From a distance of twenty years the author contemplates the short literary texts that accompanied the downfall of the totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia in the year 1989. Slogans and inscriptions, hanged out by hundreds on the busy places of political protests, belong to the symbols shared in the process of social interaction and, at the same time, are distinguished by many aspects that classify them as folklore. The analysis of their unique character, historical importance and their possible use by other scientific disciplines is based in the collection of these communicates, preserved at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.
This article describes the attitudes of the Czech public towards the Velvet Revolution and towards the social situation preceding and following it. The text deals with the general image of Velvet Revolution in the context of modern Czech history, tracks public opinion on this event, deals with evaluations of the period before and after November 1989, and handles assessments of the whole previous period. The event of the Velvet Revolution in Czech history is seen predominantly as a highlight, and as a positive phase in Czech history. Similarly, the stage that followed is seen in a predominantly positive light, although not so much as the change of political regime itself. However, there is a significant difference between how Czech public opinion judged the first and second decades after the Velvet Revolution. According to the public, not all areas of society have showed improvement during the latter period; in some cases developments are viewed negatively., Stanislav Hampl, Jiří Vinopal, Jiří Šubrt., and Obsahuje seznam literatury