The tightening of the international situation in the early 1980s led to a new escalation of the Cold War, which was reflected in the harshness of the communist regime's repression of Charter 77 and the underground. The coercive apparatus launched the nationwide "Satan" action, culminating in the November 1981 crackdown on the editors of Vokno magazine, and the parallel "Asanace" action, which exiled a number of figures from the ranks of the domestic opposition abroad.
According to State Security data, only about sixty dissidents remained active at that time. The persecution, daily harassment, physical attacks, humiliation, and even torture during interrogations raised the question of the temporary suspension of Charter 77's activities, and a stormy debate was stirred up when the legitimate question arose from the underground as to whether to continue its "non-political" policy or whether the time had come to take to the streets.
While the previous decade (1974-1980) had marked the underground's peak, integrative phase, the period of the first half of the 1980s marked its disintegration.
Gradually, however, local focal points were created and their own culture, independent of official structures, was practiced. In addition, a new subculture of the young generation, the punk movement, soon came into being and was severely persecuted by the communist regime.
There was also a revival in the so-called grey zone, thanks to the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and his new political course, which was aimed at nothing less than saving the economically collapsing Soviet Union. Perestroika and glasnost became the epitome of a nightmare for Gustav Husák and his successor Miloš Jakes, as they denied everything that the ossified normalisation regime stood for.
Czech edition