Czechast with Mark Baker: Prague before and after 1989

Thirty-five years ago the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia started to crumble. Czechast brings you a perspective of Prague both before and after the fall of Communism.

Mark Baker is an American journalist and travel writer. He first arrived in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s, and his entry into Prague was quite an adventure:

Prague’s Charles Bridge in early November 1989, a couple weeks before the start of the Velvet Revolution|Photo: Mark Baker

"I got separated from my roommate, Matt, and we were separated for three days. It was just a hotel screw-up in the end, but I didn't see him for three days, and I had no idea what happened to him at that time, and he had no idea what happened to me at that time. So it was a very weird kind of Kafkaesque moment, where some very small bureaucratic slip-up actually separated us, and he ended up reporting me to the U.S. Embassy as a missing person. So that was my very first entry into Prague."

Mark Baker in the 80s|Photo: archive of Mark Baker

Mark then worked as a journalist in Vienna and his reporting often brought him to Prague. As he found out much later, he was closely monitored by the Communist secret police. And the Intercontinental Hotel in Pařížská street, now officially Fairmont Golden Hotel, was full  of honey-traps:

“The lobby, of course,  was full of attractive women. More available, single and attractive women than I have ever seen together anywhere else since. So, even though I was still in my 20s, I realized there was a lot going on in the background.”

Then came the 1990s, when Prague was buzzing with life and possibility. Thousands of foreigners flocked to the city, drawn by the coolness of Prague and Václav Havel’s leadership. Here’s how Mark describes that unique time:

Mark Baker (right) with Allen Ginsberg in Prague|Photo: archive of Mark Baker

"Thousands of foreigners were coming in, you know, because Prague was so cool, because Havel was so cool, because it was so interesting to be here. So it went from being distressed about what's happening to the state of the Velvet Revolution and its survival, Gorbachev's coup in 1991. Another thing, it's like, wow, this might not last. I mean, it looks like it's going to, but it could be rolled back. To the other side, happy, crazy place, you know, San Francisco of the 1990s, somehow, you know, lots of people just hanging out, doing basically nothing, you know, having fun."

In today’s episode, Mark shares more of his memories from that vibrant era and reflects on how much Prague has changed.