2023-08-20 06:30:00
On August 20, 1968, the troops of most of the Warsaw Pact member states invaded Czechoslovakia with the aim of canceling the reforms promoted by the general secretary of the Central Committee of the country’s Communist Party, Aleksandar Dumček. With the approval of Moscow, Dumcek rose to the party leadership in January 1968, replacing the politically conservative and “stiff” Antonin Novotny. Slovakian-born Dumcek initially tried to align himself with the instructions he had received from Moscow regarding the economy. However, the pressures he received from a large part of the population forced him to allow the introduction of reforms in the country’s political system, providing citizens with greater freedom of expression.
Dumcek characterized his reform program as “socialism with a human face.” He and his associates aimed at the gradual reform of the economy and the political system. They felt that lifting censorship would help reform. They did not expect to see, however, the magnitude of the criticism, which was exerted through the press reports. The “Prague Spring”, as the attempt to liberalize the regime in Czechoslovakia became known, deeply worried both the Soviet leadership and the leaders of other Warsaw Pact states.
In March 1968, Dumcek received a warning from Moscow not to proceed further with the liberalization of the regime. However, the course of events inside Czechoslovakia could not be reversed so easily. April’s new party program sought to maintain communist political dominance, but gave more powers to Parliament, promised the complete abolition of censorship and allowed travel to Western countries. In the country, a debate began on the rehabilitation of figures such as Tomas Mazarik, founder of the First Czechoslovak Republic, as well as victims of the Stalinist purges. It was to a degree a delayed de-Stalinization of Czechoslovakia.
Fear of the message of reform spreading to other countries in the socialist camp led to the formation of the “informal” group of five, which consisted of the Soviet Union, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland. The Group of Five issued stern warnings to the Czechoslovak leadership, advising caution in implementing the reforms. The fear of the leaders of the group of five about the results of the emergency congress of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, which was scheduled for September 1968, was evident.
On August 20 the troops of the group of five invaded Czechoslovakia and occupied the main cities. Dumcek was surprised by this development. The Czechoslovaks offered no resistance, knowing it was futile. Thus a bloodshed similar to that of 1956 in Hungary was avoided. Dumcek, Czechoslovak President Ludwig Svoboda and other members of the government were taken to Moscow, where they agreed to the Soviet leadership’s suggestions to cancel the country’s reforms. The fact that the Communist Party itself was at the center of the reforms complicated the process of returning to totalitarian control. Dumcek remained in the leadership of the party for as long as it took to expose himself to those who believed in a change in the country.
The invasion of Czechoslovakia caused an international outcry. A month later, in September 1968, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev established his famous doctrine of the limited sovereignty of socialist states in an article in Pravda. The invasion of Czechoslovakia was condemned by Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu, who, together with Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, had supported Dumcek’s reform effort. Many European Communist Parties rejected the Soviet communist model and condemned the hegemonic role of the Soviet Union.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigone-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
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