Prague Spring
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- This article refers to a period of history of Czechoslovakia. For the music festival see Prague Spring Music Festival.
Image:Prague spring café.JPG The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar, Russian: пражская весна) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5 1968 when Alexander Dubček came to power, and running until August 20 of that year when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies (except for Romania) invaded the country.
The term Prague Spring was coined by Western media after the event became known worldwide, and was eventually adopted in Czechoslovakia itself. It made reference to the Springtime of Peoples, a lyrical title given to the Revolutions of 1848.
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Situation in Czechoslovakia
During World War II Czechoslovakia fell into the Soviet sphere of influence, the Eastern Bloc. Since 1948 there were no parties other than the Communist Party in the country and it was indirectly managed by the Soviet Union. Unlike other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the communist take-over in Czechoslovakia in 1948 was, although as brutal as elsewhere, a genuine popular movement. Reform in the country did not lead to the convulsions seen in Hungary.
There were two distinct reasons for the popularity of the movement:
- Towards the end of World War II: Joseph Stalin wanted Czechoslovakia, and signed an agreement with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, that Prague would be liberated by the Red Army despite the fact that the United States Army under General George S. Patton could have liberated the city earlier. This was important for the spread of pro-Russian (and pro-communist) propaganda that came right after the war.
- People still remembered what they felt as Czechoslovakia's betrayal by the West at the Munich Agreement.
For these reasons the people voted for communists in the 1948 elections - the last democratic poll for a long time.
From the middle of the 1960s Czechs and Slovaks showed increasing signs of rejection of the existing regime. This change was reflected by reformist elements within the communist party by installing Alexander Dubček as party leader. Dubček's reforms of the political process inside Czechoslovakia, which he referred to as Socialism with a human face, did not represent a complete overthrow of the old regime, as was the case in Hungary in 1956. Dubček's changes had broad support from the society, including the working class. However, it was still seen by the Soviet leadership as a threat to their hegemony over other states of the Eastern Bloc and to the very safety of the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia was in the middle of the defensive line of the Warsaw Pact and its possible defection to the enemy was unacceptable during the Cold War.
However a sizeable minority in the ruling party, especially at higher leadership levels, was opposed to any lessening of the party's grip on society and they actively plotted with the leadership of the Soviet Union to overthrow the reformers. This group watched in horror as calls for multi-party elections and other reforms began echoing throughout the country.
Soviet policy
The policy of the USSR to enforce Soviet-style governments among its satellite states, through military force if needed, became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, named after Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who was first to publicly declare it, although it was in use since Stalin's times. This doctrine remained in force until it was replaced by the Sinatra Doctrine under Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s.
The Soviet leadership first tried to stop or limit the changes in Czechoslovakia through a series of negotiations. As their attempts failed they started to prepare a military alternative.
Occupation
Image:August 68.jpg Between the nights of August 20 and August 21 1968, Eastern Bloc armies from five Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia. During the invasion, Soviet tanks ranging in numbers from 5,000 to 7,000 occupied the streets. They were followed by a large number of Warsaw Pact troops ranging from 200,000 to 600,000.
The Soviets insisted that they had been invited to invade the country, stating that loyal Czechoslovak Communists had told them that they were in need of "fraternal assistance against the counter-revolution". A letter which was found in 1989 proved an invitation to invade did indeed exist.
During the attack of the Warsaw Pact armies, 72 Czechs and Slovaks were killed (19 of those in Slovakia) and hundreds were wounded (up to September 3, 1968). Alexander Dubček called upon his people not to resist. He was arrested and taken to Moscow, along with several of his colleagues.
The occupation was followed by a wave of emigration (estimate: 70,000 immediately, 300,000 in total [1]), typically of highly qualified people. Western countries allowed these people to stay and work without complications.
Reactions in the world
The democratic countries offered only vocal criticism following the invasion — the reality of nuclear standoff in the Cold War meant the Western countries were in no position to challenge Soviet military force in Central Europe. A more pronounced effect took place in Communist Romania, where leader Nicolae Ceauşescu, already a staunch opponent of Soviet influences and one to have declared himself on Dubček's side, held a public speech in Bucharest on the day of the invasion, depicting Soviet policies in harsh terms. While Romania engaged briefly on the same side of the barricade as Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia, the alliance was purely conjectural (as Ceauşescu was already proving to be opposed on principle to Socialism with a human face). It did however consolidate Romania's independent voice the next decades, especially after Ceauşescu encouraged the population to take up arms in order to meet any similar manoeuvre in that country: he received an enthusiastic initial response, with many people who were by no means communist willing to enroll in the newly-formed paramilitary Patriotic Guards.
In Finland, a country under huge Soviet political influence at that time, the occupation caused a major scandal. Even the Communist Party of Finland denounced the occupation. Nonetheless, Finnish president Urho Kekkonen was the very first Western politician to officially visit Czechoslovakia after August 1968; he received the highest Czechoslovakian honours from the hands of president Ludvík Svoboda, on October 4, 1969.
Influences
The events of the Prague Spring deepened the disillusion of many Western leftists with Leninist views, and contributed to the growth of Eurocommunist ideas in Western communist parties — leading to the eventual dissolution or break-up of many of these groups.
A decade later, the Prague Spring lent its name to an analogous period of Chinese political liberalization known as the Beijing Spring. It also partly influenced the Croatian Spring in Yugoslavia.
Famous Czech hockey player Jaromír Jágr, who now plays for the New York Rangers, wears number 68 because of this important event in Czech history.
Prague Spring in art
Music for Prague 1968 by Czech-born composer Karel Husa is a programme music for wind ensemble depicting the event written in America shortly after the incident.
See also
- Czechoslovakia: 1948 - 1968 (provides further details)
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Novel by Milan Kundera set during this period and the following crackdown.)
- April Programme
- Professional Foul by Tom Stoppard, a play written for television in 1977.
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