August 21 - The End of the "Prague Spring"

Maju mentioned it in yesterday's thread already, so here is the, almost, full story:

In the night from August 20 to August 21, 1968 troops of the Warsaw Pact countries crossed the borders into Czechoslovakia to crush the political reform movement, known as the �Prague Spring�.

Czechoslovakia had come under the control of the Czech Communist party in 1948, three years after its liberation from Nazi-Germany by the Red Army, and after a number of Liberal/Communist coalition governments. It had joined COMECON in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact at its creation in 1955, and was, as the third largest economy in the Soviet bloc, an important and loyal member of the Communist alliance of states.
In January 1968 however, Alexander Dubcek, was elected as Secretary of the Central Committee of the Czech Communist Party. Dubcek was the leading exponent of a reformist faction of the party that wanted to introduce a liberalisation of state and economy. A new model of Socialism was to be introduced, democratic and more open to the West, although the membership of the country in the Soviet alliance was not questioned. In March 1968 censorship was abolished and the public began to discuss reforms that would by far exceed what Dubcek and his party had proposed.



Alexander Dubcek

As much as the politics of reform were popular and most welcome by the people of Czechoslovakia, as much they were feared by the hard-line leaderships of the other Stalinist Communist countries. After the experiences of Hungary in 1956, the Soviets quietly rightly, as the events at the collapse of Stalinism in 1989 proved, were afraid that reforms in one Warsaw pact country might have a �Domino� effect on others, and they made it clear to the new Czech leadership that they were not prepared to tolerate any stepping out of line. Later in 1968 the Soviet Leonid Brezhnev leader would express this policy in the famous �Brezhnev doctrine�: "When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries."

Dubcek and his allies, most prominent the Prime Minister Cernik and President Svoboda, ignored these warnings, insisted on the sovereignty of their country, and pursued their reform course.
The inevitable happened in the night to August 21, 1968. Troops of all Warsaw pact countries, except Rumania, invaded Czechoslovakia that shared borders with five of them. More than 200.000 troops and 5000 tanks quickly occupied the country, and most importantly Prague, where the annual congress of the Czech Communist Party was just about to begin.
There was no military resistance against the occupation, but massive public demonstrations and violent protests were held in Prague, during which a dozen people were killed.



Warsaw pact troops on the streets of Prague

After a few days and in view of the overwhelming force, party and people finally resigned to the � fait accompli�. The reform course was stopped immediately, and although Dubcek could hold on to the Party leadership till April 1969, Czech politics were once again dictated from Moscow.
In January 1969 the student Jan Palach burned himself in Prague in protest against the occupation and his funeral turned into the last public demonstration against the suppression of the �Prague Spring.�
The Western governments did not react other than voicing its diplomatic protests, although people in many Western countries staged demonstrations in support of the people of Czechoslovakia. Especially Europe's students that had come out in massive protests against the Vietnam war and their own repressive societies, felt solidarity with the Czechs.

Dubcek�s successor Husak enforced the neo-Stalinist policies and remained in power till 1989 when the �Velvet Revolution� finished what the �Prague Spring� of 1968 had began.
Alexander Dubcek was elected as the speaker of first post-communist parliament in 1989 and died in 1992.


What else happened on this day?

1165 The Capetian King Philip II Augustus of France is born. He gradually reconquered French territories from the English and expanded royal domains into Flanders and the Languedoc. Philip took part in the Third Crudsade alongside his old enemy, the English King Richard I.

1192 Minamoto Yoritomo becomes the first Seii Tai Sh�gun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Somehow I have the feeling that is an important event in Japanese History, maybe someone else could explain why!)

1953 Joe Strummer (d. 2002) ,aka John Mellor, lead singer of the Punk band �The Clash� is born in Ankara, Turkey. ( I just thought I mention him cause they are one of my favourite bands of all time)



Joe Strummer in action

Full list:

Wikipedia

Edited by Komnenos

Originally posted by Maju Actually, one would think that Czecoslovakian Spring was calling not for a restoration of capitalism but for the instauration of a democratic form of socialism. What the velvet revolution achieved was quite different: a purely burgueois country, something that wasn't in schedule in 1968 by any revolutionaries, neither in the east nor in the west.

You're certainly right that the exponents of a reformist course inside the Communist party did envisage nothing more than a reform of the Socialist system, but somehow I have the feeling that the demands of the population actually began to exceed that. The Soviets might have quite rightly realised that a modest reform would have been the beginning of a far more radical one, that a self-dynamic would have developed, whose ultimate destination couldn't be foreseen.
Furthermore, the events of 1989 showed that there was no room between the two systems, the Stalinist and the capitalist, and if the Czech Republic would have been left alone after 68, it might taken a course, somewhat slower and more complicated, that would have brought its political development to the same conclusions as the
"Velvet Revolution" of 1989 did.

The Military Museum in Dresden has pictures of East German units preparing for entering Czechoslovakia, with the white markings also visible on the AAA gun and the lorry of the second picture and all. They even held a victory parade afterwards - bastards. Even when they didn't really take part in the operation.