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Before the “Velvet Revolution” that ended Communist rule here in 1989, graffiti was a much more illicit activity, mostly used as a tool of protest against the Communist government, and carried with it a severe prison sentence. A notable example of the serious political role graffiti played under the Communist regime is the graffiti campaign waged in the 1980's on Prague's Malá Strana “John Lennon wall” by anti-Communist dissidents. |
A makeshift graffiti memorial, made up of Lennon quotations and other calls for peace and political liberty, had been illegally established on the wall, which belonged to a religious order sympathetic to the anti-Communist cause, by Prague's Lennon supporters after the songwriter's death in 1980. The wall was repeatedly painted over by Communist officials who were concerned by the dissident political message the Lennon memorial embodied. |
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