 | |
| Date | 25 August 1968; 57 years ago (1968-08-25) |
|---|---|
| Time | Noon |
| Location | Lobnoye Mesto,Red Square,Moscow |
| Cause | Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia |
| Participants | Larisa Bogoraz, Konstantin Babitsky,Vadim Delaunay, Vladimir Dremliuga,Pavel Litvinov,Natalya Gorbanevskaya,Viktor Fainberg, Tatiana Baeva. |
The1968 Red Square demonstration (Russian:Демонстра́ция 25 а́вгуста 1968 го́да) took place in Moscow on 25 August 1968. It was a protest by eight demonstrators against theinvasion of Czechoslovakia on the night of 20–21 August 1968 by theSoviet Union and itsWarsaw Pact allies, crushing thePrague Spring, the challenge to centralised planning and censorship bycommunist leaderAlexander Dubček.
The protest took place at theLobnoye Mesto (Place of Proclamation) onRed Square next to the Kremlin, to avoid any accusation of a violation of public order. It was anonviolent, sit-down demonstration. However, all but one of the protestors were quickly and roughly arrested by police and plainclothes KGB men.
The protest began at noon as eight protesters (Larisa Bogoraz, Konstantin Babitsky,Vadim Delaunay, Vladimir Dremliuga,Pavel Litvinov,Natalya Gorbanevskaya,Viktor Fainberg, and Tatiana Baeva) sat at the Lobnoye Mesto and held a smallCzechoslovak flag and placards bearing various slogans:
Within a few minutes, seven of the protesters were assaulted, brutally beaten and loaded into cars byKGB operatives. The Czechoslovak flag was broken, and the placards were confiscated. SinceNatalya Gorbanevskaya had recently given birth, she was not made to stand trial. The other protesters convinced 21-year-old Tatiana Baeva to declare that she had been at the scene by accident, and she was released soon after.
The KGB failed to find out which protester was holding which banner; therefore, all the banners were attributed to each protester, except for Tatiana Baeva, who was released. The banners were branded by the KGB as "anti-Soviet".[1][2]
During the investigation and trial, the defence revealed several inconsistencies in the accusations.[3]One of the eyewitnesses declared that he saw protesters leaving theGUM, a large store in the vicinity, even though this store is closed on Sundays. Additionally, all eyewitnesses happened to be from the same military division, even though they all claimed that they ended up on Red Square accidentally. However, these inconsistencies were not taken into account during the trial.
None of the demonstrators pleaded guilty.
Lawyers for the defense (allCommunist Party of the Soviet Union members appointed and paid for by the State) demonstrated that the protestors had acted without criminal intent,[4] but the protesters on trial all received sentences of up to several years imprisonment or exile and in two cases they were sent to psychiatric prison hospitals.
Vadim Delaunay and Vladimir Dremlyuga were sentenced to three years in a penal colony. Victor Fainberg, who had his teeth knocked out during the arrest, did not appear in court but was sent to apsychiatric prison. Larisa Bogoraz was sentenced to four years of exile to a remote Siberian settlement in theIrkutsk Region. Konstantin Babitsky was sentenced to three years of exile. Pavel Litvinov was sentenced to five years' exile. Natalya Gorbanevskaya was released the same day but later sent to a psychiatric prison.
In his "Attorney's waltz" singer and rights activistYuliy Kim claimed that the sentences had been decided before the trial.[5] In another song, "Ilyich", Kim mentionsYuri Andropov's andLeonid Brezhnev's anger at the demonstration, and refers to three of the protestors by name --Pavel Litvinov,Natalya Gorbanevskaya andLarisa Bogoraz.[6]
The story of the August 1968 demonstration is recounted in the 2005 documentaryThey Chose Freedom.
In 1990 (following theVelvet Revolution), seven of the protesters were awardedhonorary citizenship ofPrague.[7]
During theconflict in South Ossetia, August 2008, the former president of the Czech Republic,Václav Havel, expressed his sympathies for the protesters of 1968.[8] Czech PremierMirek Topolánek recognized the heroism of the protesters with awards.[9]
There was no recognition on the part of the Russian government. On 24 August 2008, thesimilar demonstration with the sloganFor your freedom and ours was held in the same place.[10]
On 25 August 2013, the 45th anniversary of the demonstration, Gorbanevskaya and several of her friends recreated the original protest,[11] again featuring the "For your freedom and ours" banner. Ten participants (among them Delaunay's son Sergey) were arrested almost immediately and taken to a police station. They were soon arraigned and released pending court appearance on charges of failing to secure prior permission for a political rally,[12] a misdemeanor under current Russian law.
In 2018, three participants at another repeat demonstration were arrested.[13] On February 5, 2025, Tatiana Baeva, who was one of the participant members of the 1968 Red Square demonstration died at the age of 77.
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