Intellectuals and the Authorities: the Role in the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia (a sociologist's notes)

• Main Author: M Petrusek
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2011-06-01
• Series: RUDN journal of Sociology
• Subjects: интеллигенция; интеллектуалы; власть; революция; посттоталитарное общество; общество потребления; массовая культура; человеческая природа
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/sociology/article/view/6415

The article is devoted to the evaluation of the role and place of intellectuals in the ideological preparation of the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia in November, 1989. It examines the sociological conceptions of revolution, and their applicability to the analysis of the November events. In the analysis of the subsequent evolution of the Czech republic, the author notes the difficulties of the transition from a post-totalitarian society to the market economy, describes the social-economic system, which emerged as a result of the revolution, characterized by consumerism, domination of mass culture etc, which turned out to be a far cry from what the mass, carried away with a certain euphoria, had expected.