1968: The Rise and Fall of the Prague Spring

50 years ago, on the night of August 20th, a plane from Moscow landed at Prague's international airport. Aboard were over 100 plain clothes operatives with a simple mission: take and hold the airport, so that the USSR could use it as a beachhead. They succeeded, and soon, troop planes had arrived and the capital city of Prague was essentially in the hands of the Soviets.

Soviet troops in front of the airport.

Meanwhile, at various points along its borders with East Germany, Poland, and Hungary, some 250,000 troops and 2,000 tanks crossed into Czechoslovak territory. The troops largely came from the USSR, but Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria contributed, as well. East Germany had planned to take part in the invasion, but someone realized that it had only been 30 years since the *last* German occupation of Czechoslovakia, and the East German presence might just make the situation worse.

Several Warsaw Pact nations, such as Romania and Albania, refused to join in the attack. Indeed, long-simmering disagreements between the USSR and Albania boiled over after the invasion, and Albania left the group.

Some 500,000 troops were eventually part of the invasion. In reality, the invasion ended within hours, almost as soon as it had begun, and any resistance--which was largely non-violent--ended within a week or so. It took until 1969 for the Soviets to really get things the way they wanted, and some truly shocking events occurred along the way, but it was a massive display of overwhelming military force that succeeded in taking over a country almost immediately.

A Czech businessman watches on, helplessly, as Soviet tanks roll through Wenceslas Square.

Now, you're probably asking: Why? Wasn't Czechoslovakia a member of the Warsaw Pact, the NATO-antithesis organized by the Soviets? What did the USSR hope to accomplish?

Well, in as brief and cogent a manner as possible while still being accurate, I'm going to tell you.

To understand the 1968 invasion, you must go back a few months to January of that year. At that time, the national Communist Party--which ran Czechoslovakia as a member of the Warsaw Pact but which was not dominated by the USSR, at least legally--had chosen a new leader for itself: Alexander Dubček. Dubček, whose parents were true socialist believers who moved to the USSR in the early 1920s when Alexander was a child, fought in the anti-German resistance in Slovakia during WWII. He joined the Slovak Communist party and rose through the ranks, receiving political training in the USSR, eventually becoming First Secretary (i.e., head) of the Slovak branch of the Communist Party in 1963. Dubček was a comparatively liberal leader, and he allowed and even encouraged more freedom of thought and expression in Slovakia. When dissatisfaction led some national party members, including Dubček, to push to remove hard-line Stalinist Antonin Novotny as national secretary in 1967, Alexander Dubček emerged as a seemingly safe choice to replace him. Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev himself approved the choice, and so, on January 5, 1968, Dubček become Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia -- de facto and de jure leader of the nation.

Just a short time before the invasion: Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev (L)
and Czech leader, Alexander Dubček  

Alexander Dubček was not a secret small-d democrat. He believed the Communist Party should rule Czechoslovakia, and he believed in the Warsaw Pact. However, he immediately began rolling back some of the more repressive elements of party rule, allowing more freedom of association, expression, and thought. He sought to create "socialism with a human face," as the slogan went. For a while, it worked. The people loved him, the university students--notoriously difficult to please, especially in the 1960s--chanted his name. A new kind of cinema, called the Czech New Wave, flourished, and writers such as Milan Kundera and future President Vaclav Havel seized the opportunity to publicly discuss their country and its future. Censorship was officially abolished on June 26, 1968, allowing Czechs and Slovaks freedoms they hadn't enjoyed in decades.

The Prague Spring was news everywhere, and must have given the West hope that it could spread

However, as is often the case, reforms led to the desire for more reforms. Yes, Czechs and Slovaks were freer than they had been, but they knew they weren't totally free. And now they could talk about it publicly. Dubček went as far as he thought he could, but he knew there were limits. Hard-liners in the national party encouraged him to crack down, but Dubček was unwilling to do so, seemingly because he believed that he had no need to. He believed that his "socialism with a human face" would win the day. He also believed that, as long as he remained loyal to Moscow and the Warsaw Pact--which he was--then the USSR would allow him to pursue these purely domestic reforms. In time, Czechoslovakia would accept the new normal and stop pushing for more reforms. That is not, however, what happened, and many totalitarian and authoritarian regimes of the modern era seem to have learned the lessons of the Prague Spring very well.

Artists and intellectuals like Vaclac Havel (L) and Milan Kundera (R) took full advantage of the new freedoms--which may have helped bring about the invasion.

Contrary to what Dubček believed, however, Brezhnev was viewing events from Moscow with alarm. Operating on their own version of the Domino Theory, Soviet party leaders worried that press liberalization in Czechoslovakia might lead to calls for reforms in neighboring countries, and eventually in the USSR itself. This was unacceptable--and had to be stopped. After a few meetings in July and August--during which the the Czech and Slovak leaders repeatedly pledged fealty to the ideals of Leninist-Stalinist Communism and the Warsaw Pact--Brezhnev decided that the Czechoslovakian Party had too many reformist elements and that the only solution was an invasion and re-organization of the government. What specifically led to this decision is still unclear, as there wasn't exactly a precipitating event in Czechoslovakia. Still, on August 20th, the order was given.

The Soviets claimed they came at the request of the Czechoslovakian people. Actually, if anything, they came at the request of Brezhnev and Dubček's hard-line opponents--not the people.

If Dubček anticipated that, on August 20th and 21st his country would be invaded and over-run by nations he viewed as his closest allies, he did nothing to indicate it. He apparently believed that the conferences over the summer had re-cemented things and that international outcry would prevent any sort of military action. He was terribly wrong. Even though Soviet and allied troops were amassed along the borders (leftover from troop maneuvers), no alerts were heightened, no roadblocks were put in place, no actions were taken at all.

Blunt, but accurate.

So, August 21st found tanks in the streets of Prague and, just a few days later, Dubček and his allies were taken to Moscow for questioning. He was eventually allowed to return, and even to resume his leadership position, but he was quickly ousted after the Czechoslovak Hockey Riots of 1969 (referenced briefly here) and removed from the national party in 1970. Moreover, while it took 8 long months for the Soviets to get their act together and remake the national party into an image pleasing to Brezhnev's eye (they had predicted it would take for days), the Prague Spring died on August 21, 1968.

While there were moments of cathartic triumph, especially in Prague where students did everything they could think of to slow and stop the tanks, the invasion was essentially completed as soon as it began.

During that 8 month period, some people protested how they could. In the early months of 1969, two young men immolated themselves in Wenceslas Square to protest the end of the Prague Spring. Some 70,000 people fled the country, and were generally welcomed in their new homes. Some, as previously mentioned, rioted over a hockey match. However, no large scale violent resistance emerged, perhaps because, as some have argued, going along with Soviet demands was much better than risking the relatively comfortable lifestyle most people in Czechoslovakia enjoyed at the time.

Again, however, students led the resistance.

Dubček himself, after his exile from national party politics, returned to Slovakia where he worked in forestry. Still alive and well at the time of the Velvet Revolution, there was some call for Dubček to be the new country's President. Dubček, however, showed himself to out of step with the younger generation, essentially arguing for a return to his "socialism with a human face." However, he did serve as Chairman of the Legislative body and led a major party until 1992, when he died from injuries from a car accident. He's generally remembered as a national hero, or at least as someone who tried to do good.

Dubček in 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, with soon-to-be President Vaclav Havel.

Several of the nations who took part in the invasion have apologized--most of the quickly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the USSR. Russia, interestingly enough, aired a documentary on state television in 2015 (yes, three years ago) that argued, essentially without evidence, that the invasion of Czechoslovakia was an attempt to prevent a NATO-led coup or some nonsense. Essentially, it was another example of the modern Russian tendency to justify and rationalize every terrible thing the government of the USSR did. Major Czech politicians--even those who argue for closer ties with Russia--called the documentary, I paraphrase, a giant burning trash heap of lies.

Apparently the documentary filmmakers missed images like this.
The sign reads, "USSR, Never Again."

The US reaction to the Prague Spring and subsequent invasion is quite interesting. President Johnson, along with all the other major Western powers, condemned the invasion. The UN Security Council was called in, though, with their veto, the USSR prevented any action. The US seemed to have been hoping that the Prague Spring would lead to a free, liberal Czechoslovakia, and even sent Shirley Temple Black (yes, that Shirley Temple) to Prague in August 1968 to prepare to be ambassador. However, when the invasion started, the US could do no more than condemn--which Brezhnev knew. 1968 was one of the flashpoint years for Vietnam, and neither President Johnson nor the American people were interested in getting involved in another proxy war against the Communists. And so, despite near global condemnation, no-one did anything.

Certainly, this graffiti artist made the Vietnam connection in relation to the Soviet invasion of 1968.

137 Czechs and Slovaks died as the result of the invasion. The reforms of the Prague Spring were all gone by 1970. The Russian troops, however, remained until 1991--over 20 years since the tanks rolled into Wenceslas Square.

Woman with a bloodied Czech flag, August 21, 1968.