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Hi there, and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service, with me, Ben Henderson.

30 years ago this month, Czechoslovakia split into two separate states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Remarkably, the split was completely peaceful, so it became known as the Velvet Divorce.

Rather than putting it to a vote, though, the country and its assets were divided up behind closed doors by two men whose decisions would shape their country's history.

I must say that the responsibility under which we all worked was huge.

We were aware that the lives of 15 million people were in our hands.

That's Vladimir Mecha, the Slovak Prime Minister at the time.

And here's the former Czech Prime Minister, Vatslav Klaus.

I felt the pressure, but I don't mean the pressure from the delegation on the other side of the day,

but I felt the pressure of the people.

Czechoslovakia was first formed in 1918, in the aftermath of the First World War.

Germany's new neighbour, Czechoslovakia, remained the most successful of the states created after 1918.

Endeavouring to unite Czechs, Slovaks and its German speakers under one flag.

But that cozy arrangement didn't last.

The country was dismantled by the Nazis during the Second World War, but reunited in 1945, before Communists' power a few years later.

The Communist regime stayed in charge until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

With the straight jacket of Communist repression gone, people found their voice and powerful nationalist feelings started to swirl.

Here is a Slovak man speaking before the divorce.

We have lived in this state for 72 years and we have nothing good from it.

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