Havel at Columbia



This Day in The Velvet Revolution, 1989

October 31: East German communist leader calls for a slowing of reform push

Hundreds of thousands of East Germans in several cities demonstrate against the communist regime, while Party leader Egon Krenz warns that unrealistic demands for fast reform would endanger the stability of the country. Despite the reforms going on just across Czechoslovakia's borders, the Czechoslovak communist leadership maintains its hard-line stance. Havel and other opposition activists continue to press for changes in the regime's position and for dialogue between the government and citizens' groups.