The Velvet Revolution 20 Years Later

A Long Walk to Freedom
In this photo from Nov. 23, 1989, demonstrators carry a picture of Alexander Dubcek, the leader of the ill-fated Prague Spring, as they marched towards Wenceslas Square in Prague for yet another mass demonstration, attended by more than 300,000 people. Twenty years on, the Czech people commemorated the Velvet Revolution with speeches at a university campus, followed by students gathering in Prague's Albertov district to retrace the steps of a march that would change the course of Czechoslovak history.

• TIME's Annual Journey: 1989
• The Year of People