CZECHOSLOVAKIA : THE PRAGUE SPRING

CZECHOSLOVAKIA : THE PRAGUE SPRING

1. EVENTS IN 1968

   • 1. No riots or demonstrations but (1967) students and writers complained about lack of freedom, and the poor Czechoslovak economy.
   • 2. Novotny, the Czechoslovak president, asks Brezhnev for help
     • Brezhnev does not support him
   • 3. Novotny falls from power
     • On 5 January 1968, Dubcek takes over as leader of the Communist Party (KSC).
   • 4. In April 1968, Dubcek announces an Action Plan
     • A new model of socialism
       • It removed state controls over industry and allowed freedom of speech
   • 5. For 4 months (the Prague Spring), there was freedom in Czechoslovakia
     • But then the revolution began to run out of control
       • Dubcek announced that he was still committed to democratic communism
   • 6. Meeting in Bratislava on 3 August 1968 - Brezhnev read a letter from some Czechoslovakian Communists asking for help
     • He announced the Brezhnev Doctrine - the USSR would not allow any Eastern European country to reject Communism
       • 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
   • 7.. 20 August 1968, 500,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia
     • Dubcek and three other leaders were arrested and sent to Moscow
   • 8. The Czechoslovakians did not fight the Russians - instead, they stood in front of the tanks, and put flowers in the soldiers' hair
     • Jan Palach burned himself to death in protest
   • 9. Brezhnev put in Gustav Husak, a supporter of Russia, as leader of the KSC

2. CAUSES

   • 1. Policy of détente encouraged the uprising
     • Détente : general easing of the geo-political tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States
       • - a foreign policy of U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford as a "thawing out" or "un-freezing"
     • Romania also broke free of Russian control - was improving relations with the West
   • 2. Czechs hated Russian control
     • Because Russian control of the economy had made Czechoslovakia poor
     • Too much censorship and lack of freedom

3. EFFECTS

   • 1. Czechoslovakia returned to communist control
     • Half the leadership of the KSC, along with many directors (especially publishing companies) were sacked
       • + 47 anti-communists were arrested
   • 2. Russia stayed in control behind the Iron Curtain
     • Brezhnev Doctrine stated that Iron Curtain countries would not be allowed to abandon communism
       • "even if it meant a third world war"
   • 3. Increase of the Cold War
     • People in the West were horrified and so were many communist countries
       • ie. Romania and Yugoslavia