The parade with guided stops led from the CTU building on Karlovo náměstí square through the Václav Havel piazza, the Monument to the Victims of Communism at Újezd, the Petřín Avenue of the Victims of Totalitarianism, Karmelitská Street and Malostranská Square to the upper part of Nerudova Street, where a commemorative plaque commemorating the students' march for freedom and democracy on 25 February 1948 and its brutal dispersal by the communist police is located.
The students' efforts to support the democratic President Edvard Beneš and to express their opposition to the emerging communist lawlessness were honoured today by the President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Miloš Vystrčil, the Rector of the Czech Technical University Vojtěch Petráček, senators, deputies and other politicians, and many other distinguished guests.
The tour was organized by PAK 48, and the commemoration in Neruda Street was organized by the President of the Senate, PAK 48 and Mene Tekel.
Full text of Rector Vojtěch Petráček's speech at the commemoration in Nerudova Street:
Our country lies close to the border of two worlds. The worlds of the Eastern and Western bloc, the worlds of Western and Eastern Christianity and the worlds of democratic societies and societies ruled by undemocratic dictatorships. As the years have gone by, this border has shifted more to the west or more to the east. After the difficult years of the Second World War, a shift took place in the February days of 1948 that threw us for more than 40 years to its eastern side, into the grip of the imperial Russian power and the communist ideology it imposed on us by indiscriminate Stalinist methods.
It has been 76 years since the Communists, led by Klement Gottwald, seized power after an ailing President Benes caved in to Gottwald's pressure and gave him a free hand to reconstruct the government and fill it with Communists after democratic ministers resigned. Instead of holding new elections to produce a new government, President Beneš allowed Gottwald to reconstruct a government that no longer had democratic ministers after that.
This move - ostensibly within the framework of democracy - was in fact a well-prepared seizure of power backed by the strength of the Communist Party militia and the forces of Soviet advisers and special forces. Even then, the Soviet Union was actually waging a hybrid war to undermine the democratic order in our country... and unfortunately it succeeded! The mechanisms of democracy at that time were undermined and bent to make way for totalitarianism to take power.
The fragility of democratic mechanisms must also be borne in mind now that we are once again facing hybrid threats and the influence of an imperially expanding Russia, which is waging war against Ukraine and standing against the democratic countries of the world community. The lessons from 76 years ago are still most relevant today! Our society must be vigilant - more vigilant than in the fateful year 1948, when the danger of things to come was not felt by all.
I am glad that the students of our universities, together with their teachers and journalists, spoke out against the totalitarian threat and marched in a procession from Charles Square towards the Castle. Here, at these points, they were stopped, brutally dispersed and many were injured. In the months and years that followed, they suffered for their democratic stand - as was the custom under the communist regime. And although the student representatives managed to get to the Castle, it was too late - the resignation had already been signed by President Beneš. And although the 5,000 marchers were just a drop in the ocean, it was a drop of free democratic will that must not be forgotten!
I believe that today the situation is better, I believe that many people see the dangers that can threaten our democracy and that are real, and they can stand up to them. I believe that many people can distinguish truth from manipulation, facts from fake news, populism from democratic realism, right from wrong and truth from lies. Our future is in our hands! When we have to fend for ourselves in a complex free world, it hurts! But God forbid that we fall for someone who promises us simple solutions and a simple life where he takes care of us ... but only if we don't look under his fingertips and bow down to him.
So I would like to go back in history and thank those who had the courage to speak up for the right cause - even if they were in the minority - and I would like to encourage all of us not to be afraid, and when we see things that are wrong - that threaten our country - to be able to speak out against them with a clear voice.
Thank you for your attention.
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