Remembering Prague Spring Hen the Eastern European Empire Crumbling Unexpectedly
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Ideas and Consequences by Lawrence W. Reed MAY 2003 Remembering Prague Spring hen the Eastern European empire crumbling unexpectedly. The seeds of dissi- of the Soviet Union melted away in pation are sown by the empire-builders 1989, and the Soviet Union itself themselves when they impose their will at Wdissolved two years later, wise the point of a gun. Resentment simmers observers noted that these developments beneath the surface. Ideas of defiance cou- hadn’t materialized overnight on their own. pled with a vision for a better and freer They were the result of critically important future take hold. Courage among the events that had punctuated seven decades of oppressed gathers momentum. Leadership Soviet communism. The 35th anniversary of emerges from often-unlikely personalities. A one of those events is now upon us, and its critical mass is reached as events spin out of significance deserves to be remembered. As it the regime’s control and voilà—the old, unfolded in 1968, it was known to the world invincible order is, to use a culinary collo- as the Prague Spring. quialism, toast. Czechoslovakia, on paper at least, did not The thawing of the communist deep freeze seem to be a place where a major challenge in Czechoslovakia started shortly after to communist rule would emerge in the the aging, hard-line Party leader Antonin 1960s. Historically, Czechs and Slovaks Novotny was demoted to the less-important viewed Germany as their principal oppres- post of president in January 1968. In his sor. The West, primarily Britain and France, place emerged a younger apparatchik named delivered the Czechoslovakians to the Nazis Alexander Dubcek. From Moscow’s stand- to make “peace in our time” in 1938. Anti- point, Dubcek was seemingly a safe bet, Russian sentiment was never very strong in unlikely to rock any boats. However, the air the country, and in the aftermath of World was thick with talk of “reform” to revive the War II, Czechoslovakians gave the Commu- Czechoslovakian economy, which once nist Party a greater percentage of the popu- rivaled the richest in Europe but under lar vote than its counterparts received in socialist rule had tumbled into depression. other East European nations. As author Dubcek almost immediately sided with Mark Almond notes in his book, Uprising: reformers and announced plans to allow a Political Upheavals that Have Shaped the greater role for freedom of expression, pri- World, “the country seemed placidly pro- vate property, and entrepreneurship. Pres- Soviet well into the 1960s.” sure from other reformers, supported by Empires, however, have a funny way of large public rallies, forced Novotny to resign from government in March. The months of April, May, and June 1968 Lawrence Reed ([email protected]) is president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (www. brought breathtaking change. On April 5 the mackinac.org), a free-market research and educa- Czechoslovakian Communist Party itself tional organization in Midland, Michigan. called for “democratization” of the political 14 system and laid out a plan for eventual elec- liberalization was canceled and censorship tions in which it would compete freely with was reintroduced. other parties. Sensing a new era, reporters Faced with overwhelming force, Czecho- and editors in the state-run media began slovakians met the invaders not with bullets speaking their minds, criticizing socialism, but with protests, the most tragically and endorsing further reform. On May 1—a poignant of which took place in Wenceslas day the communist world traditionally cele- Square in downtown Prague on January 16, brated with parades and paeans to ortho- 1969. On a spot marked today by a small doxy—Czechoslovakians turned out in wooden cross and a plaque, a 20-year-old throngs to endorse the new freedoms. For student named Jan Palach set himself afire. the first time anywhere in the East bloc, cen- His supreme sacrifice earned him the status sorship was officially abolished on June 26. of Prague Spring’s foremost martyr. The world watched in amazement, and won- When a spokesman for the last Soviet dered how far the Soviets would let this phe- leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, was asked in nomenon go. 1987 what the difference was between Gor- Kremlin treachery was in full swing while bachev’s reform policies and those of Prague Prague’s springtime of liberty blossomed. In Spring, his famous reply was “Nineteen late May, high-ranking Soviet military offi- years.” The spirit that galvanized the cials visited Czechoslovakia to lay the Czechoslovakian nation in 1968 had not groundwork for Warsaw Pact military exer- been crushed; indeed, it had infected the very cises. Six weeks later, a meeting in Warsaw heart of what Ronald Reagan labeled the of top Communist Party representatives “Evil Empire.” The freedoms aborted in from the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, 1968 were won in the Velvet Revolution of East Germany, and Bulgaria produced a November 1989, when, sapped of any moral sternly worded warning to Dubcek. “The sit- legitimacy or resolve, communist rule and uation in Czechoslovakia,” they declared, Soviet domination evaporated as millions of “jeopardizes the common vital interests of Czechoslovakians danced in the streets. other socialist countries.” I confess to keen, personal sentiments for the brave citizens of Czechoslovakia in Brezhnev Doctrine 1968. As a 14-year-old in junior high school at the time, Prague Spring captured my In early August Soviet leader Leonid fascination. The shock of the first report of Brezhnev met with Dubcek in Bratislava. the invasion remains one of the defining There, the Brezhnev Doctrine was spelled moments of my life. I was profoundly out. It declared, in essence, “once a socialist incensed, and within days I gathered with state, forever after a socialist state.” other protesters in Pittsburgh to demand Nonetheless, Brezhnev dismissed the sugges- that troops withdraw. That began my life- tion that he might be about to invade. long commitment to freedom and free mar- But on August 20 one of the ugliest and kets. I quickly learned that waving a placard most duplicitous acts in Cold War history was hardly enough to be a good anti- unfolded before a horrified world. Half a communist. To defeat despotism, one must million Warsaw Pact troops stormed the understand the philosophy and economics of Czechoslovakian borders, heading toward liberty. the capital city and strategic points across For the memory of Jan Palach, for the per- the country. Along their way, they distrib- severance of the Czech people, for the uted leaflets proclaiming they were sent “to greater message of resistance to tyranny come to the aid of the working class and all everywhere, we should not let the 35th the people of Czechoslovakia to defend anniversary of Prague Spring pass without socialist gains.” By the end of the month, the reflection on its meaning and gratitude for reform leaders, including Dubcek, were its contribution to the eventual liberation of stripped of power. Economic and political half a continent. Ⅺ 15.