Final Word from Thursday, September 1, 2022

Mikhail Gorbachev's death is a good occasion to return to Miroslav Kalousek's nomination speech in Nov. 2015, when he successfully ran for TOP 09 chair. He told party delegates: "Twenty-six years after the Velvet Revolution, we have no choice but to admit one painful truth. The coup was engineered by 'them,' not us. By 'them' we can imagine the intelligence-agency elite, the intellectual crown of the criminal regime, who were aware that after the de facto collapse of Gorbachev's perestroika, it was necessary to change the social system in order to retain power and capitalize the previously socialized wealth to the benefit of a select group. This is why the Communist nomenklatura everywhere in post-Communist countries had such a considerable head start. And this head start has permanently damaged the path to freedom in all these countries...." He hastened to add: "Fortunately, the nomenklatura and intelligence-agency elite lost control of later developments, because the people's desire for freedom was stronger." As we face probably the most dramatic situation since 1989, who if anyone will engineer the revolution this time? [ Czech Republic KSČ StB KGB Nov. 29, 2015 USSR Soviet Union leader ]