The Prague Spring it was a period of eight months during the year 1968 in which the population of Czechoslovakia (or Czechoslovakia) began to press for changes in order to reform the molds of the communist government that was installed in that country. Popular mobilization and the government's openness to reforms led the Soviet Union to intervene, invading Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Background
The communist regime was established in Czechoslovakia (currently Slovakia and Czechia/Czechia) shortly after the end of World War II as a consequence of the Soviet occupation of the country. From then on, the political system in Czechoslovakia was structured along the lines of the Soviet regime and relied on a single party, established censorship, a planned economy, etc.
In general, the communist systems that established themselves in Eastern Europe were forcibly imposed by the Soviets, but the Czechoslovak case was different in this respect. The communist regime in Czechoslovakia was established as a demand of the population, who saw in it a good alternative for the future. Proof of this is the fact that, in 1947, the Communist Party (CP) received 40% of the votes, according to Eric Hobsbawm |1| .
The authoritarianism of the Soviet regime over communist bloc nations was a result of Stalinist policy. After the dictator's death in 1953, a reformism spread throughout the bloc that proposed debates to establish new guidelines for the regime. This reformism was a direct consequence of the de-Stalinization of the USSR, and a reflection of the desire for reforms was the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In the case of Czechoslovakia, this dissatisfaction only manifested itself from the 1960s onwards.
Prague Spring
The starting point of the Prague Spring is considered to be January 5, 1968, when Alexander Dubcek assumed the post of First Secretary of the CP and the command of Czechoslovakia. Dubcek was a communist who had extensive connections with the Moscow government. For years, he and his family lived in Kyrgyzstan (a country in Central Asia, a former member of the former Soviet Union).
Dubcek was also a reformist politician who had a strong connection with Czechoslovak intellectuals and advocated the idea of promoting “socialism with a human face”. There are two salient factors that help us understand the strengthening of this reformist desire within Czechoslovakia. First, Hobsbawm |2| indicates that the reformism in the local CP was directly related to a desire of the Slovaks (a minority in Czechoslovakia) to reform the CP to gain greater prominence in the Czechoslovak government.
Second, there was clear popular discontent with the direction the communist government took in Czechoslovakia. When communism was installed in Czechoslovakia in the mid-1940s, there was every popular hope that the regime would bring about positive changes, but two decades later, the feeling in the country was one of disillusionment. One of the most dissatisfied classes was the intellectuals.
It was within this context that Alexander Dubcek emerged as the new political leader in Czechoslovakia. He fit within the two factors mentioned, as he was Slovak and nourished reformist ideals, as we have already mentioned. With Dubcek's inauguration, numerous changes took place in the country, fueling the population's desire for reforms.
One of the first changes under the Dubcek regime was the end of censorship that existed in the country. This ensured that typical products of Western culture would be widely consumed. Another direct consequence of the end of censorship was the greater dissemination of ideas that often criticized Dubcek himself, in addition to, of course, the expansion of denunciations against the irregularities of the communist regime.
Dubcek's actions reflected directly on the Czechoslovak student movement, which mobilized and began to pressure the government so that the changes in the country towards a socialist regime with freedom and democracy were expanded. . Among the intellectuals, the adhesion was also massive. The “Manifesto of the two thousand words”, written by Ludvik Vaculik, stands out here. This document called for extensive reforms to be carried out in the country and had thousands of signatures.
Within this context of political and social upheaval, the Czechoslovak government released the Program of Action in April 1968. This document basically summarized Dubcek's intentions to promote a socialist regime with broad democracy. The quote below summarizes the project's proposals:
This action program summarized the fundamentals of socialism with a human face:legislation was being prepared to regulate freedom of the press and the right to assembly, the creation of various socialist political parties to make the so-called socialist democracy a reality, guarantee the autonomy of trade unions and the recognition of the right to strike, establish the equality of Czechs and Slovaks and prepare legislation to help victims of previous communist governments. In foreign policy, national sovereignty and cooperation with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact were reaffirmed. In the cultural and religious sphere, freedom of worship, artistic expression and scientific research was guaranteed |3| .
The ongoing reforms in Czechoslovakia were supported by countries like Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary, but they evidently infuriated Moscow. The Soviet government saw the events in Prague as a dangerous precedent that could weaken its power over the communist bloc and soon began to negotiate with the Czechoslovak government so that what was happening in Czechoslovakia was properly controlled.
The repercussion of the events in Czechoslovakia in the Soviet Union gave rise to a group in the Moscow government that began to advocate direct intervention in the country. This interventionist group was made up of members of the KGB (Soviet secret service), the Central Committee and the other Soviet republics.
The action of this pro-intervention group directly reflected the position of Leonid Brezhnev, president of the Soviet Union. At first, he was unfavorable to the possibility of an intervention, mainly because of the impact that this action would have. However, as Dubcek did not control the ongoing reforms in Czechoslovakia and the pro-intervention group pressed ever more, Brezhnev relented and authorized the intervention in Czechoslovakia.
At the turn of July to August, two meetings took place, one in Cierna and the other in Bratislava, in which representatives of the Czechoslovak and Soviet government discussed alternatives to control the reforms. For the Moscow government, the meetings were a failure and strengthened reformism.
In August 1968, at a secret meeting held on the 16th, the Soviet military chose to intervene in Czechoslovakia. This intervention took place at the turn of the 20th to the 21st of August, when over 500,000 Soviet soldiers invaded Czechoslovakia . The Soviet intervention also involved thousands of armored vehicles and hundreds of aircraft.
Soviet troops that invaded Czechoslovakia soon moved to strategic locations in the city of Prague:radio stations and government buildings. There were small localized clashes between the local population and Soviet troops, but, in general, the resistance was peaceful. The Soviet intervention put an end to the reformist project in Czechoslovakia, and that was the end of the Prague Spring.
Dubcek resigned from his post the following year, in 1969. The communist bloc was then beginning a period of erosion, which lasted 20 years, and in which the bloc's cohesion it was solely and exclusively on account of Moscow's repressive action. Czechoslovakia ended the communist regime in the country only in 1989, during the Velvet Revolution.
|1| HOBSBAWM, Eric. Age of extremes :the brief twentieth century 1914-1991. São Paulo:Companhia das Letras, 1995, p. 385.
|2| Ditto, p. 388.
|3| SERRANO, Patricia Chia. Prague Spring . To access click here [original text in Spanish with my translation].