The Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partialdecentralization of the economy anddemocratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on themedia,speech andtravel. After national discussion of dividing the country into a federation of three republics,Bohemia,Moravia–Silesia andSlovakia, Dubček oversaw the decision to split into two, theCzech Socialist Republic andSlovak Socialist Republic.[1] This dual federation was the only formal change that survived the invasion.
The reforms, especially the decentralization of administrative authority, were not received well by the soviet of USSR, who, after failed negotiations, sent half a million Warsaw Pact troops and tanks to occupy the country.The New York Times cited reports of 650,000 men equipped with the most modern and sophisticated weapons in the Soviet military catalogue.[2] A massive wave of emigration ensued. Resistance throughout the country included attemptedfraternization, sabotage of street signs, defiance of curfews, etc. While the Soviet military had predicted that it would take four days to subdue the country, the resistance held out for almost eight months until diplomatic maneuvers finally circumvented it. It became a high-profile example ofcivilian-based defense; there were sporadic acts of violence and several protest suicides byself-immolation (the most famous being that ofJan Palach), but no military resistance. Czechoslovakia remained a Sovietsatellite state until 1989 when theVelvet Revolution peacefully ended the communist regime; the last Soviet troops left the country in 1991.
After the invasion, Czechoslovakia entered a period known asnormalization (Czech:normalizace, Slovak:normalizácia), in which new leaders attempted to restore the political and economic values that had prevailed before Dubček gained control of the KSČ.Gustáv Husák, who replaced Dubček as First Secretary and also becamePresident, reversed almost all of the reforms. The Prague Spring inspired music and literature including the work ofVáclav Havel,Karel Husa,Karel Kryl andMilan Kundera's novelThe Unbearable Lightness of Being.
The process ofde-Stalinization in Czechoslovakia had begun underAntonín Novotný in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but had progressed more slowly than in most other states of theEastern Bloc.[3] Following the lead ofNikita Khrushchev, Novotný proclaimed thecompletion of socialism, and thenew constitution[4] accordingly adopted the name change from "Czechoslovak Republic" to "Czechoslovak Socialist Republic". The pace of de-Stalinization, however, was sluggish; the rehabilitation of Stalin-era victims, such as those convicted in theSlánský trial, may have been considered as early as 1963, but did not take place until 1967.[5]
In the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia underwent an economic downturn.[6] The Soviet model ofindustrialization applied poorly to Czechoslovakia since the country was already quite industrialized before World War II while the Soviet model mainly took into account less developed economies. Novotný's attempt at restructuring the economy, the 1965New Economic Model, spurred increased demand for political reform as well.[7]
In May 1963, some Marxist intellectuals organized theLiblice Conference that discussedFranz Kafka's life, marking the beginning of the culturaldemocratization of Czechoslovakia which ultimately led to the 1968Prague Spring, an era of political liberalization. This conference was unique because it symbolized Kafka'srehabilitation in theEastern Bloc after having been heavily criticized, led to a partial opening up of the regime and influenced the relaxation ofcensorship. It also had an international impact as a representative from all Eastern Bloc countries were invited to the Conference; only the Soviet Union did not send any representative. This conference had a revolutionary effect and paved the way for the reforms while making Kafka the symbol of the renaissance of Czechoslovak artistic and intellectual freedom.[9]
As the strict regime eased its rules, theUnion of Czechoslovak Writers (Czech:Svaz československých spisovatelů) cautiously began to air discontent. InLiterární noviny, the union's previously hard-line communist weekly, members suggested that literature should be independent of the Communist Party doctrine.[10]
A few months later, at a meeting of Party leaders, it was decided that administrative actions against the writers who openly expressed support of reformation would be taken. Since only a small group of the union held these beliefs, the remaining members were relied upon to discipline their colleagues.[10] Control overLiterární noviny and several other publishers was transferred to the Ministry of Culture,[10] and even some leaders of the Party who later became major reformers—including Dubček—endorsed these moves.[10]
As President Antonín Novotný was losing support, Alexander Dubček, the First Secretary of theCommunist Party of Slovakia, and economistOta Šik challenged him at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Party. Novotný then invited the Secretary General of theCommunist Party of Soviet Union,Leonid Brezhnev, toPrague that December, seeking support;[11] Brezhnev, however, was surprised at the extent of the opposition to Novotný and so he rather supported his removal. Dubček replaced Novotný as First Secretary on 5 January 1968.[12] On 22 March, Novotný resigned and was replaced byLudvík Svoboda, who later gave consent to the reforms.[13]
Early signs of change were few. In an interview with KSČ Presidium memberJosef Smrkovský published in the Party newspaperRudé Právo with the title "What Lies Ahead", he insisted that Dubček's appointment at the January Plenum would further the goals ofsocialism and maintain theworking class nature of the Party.[14]
However, right after Dubček assumed power, the scholarEduard Goldstücker [cs] became chairman of theUnion of Czechoslovak Writers and thus editor-in-chief ofLiterární noviny,[15][16] which under Novotný had been filled with party loyalists.[16] Goldstücker tested the boundaries of Dubček's devotion to freedom of the press when on 4 February he appeared in a television interview as the new head of the union. During the interview he openly criticized Novotný, exposing all of Novotný's previously unreported policies and explaining how they were preventing progress in Czechoslovakia.[17]
Goldstücker suffered no repercussions, Dubček instead began to build a sense of trust among the media, the government, and the citizens.[16] It was under Goldstücker that the journal's name was changed toLiterární listy, and on 29 February, the Union published the first copy of the censor-free journal.[15] By August,Literární listy had a circulation of 300,000, making it the most published periodical in Europe.[18]
Ceremonial assembly held on 10 May 1968 onMount Říp with the participation of the highest Czechoslovak leaders (in the front row, centre: President Ludvík Svoboda, Alexander Dubček, Čestmír Císař, Oldřich Černík, Josef Smrkovský and others)
At the 20thanniversary of Czechoslovakia's "Victorious February", Dubček delivered a speech explaining the need for change following the triumph of socialism. He emphasized the need to "enforce the leading role of the party more effectively"[19][20][21] In April, Dubček launched an "Action Programme" of liberalizations, which included increasing freedom of the press, freedom of speech,[20][21] and freedom of movement, with economic emphasis onconsumer goods and the possibility of a multiparty government. The programme was based on the view that "Socialism cannot mean only liberation of the working people from the domination of exploiting class relations, but must make more provisions for a fuller life of the personality than any bourgeois democracy."[22] It would limit the power of the secret police[23] and provide for thefederalization of the ČSSR into two equal nations.[24] The programme also covered foreign policy, including both the maintenance of good relations with Western countries and cooperation with the Soviet Union and otherEastern Bloc nations.[25] It spoke of a ten-year transition through which democratic elections would be made possible and a new form of democratic socialism would replace the status quo.[26] Those who drafted the Action Programme were careful not to criticize the actions of the post-war Communist regime, only to point out policies that they felt had outlived their usefulness.[27] Although it was stipulated that reform must proceed under KSČ direction, popular pressure mounted to implement reforms immediately.[28] Radical elements became more vocal: anti-Soviet polemics appeared in the press on 26 June 1968,[26] and new unaffiliated political clubs were created. Party conservatives urged repressive measures, but Dubček counselled moderation and re-emphasized KSČ leadership.[29] At the Presidium of theCommunist Party of Czechoslovakia in April, Dubček announced a political programme of "socialism with a human face".[30] At the time of the Prague Spring, Czechoslovak exports were declining in competitiveness, and Dubček's reforms planned to solve these troubles by mixingplanned andmarket economies. Dubček continued to stress the importance of economic reform proceeding under Communist Party rule.[31]
Main instigators of Prague Spring in 1968 (L–R) Oldřich Černík, Alexander Dubček, Ludvík Svoboda and Josef Smrkovský
Freedom of the press opened the door for the first look at Czechoslovakia's past by Czechoslovakia's people[citation needed]. Many of the investigations centered on the country's history under communism, especially in the instance of theStalinist-period.[15] In another television appearance, Goldstücker presented both doctored and undoctored photographs of former communist leaders who had been purged, imprisoned, or executed and thus erased from communist history.[16] The Writers' Union also formed a committee in April 1968, headed by the poetJaroslav Seifert, to investigate the persecution of writers after theCommunist takeover in February 1948 and rehabilitate the literary figures into the Union, bookstores and libraries, and the literary world.[32][33] Discussions on the current state of communism and abstract ideas such as freedom and identity were also becoming more common; soon, non-party publications began appearing, such as the trade union dailyPráce (Labour). This was also helped by the Journalists' Union, which by March 1968 had already persuaded the Central Publication Board, the government censor, to allow editors to receive uncensored subscriptions to foreign papers, allowing for a more international dialogue around the news.[34]
The press, the radio, and the television also contributed to these discussions by hosting meetings where students and young workers could ask questions of writers such as Goldstücker,Pavel Kohout, andJan Procházka and political victims such asJosef Smrkovský, Zdeněk Hejzlar, andGustáv Husák.[17] Television also broadcast meetings between former political prisoners and the communist leaders from the secret police or prisons where they were held.[16] Most importantly, this new self-called freedom and the introduction of television into the lives of everyday Czechoslovak citizens moved the political dialogue from the intellectual to the popular sphere.
Initial reaction within the Communist Bloc was mixed.Hungary'sJános Kádár was highly supportive of Dubček's appointment in January, butLeonid Brezhnev and thehardliners grew concerned about the reforms, which they feared might weaken the position of the Bloc in theCold War.[35][36][37]
At a meeting inDresden, East Germany on 23 March, the leaders of the "Warsaw Five" (USSR,Hungary,Poland,Bulgaria andEast Germany) questioned the Czechoslovak delegation over the planned reforms, suggesting any talk of "democratization" was a veiled criticism of the Soviet model.[38] ThePolish Party leaderWładysław Gomułka and János Kádár were less concerned with the reforms themselves than with the growing criticisms levelled by the Czechoslovak media, and worried that the situation might be "similar to...the'Hungarian counterrevolution'."[38] Some of the language in the Action Programme may have been chosen to assert that no "counterrevolution" was planned, but Kieran Williams suggests that Dubček was perhaps surprised at, but not resentful of, Soviet suggestions.[39]
In May, the KGB initiated Operation Progress, which involved Soviet agents infiltrating Czechoslovak pro-democratic organizations, such as the Socialist and Christian Democrat parties.[40]
The Soviet leadership tried to stop, or at least limit, the changes in the ČSSR through a series of negotiations. The Soviet Union agreed tobilateral talks with Czechoslovakia from 29 July to 1 August atČierna nad Tisou, near the Soviet border. The Soviets were represented by almost the fullPolitburo that met for the first time outside the territory of the Soviet Union; also the Czechoslovak delegation included the full membership of the Presidium,[41] but the main agreements were reached at the meetings of the "fours" – Brezhnev,Alexei Kosygin,Nikolai Podgorny,Mikhail Suslov – Dubček,Ludvík Svoboda,Oldřich Černík,Josef Smrkovský.[42]
At the meeting Dubček defended the proposals of the KSČ's reformist wing while pledging commitment to the Warsaw Pact andComecon.[25] The KSČ leadership, however, was divided between vigorous reformers (Smrkovský, Černík, andFrantišek Kriegel) and hardliners (Vasil Biľak,Drahomír Kolder [cs], andOldřich Švestka [cs]) who adopted an anti-reformist stance.[43]
Brezhnev decided on compromise. The KSČ delegates reaffirmed their loyalty to the Warsaw Pact and promised to curb "anti-socialist" tendencies, prevent the revival of theCzechoslovak Social Democratic Party and control the press more effectively. The Soviets agreed to withdraw theirarmed forces still in Czechoslovakia after manoeuvres in June and permit the 9 SeptemberParty Congress.[43]
On 3 August representatives from the "Warsaw Five" and Czechoslovakia met inBratislava and signed theBratislava Declaration. The declaration affirmed unshakable fidelity toMarxism-Leninism andproletarian internationalism, declared an implacable struggle against "bourgeois"ideology and all "anti-socialist" forces.[44] The Soviet Union expressed its intention to intervene in any Warsaw Pact country if a "bourgeois" system—apluralist system of severalpolitical parties representing different factions of the "capitalist classes"—was ever established. After the conference, the Soviet troops left Czechoslovak territory but remained along its borders.[45]
As these talks proved unsatisfactory, the Soviets began to consider a military alternative. The Soviet policy of compelling the socialist governments of itssatellite states to subordinate their national interests to those of the Eastern Bloc (through military force if needed) became known as theBrezhnev Doctrine.[46] On the night of 20–21 August, Eastern Bloc armies from four Warsaw Pact countries—the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary—invaded the ČSSR.[47]
That night, 165,000 troops and 4,600 tanks entered the country.[48] They first occupied theRuzyně International Airport, where air deployment of more troops was arranged. TheCzechoslovak forces were confined to their barracks, which were surrounded until the threat of a counter-attack was assuaged. By the morning of 21 August Czechoslovakia was occupied.[49]
Soviet tanks in Prague, August 1968
Romania andAlbania refused to take part in the invasion.[50] Soviet command refrained from drawing uponEast German troops for fear of reviving memories of theNazi invasion in 1938.[51] During the invasion 72 Czechs andSlovaks were killed (19 of those in Slovakia), 266 severely wounded and another 436 slightly injured.[52][53] Alexander Dubček called upon his people not to resist.[53] Nevertheless, there was scattered resistance in the streets. Road signs in towns were removed or painted over—except for those indicating the way to Moscow.[54] Many small villages renamed themselves "Dubček" or "Svoboda"; thus, without navigational equipment, the invaders were often confused.[55]
On the night of the invasion theCzechoslovak Presidium declared that Warsaw Pact troops had crossed the border without the knowledge of the ČSSR government, but theSoviet Press printed an unsigned request—allegedly by Czechoslovak party and state leaders—for "immediate assistance, including assistance with armed forces".[56] At the14th KSČ Party Congress (conducted secretly, immediately following the intervention), it was emphasized that no member of the leadership had invited the intervention.[57] More recent evidence suggests that conservative KSČ members (including Biľak, Švestka, Kolder, Indra, andAntonín Kapek [cs]) did send a request for intervention to the Soviets.[58] The invasion was followed by a previously unseen wave ofemigration, which was stopped shortly thereafter. An estimated 70,000 citizens fled the country immediately with an eventual total of some 300,000.[59]
Until recently there was some uncertainty as to whatprovocation, if any, occurred to make the Warsaw Pact armies invade. Preceding the invasion was a rather calm period without any major events taking place in Czechoslovakia.[60]
Romanian Prime SecretaryNicolae Ceauşescu gives a speech critical of the invasion, in front of a crowd in Bucharest, 21 August 1968
In Czechoslovakia, especially in the week following the invasion, popular opposition was expressed in numerous spontaneous acts ofnonviolent resistance.[61] Civilians purposely gave wrong directions to invading soldiers, while others identified and followed cars belonging to thesecret police.[62] On 16 January 1969, studentJan Palachset himself on fire in Prague'sWenceslas Square to protest against the renewed suppression of free speech.[63]
The generalized resistance caused the Soviet Union to abandon its original plan to oust the First Secretary. Dubček, who had been arrested on the night of 20 August, was taken to Moscow for negotiations. There, under heavy psychological pressure from Soviet politicians, Dubček and all the highest-ranked leaders butFrantišek Kriegel signed theMoscow Protocol. It was agreed that Dubček would remain in office and a programme of moderate reform would continue.
On 25 August citizens of the Soviet Union who did not approve of the invasionprotested in Red Square; seven protesters opened banners with anti-invasion slogans. The demonstrators were brutally beaten and arrested by security forces, and later punished by a secret tribunal; the protest was dubbed "anti-Soviet" and several people were detained in psychiatric hospitals.[64]
A more pronounced effect took place in Romania, whereNicolae Ceaușescu,General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, already a staunch opponent of Soviet influences and a self-declared Dubček supporter, gave a public speech inBucharest on the day of the invasion, depicting Soviet policies in harsh terms.[50] Albania withdrew from theWarsaw Pact in opposition, calling the invasion an act of "social imperialism". In Finland, a country under some Soviet political influence, the occupation caused a major scandal.[65]
Helsinki demonstration against the invasion of Czechoslovakia
Most countries offered only vocal criticism following the invasion. The night of the invasion, Canada, Denmark, France, Paraguay, the United Kingdom, and the United States requested a meeting of theUnited Nations Security Council.[70] At the meeting, the Czechoslovak ambassadorJan Mužík denounced the invasion. Soviet ambassadorJacob Malik insisted the Warsaw Pact actions were "fraternal assistance" against "antisocial forces".[70]
The British government strongly condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, although it cautiously avoided making any diplomatic moves that may have provoked a Soviet counter-response and a jeopardisation ofdétente. The United Kingdom's foreign policy toward the Soviet Union was minimally impacted in the long-term, and quickly reverted to the status quo that existed prior to the Prague Spring following the brief period of intense criticism.[71]
One of the nations that most vehemently condemned the invasion was China, which objected furiously to the so-called "Brezhnev Doctrine" that declared the Soviet Union alone had the right to determine what nations were properly Communist and could invade those Communist nations whose communism did not meet the Kremlin's approval.[72]Mao Zedong saw the Brezhnev Doctrine as the ideological basis for a Soviet invasion of China, and launched a massive propaganda campaign condemning the invasion of Czechoslovakia, despite his own earlier opposition to the Prague Spring.[72] Speaking at a banquet at the Romanian embassy in Beijing on 23 August 1968, the Chinese PremierZhou Enlai denounced the Soviet Union for "fascist politics, great power chauvinism, national egoism and social imperialism", going on to compare the invasion of Czechoslovakia to the American war in Vietnam and more pointedly to the policies of Adolf Hitler towards Czechoslovakia in 1938–39.[72] Zhou ended his speech with a barely veiled call for the people of Czechoslovakia to wage guerrilla war against the Red Army.[72]
The next day, several countries suggested aUnited Nations resolution condemning the intervention and calling for immediate withdrawal. Eventually, a UN vote was taken with ten members supporting the motion; Algeria, India, and Pakistan abstained; the USSR (with veto power) and Hungary opposed. Canadian delegates immediately introduced another motion asking for a UN representative to travel to Prague and work toward the release of the imprisoned Czechoslovak leaders.[70]
By 26 August, a new Czechoslovak representative requested the whole issue be removed from the Security Council's agenda.Shirley Temple Black visited Prague in August 1968 to prepare for becoming the US Ambassador for reformed Czechoslovakia.[73] However, after the 21 August invasion, she became part of a U.S. Embassy-organized convoy of vehicles that evacuated U.S. citizens from the country.[74] In August 1989, she returned to Prague as U.S. Ambassador, three months before theVelvet Revolution that ended 41 years of Communist rule.[75]
The United States, West Germany and NATO maintained a low-key response to the invasion. After 1968 the U.S. recognized Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, a development that was in the interests of the United States according to some analysts.[76]
Memorial to the victims of the invasion, located inLiberec
In April 1969, Dubček was replaced as first secretary byGustáv Husák, and a period of "normalization" began.[77] Dubček was expelled from the KSČ and given a job as a forestry official.[24][78]
Husák reversed Dubček's reforms, purged the party of its liberal members, and dismissed from public office professional and intellectual elites who openly expressed disagreement with the political transformation.[79] (Many of those purged would later become thedissidents ofCzechoslovak underground culture, active inCharter 77 and related movements which eventually met success in theVelvet Revolution.) Husák worked to reinstate the power of the police and strengthen ties with the rest of the Communist bloc. He also sought to re-centralize the economy, as a considerable amount of freedom had been granted to industries during the Prague Spring.[79] Commentary on politics was forbidden in mainstream media, and political statements by anyone not considered to have "full political trust" were also banned.[80] The only significant change that survived was thefederalization of the country, which created theCzech Socialist Republic and theSlovak Socialist Republic in 1969.
In 1987, the Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that his liberalizing policies ofglasnost andperestroika owed a great deal to Dubček's "socialism with a human face".[81] When asked what the difference was between the Prague Spring and Gorbachev's own reforms, a Foreign Ministry spokesman replied, "Nineteen years."[82]
The Warsaw Pact invasion included attacks on media establishments, such asRadio Prague andCzechoslovak Television, almost immediately after the initial tanks rolled into Prague on 21 August 1968[citation needed]. While both the radio station and the television station managed to hold out for at least enough time for initial broadcasts of the invasion, what the Soviets did not attack by force they attacked by reenacting party censorship[citation needed]. In reaction to the invasion, on 28 August 1968, all Czechoslovak publishers agreed to halt production of newspapers for the day to allow for a "day of reflection" for the editorial staffs.[85] Writers and reporters agreed with Dubček to support a limited reinstitution of the censorship office, as long as the institution was to only last three months.[86] Finally, by September 1968, theCzechoslovak Communist Party plenum was held to instate the new censorship law. In the words of the Moscow-approved resolution, "The press, radio, and television are first of all the instruments for carrying into life the policies of the Party and state."[citation needed]
While that was not yet the end of the media's self-called freedom after the Prague Spring, it was the beginning of the end. During November, the Presidium, under Husak, declared that the Czechoslovak press could not make any negative remarks about the Soviet invaders or they would risk violating the agreement they had come to at the end of August. When the weekliesReporter andPolitika responded harshly to this threat, even going so far as to not so subtly criticize the Presidium itself inPolitika, the government bannedReporter for a month, suspendedPolitika indefinitely, and prohibited any political programs from appearing on the radio or television.[87]
The intellectuals were stuck at an impasse; they recognized the government's increasing normalization, but they were unsure whether to trust that the measures were only temporary or demand more. For example, still believing in Dubcek's promises for reform,Milan Kundera published the article "Cesky udel" (Our Czech Destiny) inLiterarni listy on 19 December.[33][88] He wrote: "People who today are falling into depression and defeatism, commenting that there are not enough guarantees, that everything could end badly, that we might again end up in a marasmus of censorship and trials, that this or that could happen, are simply weak people, who can live only in illusions of certainty."[89]
In March 1969, however, the new Soviet-backed Czechoslovak government instituted full censorship, effectively ending the hopes that normalization would lead back to the freedoms enjoyed during the Prague Spring. A declaration was presented to the Presidium condemning the media as co-conspirators against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in their support of Dubcek's liberalization measures. Finally, on 2 April 1969, the government adopted measures "to secure peace and order" through even stricter censorship, forcing the people of Czechoslovakia to wait until thethawing of Eastern Europe for the return of a free media.[90]
The Prague Spring deepened the disillusionment of many Western leftists withSoviet views. It contributed to the growth ofEurocommunist ideas in Western communist parties, which sought greater distance from the Soviet Union and eventually led to the dissolution of many of these groups.[91] A decade later, a period of Chinese political liberalization became known as theBeijing Spring. It also partly influenced theCroatian Spring inCommunist Yugoslavia.[92] In a 1993 Czech survey, 60% of those surveyed had a personal memory linked to the Prague Spring while another 30% were familiar with the events in another form.[93] The demonstrations and regime changes taking place in North Africa and the Middle East from December 2010 have frequently been referred to as an "Arab Spring".
The event has been referenced in popular music, including the music ofKarel Kryl,Luboš Fišer'sRequiem,[94] andKarel Husa'sMusic for Prague 1968.[95]The Israeli song "Prague", written byShalom Hanoch and performed byArik Einstein at the Israel Song Festival of 1969, was alamentation on the fate of the city after the Soviet invasion and mentionsJan Palach'sSelf-immolation.[96]"They Can't Stop The Spring", a song by Irish journalist and songwriterJohn Waters, represented Ireland in theEurovision Song Contest in 2007. Waters has described it as "a kind ofCeltic celebration of the Eastern European revolutions and their eventual outcome", quoting Dubček's alleged comment: "They may crush the flowers, but they can't stop the Spring."[97] "The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)", a song featured in the American-English singer-songwriterScott Walker's fifth solo albumScott 4 also refers to the invasion.
The Prague Spring is featured in several works of literature.Milan Kundera set his novelThe Unbearable Lightness of Being during the Prague Spring. It follows the repercussions of increased Soviet presence and the dictatorial police control of the population.[98] Afilm version was released in 1988.The Liberators, byViktor Suvorov, is an eyewitness description of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, from the point of view of a Soviet tank commander.[99]Rock 'n' Roll, a play by award-winning Czech-born English playwrightTom Stoppard, references the Prague Spring, as well as the 1989Velvet Revolution.[100]Heda Margolius Kovály also ends her memoirUnder a Cruel Star with a first hand account of the Prague Spring and the subsequent invasion, and her reflections upon these events.[101]
In film there has been an adaptation ofThe Unbearable Lightness of Being, and also the moviePelíšky from directorJan Hřebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovský, which depicts the events of the Prague Spring and ends with the invasion by the Soviet Union and their allies.[102] The Czech musical film,Rebelové fromFilip Renč, also depicts the events, the invasion and subsequent wave of emigration.[102]
The number68 has become iconic in the formerCzechoslovakia.Ice hockey playerJaromír Jágr, whose grandfather died in prison during the rebellion, wears the number because of the importance of the year in Czechoslovak history.[103][104] A former publishing house based inToronto,68 Publishers, that published books by exiled Czech and Slovak authors, took its name from the event.
The photographs that were taken in Vinohradská Avenue andWenceslas Square are widely represented in the photographic archive of the 1968 invasion while other sites of protests are missing. The memory of the Prague Spring is marked by the Czech Republic's and Slovakia's desire to avoid unpleasant collective memories leading to a process of historical amnesia and narrative whitewashing. Photographs taken byJosef Koudelka portray memories of the invasion such as a memorial to the victims set up in Wenceslas Square. There are many omnipresent signs of memorial of the Soviet invasion in the city of Prague.[105]
During the invasion, protesters set up several memorials to record the location of the victims' death. TheJan Palach memorial is a monument remembering the suicide of a student in 1969. This place is often called the "boulevard of history." Palach was the first to kill himself inWenceslas Square but was not the last, he was belonging to a student pact of resistance.[106] There is also (at Újezd, at the bottom of Petrin hill) the memorial for the victims of communism in Prague: a narrowing staircase along which seven male bronze silhouettes descend. The first one, the one at the bottom, is complete, while the others gradually disappear. It aims at representing the same person at different phases of the destruction caused by communist ideology.[107]
The Prague Spring has deeply marked the history of communism in Eastern Europe even though its outcomes were modest. Rather than remembering the cultural democratization, the opening of the press and its impact on the emergence of a new form of socialism, history textbooks consider Prague Spring as one of the major crises of Socialism in the Soviet bloc.[according to whom?] The memory has acquired a negative significance as marking disillusion of political hopes within Eastern European communism. Indeed, long hidden and rejected from thecollective memory, the Prague Spring of 1968 is rarely commemorated in Prague and is often considered a painful defeat, a symbol of disappointed hope and surrender that heralds twenty years of 'normalisation'.[citation needed] It was not until the 2000s, following the publication of texts dating from 1968, such as Milan Kundera, "Český úděl" (The Czech Fate), and Václav Havel,"Český úděl?" published in 2007 in the weekly magazineLiterární Noviny (52/1), that the debate on the Prague Spring resumed. Indeed, the posterity of the Prague Spring remains first and foremost the memory of the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact as well as the failure of reform within a communist regime, which definitely discredited the Dubcekian "revisionist" perspective in the East.[citation needed] The memory of the Prague Spring is thus largely obscured and often overviewed.[by whom?] Indeed, the Prague Spring also deeply impacted the Czech society and should also be remembered for the cultural momentum that accompanied and illustrated this movement, of which there are still films, novels, and plays.[specify] The Prague Spring also influenced a renewal of the Prague artistic and cultural scene as well as a liberalization of society which deeply marked the following years. The 1960s indeed saw the emergence of a major shift in Czechoslovakia with cultural changes and movement coming from the West, notably rock music and sub-cultural movements which are the symbol of cultural renewal for Czechoslovakia.[citation needed] The Czech sixties were thus a process of emancipation of culture from the constraints of existing political structures and were the prelude to the upheavals of 1968. In fact, the regime's political crisis did not begin with Dubcek's election as party leader on 5 January 1968, but with the break-up speeches delivered at the Writers' Congress in June 1967 byLudvík Vaculík,Milan Kundera andAntonín Liehm. In addition, the revitalization of society was also an essential component of the Prague Spring. Indeed, the great achievements of the Prague Spring, i. e. the abolition of censorship, the restoration of individual and collective freedoms... have revitalized society, which has begun to express itself more freely. Although the Prague Spring only restored what had existed thirty years earlier in Czechoslovakia, the spring of 1968 had a profound and long-lasting impact on the society.[105][failed verification]
Recently, the anniversary of the 50 years of the conflict raised the question of the memory of the Prague Spring. TheEuropean Commission Vice-presidentMaroš Šefčovič, himself a Slovak, reminded us on the occasion that"we should never tolerate a breach of international law, crushing people's legitimate yearning for freedom and democracy". The European justice commissionerVěra Jourová also made a speech. However, the memory is still very conflicted as demonstrated when the Czech Republic's pro-Russian PresidentMiloš Zeman refused to attend any ceremony remembering the Prague Spring and didn't give any speech in memory of the numerous deaths.[108]
The memory of the Prague Spring is also transmitted through testimonies of former Czechoslovak citizens. In a 2018 article,Radio Free Europe collected testimonies of four women who witnessed the Warsaw Pact troops invasion and bravely acted. Stanislava Draha who volunteered to help some of the 500 wounded testifies says that the invasion had a major impact on her life. Besides, Vera Homolova, a radio reporter broadcasting the invasion from a covert studio testifies "I experienced the Soviet-led troops shooting recklessly into the Czechoslovak Radio's building, into windows." In the aftermath, Vera Roubalova, who reacted as a student to the occupation by demonstrating posters, that tensions were still present towards the countries that occupied Czechoslovakia. On the night of 20–21 August, 137 Czechoslovaks died during the invasion.[109]
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