Cold War Confrontation

1
Cold War Confrontation
The Prague Spring From Museum of the City of
Bratislava http//www.spectacularslovakia.sk/ss200
3/14_prague_sping.html

• Prague Spring
• (1968)

2
Background

• Czechoslovakia resulted from the division of the
  Austrian-Hungarian Empire after WWI.
• Communists obtained power through free elections
  and slowly...
• Czechoslovakia became a satellite state of the
  Soviet Union between 1945 and 1948.
• Unlike other European nations, the majority of
  Czechoslovaks supported communism.
• In the 1960s an economical recession weakened the
  communist political control of the country.
• Prague Spring http//library.thinkquest.org/C001
  155/index1.htm

3
Causes of Revolution

• The people began to demand change in their
  political system, and as the dissent grew, change
  would come in the form of Alexander Dubcek
• Alexander Dubcek became First Party Secretary of
  the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
• Dubcek was focused on reform of the political and
  administrative structure of the country
• He was motivated by the will of the Czech people
  to make liberal reforms in his plan of Action
  Programme.
• A loved and respected politician, Dubcek openly
  voiced his desire to spread liberation to other
  communist nations.
• Prague Spring became known as the short-lived
  liberal reform movement.
• Radio Prague http//archiv.radio.cz/history/histo
  ry14.html, 1997
• Image from Prague Spring http//library.thinkques
  t.org/C001155/index1.htm

Alexander Dubcek The Czechoslovak politician
responsible for newly implemented liberal reform
4
Liberal Reforms

• Liberal reforms were rapidly implemented through
  out the nation.
• In March 1968, censorship of the press, radio and
  television was abolished.
• Tolerance for non-communist organizations was
  encouraged.
• An organization called Club 231 was formed in an
  effort to better monitor the humane treatment of
  political prisoners.
• In April, certain rights were guaranteed for all
  citizens such as right to travel abroad, freedom
  of speech and freedom of expression.
• The Communist party stated that nomenklatura (the
  practice of only appointing bureaucrats from
  party ranks) should end, and that a multi-party,
  more democratic system should be installed.
• In September of 1968, it was the partys
  intention to formalize all of the new liberal
  reforms at the Party Congress.
• Another part of Dubceks plan was to eventually
  divide Czechoslovakia into two separate
  Republics.
• Mitchner, E. Alyn Global Forces of the Twentieth
  Century, Reidmore Books, 1997
• Dubcek called it socialism with a face
• BBC News World Europe Remembering the Prague
  Spring http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/155
  500.stm

5
Liberal Reforms

• The reform harks back half a century in spirit
  to 1918, when Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
  proclaimed the self-determination of peoples and
  enabled Czechoslovakia to be born as an
  independent state. This time, Czechoslovakia was
  announcing its own self-determinationa
  determination to regain control of its destiny
  and shuck off the worst features of an alien
  Communist system.-----Into Unexplored Terrain
  Time Magazine, April 5th 1968
• Image and quote from Time Archive 1923-Present
  http//www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19680405,0
  0.html

6
Soviet Reaction

• Czechoslovakia was strategically essential to the
  Soviet Union, since it was in the centre of
  Europe where new liberal ideals could spread
  easily among communist nations.
• Security of the Soviet Bloc was at risk in a time
  when the maintenance of Soviet ideology was the
  priority.
• Dubcek has no intention of breaking
  Czechoslovakia's links with the Soviet Union and
  his socialist neighbors, but they view the events
  in Czechoslovakia with considerable alarm. They
  are all too aware that the success of Dubcek's
  reforms would almost certainly have a spillover
  effect, causing their populaces to seek more
  liberalization at home. When Dubcek was summoned
  to Dresden two weeks ago to tell party bosses
  from Russia, Poland, Hungary and East Germany
  just where he thought he was leading
  Czechoslovakia, he reportedly told them that he
  planned no big changes in foreign policy but
  intended to go right ahead with his internal
  reforms.------Time Magazine------ Into
  Unexplored Terrain Time Magazine April 5th 1968
• Quote from Time Archive 1923-Present
  http//www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19680405,0
  0.html

7
Negotiations

• In initial negotiations for liberal reforms,
  Dubcek agreed to support the Warsaw Pact and
  COMECON, but in return, the Czechoslovak
  government would prevent any political dissent,
  or antisocialist tendencies.
• In August of 1968, representatives from the
  Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Hungary,
  Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia met in Bratislava
  and signed the Bratislava Declaration. This
  declaration affirmed their loyalty to the
  communist ideologies of the Soviet Union.
• The Soviet Union declared that it would intervene
  in a Warsaw Pact country if a "bourgeois" system,
  or non-communist political system, was ever
  established.
• In exchange for Czechoslovakias loyalty, Soviet
  troops left the territory but stayed on
  Czechoslovak borders.
• Springtime for Prague http//www.prague-life.com/
  prague/prague-spring

8
Invasion
How could they do this to me? asked a dazed
Dubcek. I have served the cause of the Soviet
Union and Communism all of my life.---Russians
Go Home! Time Magazine, August 30, 1968

• As mentioned before, due to the success of
  national communism in Czechoslovakia, the Soviet
  Union feared a chain reaction that would result
  in more Eastern European countries following
  nationalistic ideals.
• To prevent a spill-over, all the Eastern Bloc
  countries, except Romania, invaded Czechoslovakia
  in August 1968.
• Between 5,000 to 7,000 tanks invaded
  Czechoslovakia, accompanied by Warsaw Pact troops
  ranging from 200,000 to 600,000 in number. 72
  Czechs and Slovaks died, and hundreds were
  wounded.
• Citizens opposed the invasions by refusing troops
  food and water etc. There was extreme opposition
  met to the Soviet invasion, but Dubcek encouraged
  his people to remain out of the conflict.
• The Western reaction to the invasion was nothing
  more than a vocal criticism as the West was
  unwilling to confront the Soviet military force.
• Czech politicians were forced to pledge
  allegiance to communism and to other countries of
  the Eastern Bloc
• Springtime for Prague http//www.prague-life.com/
  prague/prague-spring
• Image and quote from Time Archive 1923-Present
  http//www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19680830,0
  0.html

9
Normalization and the Brezhnev Doctrine

• Following the military intervention, the opposite
  of the liberal reforms were implemented
• This process of re-establishing communist
  policies and eliminating liberal reforms was
  called the process of normalization
• Until stability was achieved, the foreign troops
  remained in Czechoslovakia
• The intervention was labelled help by the
  Soviet Union, given to Czechoslovakia in their
  fight against the reformist forces
• Only Indra, Kolder and Bilak (Czech politicians)
  seemed unsurprised by the invasion, raising the
  suspicion that it was they who had provided
  Moscow with the slim pretext for the invasion.
  That pretext, as described by Tass, was that
  party and government leaders of Czechoslovakia
  have asked the Soviet Union and other allied
  states to render the fraternal Czechoslovak
  people urgent assistance, including assistance
  with armed forces.---Russians Go Home! Time
  Magazine, August 30, 1968
• Prague Spring http//library.thinkquest.org/C0011
  55/index1.htm
• Quote from Time Archive 1923-Present
  http//www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19680830,0
  0.html
• The Brezhnev Doctrine demanded that no country
  could leave the Warsaw Pact, or compromise the
  communist control in any Eastern Bloc nations.
• The Doctrine was used to justify the invasion of
  Czechoslovakia which ensued from the Prague
  Spring in 1968, since the liberal movement had
  the potential to destroy communist control in the
  nation.
• Halsall, Paul Modern History Source Book
  http//www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1968brezhnev.ht
  ml, 1997

10
Consequences
Citizens of Czechoslovakia fiercely resist Soviet
tanks--- BBC News World Europe Remembering the
Prague Spring http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/eur
ope/155500.stm

• Hundreds of thousands of Czechoslovaks fled to
  the West after the invasion.
• In the political purges following, over half a
  million people were expelled from the Communist
  Party.
• Dubcek was taken to Moscow to be executed
  however, an agreement was made and he compromised
  his liberal reforms for his political position in
  Czechoslovakia.
• The name Prague Spring was lent to the Chinese
  liberal revolution in the late 1970s called the
  Beijing Spring.