Velvet Revolution in the context of "Alexander Dubček"

Ostrava (Czech pronunciation: [ˈostrava] ; Polish: Ostrawa; Silesian: Ôstrawa; German: Ostrau) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies 15 km (9 mi) from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava, Ostravice and Lučina. Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic in terms of both population and area, the second largest city in the region of Moravia, and the largest city in the historical land of Czech Silesia. It straddles the border of the two historic provinces of Moravia and Silesia. The wider conurbation – which also includes the towns of Bohumín, Havířov, Karviná, Orlová, Petřvald and Rychvald – is home to about 500,000 people, making it the largest urban area in the Czech Republic apart from the capital Prague.

Ostrava grew in importance due to its position at the heart of a major coalfield, becoming an important industrial engine of the Austrian empire. During the 20th century it was known as the "steel heart" of Czechoslovakia thanks to its status as a coal-mining and metallurgical centre, but since the Velvet Revolution (the fall of communism in 1989) it has undergone radical and far-reaching changes to its economic base. Industries have been thoroughly restructured, and the last coal was mined in the city in 1994. However, remnants of the city's industrial past are visible in the Lower Vítkovice area, a former coal-mining, coke production and ironworks complex in the city centre which retains its historic industrial architecture. Lower Vítkovice has applied for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Czechoslovakia (/ˌtʃɛkoʊsloʊˈvæki.ə, ˈtʃɛkə-, -slə-, -ˈvɑː-/ CHEK-oh-sloh-VAK-ee-ə, CHEK-ə-, -⁠slə-, -⁠VAH-; Czech and Slovak: Československo, Česko-Slovensko) was a landlocked country in Central Europe created in 1918 when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Nazi Germany. Between 1939 and 1945, the state ceased to exist, as Slovakia proclaimed its independence and Carpathian Ruthenia became part of Hungary, while the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed in the remainder of the Czech Lands. In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, former Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš formed a government-in-exile and sought recognition from the Allies.

After World War II, Czechoslovakia was re-established under its pre-1938 borders, with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR (a republic of the Soviet Union). The Communist Party seized power in a coup in 1948. From 1948 to 1989, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a planned economy. Its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949 and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of 1955. A period of political liberalization in 1968, the Prague Spring, ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by other Warsaw Pact countries, invaded Czechoslovakia. In 1989, as Marxist–Leninist governments and communism were ending all over Central and Eastern Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their communist government during the Velvet Revolution, which began on 17 November 1989 and ended 11 days later on 28 November when all of the top Communist leaders and Communist party itself resigned. On 31 December 1992, Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The Slovak National Council (Slovak: Slovenská národná rada, SNR) was an organisation that was formed at various times in the 19th and 20th centuries to act as the highest representative of the Slovak nation. It originated in the mid-19th century as a focus for Slovak nationalist aspirations to break away from the Kingdom of Hungary but its bid for independence was suppressed. The second SNR was more successful, issuing a celebrated declaration of Slovak independence in 1918, though it too was ultimately dissolved by the state after Czechoslovakia was formed. The third SNR coordinated Slovak resistance to the Nazis and their Slovak puppet government, and evolved into a Communist-controlled organ of state power after the Second World War. Following the 1989 Velvet Revolution it was transformed into the new democratically elected Slovak parliament. A number of mostly short-lived and not particularly influential Slovak National Councils were also proclaimed abroad between the 1920s and 1940s, the last one seeking to mobilise Slovak émigré resistance to Communist rule.

From the Communist coup d'état in February 1948 to the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Czechoslovakia was ruled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Czech: Komunistická strana Československa, KSČ). The country belonged to the Eastern Bloc and was a member of the Warsaw Pact and of Comecon. During the era of Communist Party rule, thousands of Czechoslovaks faced political persecution for various offences, such as trying to emigrate across the Iron Curtain.

The 1993 Act on Lawlessness of the Communist Regime and on Resistance Against It determined that the communist government was illegal and that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was a criminal organisation.

The Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (Ústava Československé socialistické / Československej socialistickej republiky in Czech / Slovak), promulgated on 11 July 1960 as the constitutional law 100/1960 Sb., was a communist state constitution and Czechoslovakia's third constitution overall. It was the second constitution adopted under Communist rule. It replaced the 1948 Ninth-of-May Constitution and was widely changed by the Constitutional Law of Federation in 1968. It was extensively revised after the Velvet Revolution to prune out its state socialist character. The revision was intended to allow the document to be used until it could be replaced with a completely new constitution. However, this never took place, and it remained in force until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992.

Škoda Auto a.s. (Czech pronunciation: [ˈʃkoda] ), often shortened to Škoda, is a Czech automobile manufacturer established in 1925 as the successor to Laurin & Klement and headquartered in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Škoda Works became state owned in 1948. After the Velvet Revolution, it was gradually privatized starting in 1991, eventually becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the German multinational conglomerate Volkswagen Group in 2000.

Škoda automobiles are sold in over 100 countries, and in 2018, total global sales reached 1.25 million units, an increase of 4.4% from the previous year. The operating profit was €1.6 billion in 2017, an increase of 34.6% over the previous year. As of 2017, Škoda's profit margin was the second-highest of all Volkswagen AG brands after Porsche.

The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on 31 December 1992, was the self-determined partition of the federal republic of Czechoslovakia into the independent countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both mirrored the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic, which had been created in 1969 as the constituent states of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic until the end of 1989.

It is sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce, a reference to the bloodless Velvet Revolution of 1989, which had led to the end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The dissolution of Czechoslovakia is clearly linked to the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of other Eastern Bloc countries such as the Dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Breakup of Yugoslavia. Unlike Yugoslavia, which was also created in 1918 and disappeared in 1992, Czechoslovakia did not experience violent clashes due to nationalism, which in the case of Yugoslavia led to the Yugoslav Wars.

After the Velvet Revolution in late 1989, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was briefly renamed the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (Czech: Česká a Slovenská Federativní Republika, Slovak: Česká a Slovenská Federatívna Republika; ČSFR) during the period from 23 April 1990 until 31 December 1992, after which the country was peacefully dissolved into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.