Abstract
October 28, 1918 is the Czech Republic state holiday whose historical memory is a concentrate of Czech, Czechoslovak and Central European 20th century history. On this date in Prague the Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed, and its first law was passed.
The events in Prague were part of the complex and long-lasting fall of the Habsburg monarchy and the creation of its successor states, in which national, state-forming and ideological (e.g. Bolshevist) aspects were interwoven.
Accordingly, we can speak of Czech, Slovak, (Czecho)-German, Hungarian, Polish and Rusinian October 28s. As the only state holiday (with an interruption in the period of the Nazi occupation), it was intended to act as the chief connecting and uniting holiday for CSR state identification.
Its annual celebrations were associated with a series of rituals not only for the Czechs themselves but, over time and to varying degrees, also for the other nationalities living in the CSR - primarily the Slovaks and the Rusinians were seen to be truly accepting of the ceremonial day. The Communist regime tried to 'rewrite' October 28 in the spirit of social revolution, treating it as the precursor of its political victory after 1945 and in particular after 1948.
Finally the Communists attempted to force it out of the collective memory through its official non-observance as a remembrance of 1918, and by designating it, from 1975 - 1988, as a significant, but still a working, day. However, the memory of the Establishment of the Republic refused to be suppressed, as was evidenced in a particularly strong manner in the demonstrations of 1968, 1988 and, crucially, of 1989.
All attempts at 'rewriting' this holiday in the spirit of ideologies failed in the end, although during the 1938/39 to 1989/92 period spontaneous public celebrations were successfully repressed to a significant degree by means of the political manipulation of Czech/Czechoslovak history.