My two related questions are quite specific. I would like to know if
native Czech citizens were allowed to travel to Czechoslovakia during
the Cold War years?before 1989's Velvet Revolution, and under what
terms (what documents were required). I'd also like to know the
government's position on the same thing?return visits by native Czech
citizens?directly after the Velvet Revolution.  Thank you.

Hello phoebe2931-ga

  The question looks simple, but only simple answer would be:

It did depend.

It depended on many things, like when, where, and why and how the 
Czech citizen left the country. The periods during totality,before,
during and after the Prague spring (1968) were quite different and
things were evolving rather quickly after the Velevet revolution.

People who were allowed to emigrate, and there were some, could travel back
on their Czech passport, since they did not automatically lost their
czech citizenship. People who left 'without permisssion' - most often
those who did
not returned from travel to the 'west' were treeated differently. Some
were tried (it was a transgression) some were not. If they would
return, they
would not be allowed to leave; Usually the property (like house, apartment)
was confiscated. People who left, legally or otherwise, and got naturalised
in USA lost their czech citizenship automatically. In most cases they were
able to travel safely back, but often they were asked to state in writing that
they aquired US citizenship and are giving up czech citizenship. Those
would need visa as any other American.  That treaty is no longer valid
and dual czech and US citizenship is now possible for certain groups
(depending on when they left).

Things started to change immediately after the Velvet revolution.
Visa for many countries including US were abolished and fairly decent
restitution and rehabitalitation was instituted.
If you read czech, some details are here:
23. dubna 1990 schválilo shromá?d?ní ?eské a Slovenské Federativní
Republiky zákon 119/1990 o soudních rehabilitacích.
http://www.czechoffice.org/

Here is information about dual status of some returniks:
The law was passed in 1999 and was valid till recently 02/09/2004
http://www.mzv.cz/washington/cons/obcanst.htm
It was now replaced by even more liberal statute
http://www.mzv.cz/washington/cons/193-99.txt

Immediatly after the velvet revolution, it was possible to obtain
entry visa at the border for some $20, this applied e.g to US citizens,
including those who were born on CSR and naturalised in US. That fee was
dropped after few month - about the time of Havel's election to presidency.
After that, to show  US passport was (and is) sufficient for entry.

Czechs who emigrated to other countries, e.g. Australia, just had to dig
out their old Czech passport or identity card (OP) and use that to enter.

So -you see - one could write PhD thesis on this - and so not to waste your time -
please feel free to ask for clarification if the specific area
of interest (time of leaving and return or new country of residence)
was not covered.

Hedgie 






  


Answer Question

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Request for Answer Clarification by phoebe2931-ga on 01 Oct 2004 21:19 PDT

Thanks so much. This is for a novel in which a character leaves Plzen,
where she was born, in in 1938. She goes to live in the U.S. but wants
to return to CZ immediately following the Velvet Revolution. My one
clarification question would be--is there a specific end date to the
VR and how long afterwards did Vaclav Havel become president?

Thanks!

---

Clarification of Answer by hedgie-ga on 02 Oct 2004 09:12 PDT

Interesting.  Those were emotional times, both for those
who remained in the 'old country' and those left in 1968
and went to US to start a new life in new country
 and who either returned or 
went back for a visit, often first time after 21 years ..

Here is a rough timeline:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1844842.stm

Images of November demonstrations were shown on CNN in US ,
I can imagine hero would hop on a plane to 'be there' - to witness history.

More detailed timeline (with references) says
1989  Nov 29, The Czechs ended Communist rule. The revolution in
Czechoslovakia was called the "Velvet Revolution" because of the
little violence.
 (HFA, '96, p.18) (SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.34) 

1989  Dec, The Czechoslovakian communist government was dissolved. 
 (V.D.-H.K.p.305) 
 http://timelines.ws/countries/CZECH.HTML
 
 I would also direct your research to page 13 of 
 http://archiv.radio.cz/history/history15.html
 
.. The six-week period between November 17 and December 29, 1989, also
known as the "Velvet Revolution" brought about the bloodless overthrow
of the Czechoslovak communist regime...
..At the 19th joint session of the two houses of the Federal Assembly,
Alexandr Dubcek - who had led the ill-fated Prague Spring movement in
the 1960's - was elected Speaker of the Federal Assembly. One day
later, the parliament elected the Civic Forum's leader, Vaclav Havel,
President of Czechoslovakia.

I would also want to direct your attention to books articles by Ash and Kuras
Ash wrote in detail about the course of revolution
One claim I made in the last chapter of The Magic Lantern has been the
subject of controversy
http://www.hooverdigest.org/001/ash.html

and Kuras has some cynical insights:
"The 1989 Central European revolution was a peaceful hand-over of
power by visible villains to invisible villains who hid behind a
façade of national heroes whom they gradually turned into visible
villains while themselves remaining invisible villains. The net result
is infinitely cleaner public lavatories which give a fleeting visitor
the impression of being in the West....

Anyway, back to your question, your here hopped on the plane, taking
his US passport.
He needed entry visa, which 'after Nov 29' he got without problem (at
Ruzyne airport) for $20.

Or he did fly to Stuttgart or Frankfurt and wanted to rent a car in
Germany. He had problem to
find a rental company which would let hem take car 'to the East'. But
he did manage.
At the border, (same story) he got visa fro $20 to go with his US
passport. People were rather
nice to him. Policeman did a 'double take' when he did show his
California licence for some minor
infraction, and let him go on without a ticket... 

As I said, it was an emotional period for all ...

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Clarification of Answer by hedgie-ga on 02 Oct 2004 09:17 PDT

correction of typo :

 "...your here hopped "

   was supposed to be

".. your heroine hopped on the plane .."

and I mean 'she', not he

sorry about that

hedgie