My program at the Amerika Institut in Vienna which focused on Eastern European studies arranged several field trips into what was the Eastern Bloc in 1989. The photograph above was taken in October, 28 1989, just prior to a police charge in Wenceslas Square, Prague, by the group of helmeted men seen center right in the photograph.
A fellow student saw this development from across the street and took the photo. Upon showing me his photographs a week or two later, I realized he had captured the moment in which I was standing on a small barricade looking up the road to see if the international news media were being ushered out of the square.
These were the days leading up to the Velvet Revolution - an early protest in what became a mostly peaceful collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. My understanding at the time was that this was the first demonstration against the Czech government since Prague Spring in 1968.
The timing of our field trip was coincidental, and our teachers warned us to stay away from the protest: they claimed it could be difficult to fish American students out of jail. Several friends of mine in the program wanted to go; I was less gung-ho. Being nineteen, American, and moderately familiar with the events of Prague Spring, I agreed with our faculty and thought it might be best to give the scene a wide berth. The circumstances and environment of 1989 were very different from those of 1968 of course, but even so, communist regimes were not known for their kindness to student "agitators". My friends (and my own curiosity) prevailed on me, however, and we left our hotel and headed to the square.
Police, many of whom appeared no older than I, surrounded the square shoulder to shoulder in their riot gear. They made no effort to stop us entering, which we took as a good sign. I remember the bottom half of the plaza being largely empty - but about half way up, Wenceslas Square was crowded - at least on the wide sidewalks where people had gathered to express their desire for change.
Somewhere up the square, people were being beaten, and with each ambulance's arrival, the crowd became more charged. The scene was largely unchaotic where we stood, and it was difficult to see the thick of what was happening further on.
The crowd was alternately chanting (in Czech - a language I do not understand) and being surreally quiet. After several ambulances had screamed by into the square, the people around us burst into song. It was picked up steadily until everyone I could see (aside from the police) appeared to be singing. The song, expressed with great reverence by the crowd, left me moved and alienated: it was clear that my friends and I were outside observers, voyeuristic witnesses to something of great portent.
At this point one of my friends leaned into me to ask if I could confirm what she thought she was seeing: the ushering of the news media out of the square. I stood up on the barricade next to her and thought I saw the same. We did not know what was developing behind us - but it was at this moment that my classmate across the street snapped the photograph above. (Note also: my two friends both had long hair - one redheaded and the other blonde - making our identification in the photo possible.)
I suggested that it would be a good time to leave, and my friends agreed. We turned to walk out the way we had come and were suddenly pushed back by the crush of the crowd. Looking beyond those immediately in front of us, we saw the police pushing us, perhaps attempting to drive us all out of the square.
The people to our left held their ground, so not seeing any egress before us or to our left, we turned back, crept under the barricade and into the square. Aside from some startled looks from the police we passed through, no one troubled with us.
We walked down the street you see in the left of the photograph, through another line of police, to a subway station not far down the road, and headed back to our hotel.
In the weeks to come, we watched the news reports from Prague and were amazed.
