Prague '68

Paper Summary:

This paper begins by explaining a background and preconditions in Czech history, long-term through the 1960s. It examines political changes at the top and lower levels, policy differences, and role of opposition parties. It also discusses the issue of free speech and the role of authors, political comics, and polemics.

From the Paper:

"In the service of the people we followed a policy so that socialism would not lose its human face." -Alexander Dubcek From Dubcek's words have come the lasting moniker of the Prague reforms of 1968; socialism, with a human face. From January though August, between the end of Novotny's dictatorship and the beginning of Moscow's occupation, the Czechs experimented with liberalizing their political structure, loosening cultural restrictions, and introducing elements of the market into their previously state-planned system. In the end, any hopes they may have had for long-term change were crushed by the Soviet invasion and the "normalization" forced on them by Dubcek's successor as Party First Secretary, Gustav Husak."

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