The last chapter of Czechoslovak history began with the Velvet Revolution of November 1989, which peacefully ended over four decades of communist rule. The transition towards democracy began amidst regional shifts inspired by Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union, which led to the weakening of communist control in Eastern Europe. Under Czechoslovakia’s aging leader Gustáv Husák, reforms were cautiously embraced, but dissatisfaction over limited freedoms and political repression continued to simmer, evident in demonstrations like the Candle Demonstration in Bratislava in 1988.
The Velvet Revolution itself ignited on November 17, 1989, when police brutally suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. Protests surged across the nation, fueled by public outcry over police violence. Over the next two weeks, waves of demonstrations attracted hundreds of thousands of Czechoslovaks. The Communist Party quickly recognized its vulnerability and, on November 24, the entire leadership, including Miloš Jakeš, stepped down. Within days, the Federal Assembly amended the constitution to remove the provision that guaranteed the Communist Party's dominance.
In December 1989, Husák swore in a coalition government with non-communist ministers and soon resigned as president. Czechoslovakia held its first free elections since 1946 in June 1990, where the Civic Forum (in the Czech Republic) and Public Against Violence (in Slovakia) gained control in a landslide, bringing about a profound transformation of the government. However, both movements found governing difficult, as they had been formed as broad anti-communist alliances rather than coherent political parties. By 1991, new parties emerged from the Civic Forum’s collapse, including the Civic Democratic Party under Václav Klaus, who became a central figure in the country’s politics.
The 1989–1992 period marked a brief but decisive transition as Czechoslovakia pivoted from communism to democracy. However, longstanding cultural and political differences between Czechs and Slovaks grew prominent, setting the stage for the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993.