Abstract 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."
Abstract This paper examines how the Soviet intervention of Czechoslovakia was a violation of rules shaping international relations. It looks at how the Russians had to invade, due to their geopolitical position within Europe and on account of a "counterrevolutionary" situation in Czechoslovakia. It argues that socialist countries cannot be indifferent to the erosion of one of the links in the world system of socialism and how alterations in one state immediately influences all. It also discusses how, in order to keep the balance of forces against NATO, the Soviets sustained that three USSR's nuclear weapons sites in Czechoslovakia were crucial. However, Czechoslovakia refused Soviet troops on its soil and the political and social unrest of Prague Spring disorganized the rigorous security system that was required.
From the Paper "Dubcek's liberalization of Czechoslovakia's socialist system alarmed Brezhnev and other Soviet leaders into reasoning that "revolutionary" elements in other Soviet-bloc nations would ensue the Prague Spring's pattern and shift away from their own form of socialism. The Soviets were also concerned that elements in their own country would emanate and oppose the Communist Party should they let the Czechoslovakian undertaking proceed. The modest liberalization was not limited to Prague. Soviet cinema and literature began to inspire "critical analysis of the system,'' Underground publications cropped up from Moscow to Berlin (Kundera). The KGB perceived the Prague Spring to be a threat to the external and internal security of the Soviet Union. Deliberations in Czechoslovakia about the past violations of the StB intensified apprehension that comparable debates would inevitably take place in Moscow about the Soviet security organs (Skoug 48)."
Abstract This paper explains the ways that, from 1919 to 1993, the United States, Germany and the USSR exerted their political power and sometimes their military power to manipulate Czechoslovakia in order to achieve their own political. The author points out that, from the restructuring of the European landscape through the 1919 Paris Negotiations, to Nazi occupation from 1939 to 1945 and to the Soviet domination from 1948 to 1989; finally, in 1993, the Peoples of Czechoslovakia made a choice of pluralist democracy and peacefully divided into two countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
From the Paper "In reaction to Dubcek's Spring Reforms (otherwise known as the Action Program) of 1968, Soviet leader Lenoid Brezhnev perceived the reform as a break from Marxist-Leninist tradition and a move towards capitalist democracy. On 29 July, 1968, Dubcek met with Soviet leaders met at Cierna to discuss the situation. On August 20-21, WTO troops invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring, proving little violence as compared to the 1956 WTO invasion of Hungary. In the following months, negotiations between Brezhnev and Dubcek continued."
Tags:dubcek, treaty of saint-germain, sudentenland comecon, pluralist democracy
