Zeman: Gorbachev bigger factor in fall of communism than Charter

President Miloš Zeman says the fact Mikhail Gorbachev was in power, which meant the Soviets did not send in tanks in 1989, was a bigger factor in the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia than Charter 77. Speaking to the news site Blesk.cz on Sunday, Mr. Zeman said he did not sign Charter 77, a protest document launched in January 1977, because he hadn’t been asked to. When in spring 1989 he was presented with the petition Several Sentences he put his signature to it immediately, he said.

Author: Ian Willoughby