On 11 November 1989, the Civic Forum, an association comprising Czechoslovak opposition and democratic initiative movements, holds a political press conference in at the Laterna Magica Theatre in Prague. From left to right: Rita Klimova, Alexander Dubcek, Václav Havel and Jirí Hájek.

On 24 November 1989, the day after the collective resignation of the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the French daily newspaper Le Figaro speculates on the possible return to the national political stage of Alexander Dubcek, leader of the ‘Prague Spring’ in 1968.

On 14 December 1989, in a telephone interview for the weekly publication Les Nouvelles de Moscou, Alexander Dubcek, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968, talks about the political future of Czechoslovakia.

On 25 November 1989, the French daily newspaper Le Monde describes Alexander Dubcek and comments on the political rehabilitation of the leader of the ‘Prague Spring’ in 1968.

On 25 November 1989, the front page of L’Humanité, central organ of the French Communist Party, reports on the resignation of the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

On 25 November 1989, more than half a million people attend a rally organised by the Civic Forum on Prague's Letna Plain in the presence of Alexander Dubcek and Vaclav Havel to celebrate the regained freedom in Czechoslavkia.

On 17 December 1989, Alois Mock (left), Austrian Foreign Minister, and his Czechoslovak counterpart, Jiri Dienstbier, together open the Iron Curtain separating Austria and Czechoslovakia.

On 29 December 1989, Václav Havel, an opponent of Gustáv Husák’s Communist regime, is elected interim President of Czechoslovakia pending parliamentary elections.

On 1 January 1990, Václav Havel, acting President of the Czech Republic, delivers an address in Prague on the implications of the democratisation process in his country.

On 25 January 1990, during his first official visit to Poland, Václav Havel, acting President of the Czech Republic, delivers an address from the rostrum of the Polish Parliament in which he emphasises the efforts being made by the two countries to embrace democracy and speculates on the political future of Central Europe.