Tomáš Královič: Gentle Revolution Prologue. Students’ Demonstration on 16 November 1989 in Bratislava

In the introduction to the given paper, the author presents university students' activities in the late 80s and reasons of their dissatisfaction with the totalitarian communist regime. The first chapter is devoted to the students' demonstration in Bratislava and the explanation why the demonstration is designated as a "prologue" of the Gentle Revolution. The second, the main chapter deals with the course of the demonstration – from the moment when students met in the Mierové Square (today renamed to Hodža Square), marching down to the building of the Ministry of Education where students talked to communist officials and expressed their requirements also to Czechoslovak Television camera. The third chapter describes immediate reactions on students' demonstration, and the last chapter is devoted to two memorial wall plaques installation, that were unveiled in Bratislava on this occasion in 2009.