In late November 1989, as communist regimes began to crumble one by one across Eastern Europe, hundreds of thousands of people filled Wenceslas Square to demand the overthrow of the ruling Czechoslovak Communist Party in what became known as the "velvet revolution." Twenty years earlier, the square was the site of anti–Soviet Union rallies after a man set himself on fire to protest the U.S.S.R.'s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Wenceslas Square is now a much calmer area with a thriving nightlife and busy shops and restaurants.