoslovakia after World War II and was arrested as a spy by the Communist government in Czechoslovakia. She was released, becoming the Czechoslovak National Council of America. She spent most of her life before World War II surrounded by writers and writing for her family’s newspaper, the “Svornost.” After her release, she continued as an editor for the American Bulletin and Vestnik before she died in 1989.
Kamil Kubik: Impressions
Kamil Kubik grew into an internationally recognized artist from a rough beginning to his life, having to escape his home in 1948 due to radical political changes. He's most famous for his cityscape paintings, including paintings of Central Park, Prague, London, and the White House, along with a scenic painting from nearly every state in the United States. He became the official artist for the White House.
Rock Music in Czechoslovakia
The history on rock music in Czechoslovakia begins with its introduction in the early 1950s, beginning apolitically. By 1968, the apolitical aspect changed, in response to the 1968 Soviet bloc invasion, causing rock music to finally rebel and criticize the government, through satire and cryptic messaging, as the lyrics and content of rock songs were monitored.