Czech professor aided communism's fall

CEDAR RAPIDS - The last time Libor Prager was at Mount Mercy, he was a young exchange student, fresh off his role as a student leader in Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution.

Prager's return to Mount Mercy this year as a Fulbright scholar in residence coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the non-violent movement that began Nov. 16, 1989, and led to the fall of the communist Czech government.

Prager, 44, said his role as one of five student strike leaders at Palacky University in Olomouc was a bit accidental as it follow his joining a rally in the first days of the revolution.

“When you stand up at a rally, fine. But the moment you start speaking, you're chosen to be the speaker,” Prager recalled with a smile. “People were eager to hear something, they were lusting for information. The students had nothing to lose, so we got involved.”

Prager helped organize strikes and protests with other students.

Mount Mercy English Professor Jim Grove was in Czechoslovakia in 1989 as a visiting professor at Palacky. He arrived in August 1989 and stayed for one year, so he spent his first few months under the communist rule and witnessed the revolution.

“I'll never forget those days,” said Grove, 59, who has taught at Mount Mercy for 29 years. “It was an extraordinary thing to watch. I saw people make choices that could end careers, put them in prison, end families.”

Grove admired Prager's work as a student leader and got to know him. When Grove and Mount Mercy officials launched a student exchange program with Palacky University in 1990, Prager was the first student to come to Cedar Rapids.

Their friendship has endured.

This winter, Grove and Prager will team-teach a Mount Mercy class on American literature and film. The two also will give a presentation Wednesday, sharing their thoughts on the revolution's 20th anniversary.

The revolution brought more freedom and opened up travel to Czech people, Prager said. But in the years since, much has happened that protesters did not want, he said, such as more government corruption and an alienation of the representatives from the people they govern.

The level of distrust is one of the biggest disappointments, Prager said.

“We wanted engagement and people involved with their government,” he said. “It was amazing to see how the passion for the change ... withered away.”