Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Dubcek Speaks by Alexander Dubček Alexander Dubček: The leader of the 1968 . Alexander Dubček is best known as the Slovak First Secretary of who instigated the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring in 1968, when the country experienced more freedoms as it seemed destihttps://www.private-prague-guide.com/wp-admin/post.php? post=5066&action=edit&message=1ned to find its own individual identity while remaining a Communist country in what was called “socialism with a human face.” Yet he also was a prominent politician before 1968 and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. His life ended tragically on November 7, 1992. First years in democratic Czechoslovakia. Alexander Dubček was born November 27, 1921, in Uhrovec, nestled in the Strážovské Mountains of western Slovakia. He came into the world in the former home of the founder of the Slovak language, Ľudovít Štúr. At that time, independent and democratic Czechoslovakia was just over three years old. After many years of being subjected to Magyarization by the Hungarians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Hungarian language and customs were imposed, Slovaks finally experienced freedom and the right to express their own national identity in this democratic, multiethnic country governed by President Tomáš G. Masaryk. Before Alexander was born, the family had lived in Chicago, but his father refused to do military service because he was a pacifist. Yet Masaryk’s democratic ideals did not resonate well with Štefan. Moving to the . When Alexander was three years old, his father moved the family to Kirghizia, now Kyrgyzstan, of the Soviet Union because he could not find work in Slovakia and because he was a communist. While Dubček studied in Gorkiy in 1937, for instance, he was treated as an outsider because Soviets were not supposed to mingle with foreigners. There, Alexander saw the famine, watching people die in the streets. He also witnessed poverty and collectivization. Still, Alexander became intensely loyal to the Soviet Union. The family moved back to Czechoslovakia during 1938, when Stalin announced that all foreign residents in the Soviet Union must apply for Soviet citizenship or leave immediately. Under Nazi rule. During 1939, the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia and created the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia while Slovakia became a Nazi puppet state. Dubček joined the illegal Communist Party in Slovakia and was a member of the underground anti-Nazi resistance movement. During August of 1944, he fought against the Germans in the Slovak National Uprising, when he was injured. His brother, Július, was killed by the Nazis. Curiously enough, when Dubček was wounded, he was taken to the home of a fellow partisan, Anna Ondrišová, who would, in 1945, become his wife. The couple would have three sons – Milan, Pavel and Peter. Rising in the ranks. After the war, the popular Dubček received promotion after promotion. From 1951 to 1955 he was a member of the National Assembly, which was Czechoslovakia’s Parliament. During 1958 he became a member of the Central Committee of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party and was reelected to the Slovak Central Committee. From 1955 to 1958, he studied Communist management, economics and ideology at the Higher Party School in Moscow. One of his classmates was Mikhail Gorbachev. Political democratization, economic reform and Slovak nationalism. During the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia experienced a serious economic decline. Slovaks were disgruntled with Prague centralism, and destalinization was not popular. Dubček rose in the ranks, although Czechoslovak President Antonín Novotný, a hard-liner, became his arch rival. In 1962 Dubček became a member of the Czechoslovak Party Presidium. From 1963 he served as First Secretary of the Slovak branch of the Party. From 1960 to 1968, he was a member of Parliament. From 1964 to 1967 he was dismayed by the dogmatic procedures at the top levels of the Party apparatus, strongly disagreeing with the Party’s methods. The relationship between Dubček and Novotný became even more tense during the mid-1960s. Still, before 1968 Dubček saw the West in a very negative light and professed undying loyalty to the USSR. He believed that the betrayal of Munich and the war tied Czechoslovakia to the USSR. Dubček favored political democratization, economic reform and Slovak nationalism. During the 150 th anniversary of Štúr’s birth in 1965, Dubček embraced the creator of his mother tongue as a true hero, even though Karl Marx had condemned Štúr. Replacing First Secretary Novotný. In October of 1967, Dubček and other reformers fervently opposed President Novotný at a Central Committee Meeting. Novotný was so incensed that he persuaded Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to come to Prague in December of 1967, but his plan to discredit Dubček and other reformers worked against him. Brezhnev was not impressed with Novotný, acknowledging the lack of support for the president. In January of 1968, Novotný was forced to resign as First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, and Dubček became first Slovak to hold the highest position in the Party. During that month Dubček also traveled to Moscow to assure the Soviet Union that Czechoslovakia remained a faithful ally. Implementing reforms during the Prague Spring. While Dubček remained loyal to Moscow and Communism, he wanted Czechoslovakia to embark on its own individual path while maintaining a socialist government. The country experienced liberal reforms that allowed writers to demand that the purge victims of the 1950s be rehabilitated and allowed social and political organizations to be free of Communist Party control. The April 5 Action Program described what came to be referred to as “socialism with a human face.” It demanded full equality in economic relations between Czechoslovakia and the USSR and urged the Soviets to take their advisors out of the country. Dubček and his followers wanted real elections for party officials with secret ballots. National minorities were represented in institutions, and strikes were legalized. Censorship was abolished June 26, 1968, and a day later many newspapers published Ludvík Vaculík’s 2,000 Words proclamation, supporting reform and democratization. Failed attempts at negotiations. The Soviet Union was less than pleased. It tried to put a halt to the liberal reforms by means of negotiations. Dubček was summoned to Moscow, but he refused to go. Instead, the Soviets and Dubček met for negotiations at Čierná nad Tisou on the Slovak-USSR border. Although Dubček tried to reassure Moscow that the country remained faithful to Communist doctrine, the hard-liners did not back down. Dubček had been under the impression that he could continue to put reforms in place as long as he assured Moscow he was a loyal ally. Dubček was so incensed by the Soviet demands that he walked out of the meeting. At a second meeting in Bratislava, Dubček was pressured to assure the Soviet Union that his country remained loyal to the foundation of the socialist regime, a declaration that disappointed many reformers. The Soviet Invasion. On the night of August 20-21 of 1968, 200,000 troops from the Warsaw Pact countries of the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria entered the territory of their defenseless ally, as tanks crushed the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring in the largest military operation in Europe since World War II. Still, Dubček pleaded his people not to use force against the Warsaw Pact soldiers. Brezhnev bullied Dubček and other reformers and even threatened to incorporate Slovakia into the USSR and to force Bohemia and Moravia to be autonomous under Soviet rule. Dubček was arrested by the Soviets and taken to Moscow. The Moscow Protocol. In Moscow on August 26, after he was threatened and suffered from fainting spells, Dubček signed the 15 doctrines of the Moscow Protocol, paving the way for the rigid era of normalization that would restore Communist order in Czechoslovakia. When Dubček came back to Prague a day after signing the document, he was still serving as First Secretary. Then, on March 21 and March 28, the Czechoslovak ice hockey team defeated the Soviet Union in the World Cup in Stockholm. Czechoslovak fans destroyed the offices of the Soviet airline Aeroflot and other Soviet institutions. Shortly thereafter, Dubček was forced to resign as First Secretary. But Dubček was not totally out of the picture – yet. He was reelected to the Federal Assembly as Speaker. Then, during 1969 and 1970, he served as the country’s ambassador to Turkey, but he was not allowed to take his children with him. The Communists hoped he would emigrate, but he disappointed them again. Expulsion. In 1970 Dubček was expelled from the party. From 1970 to 1985, he worked for the Forestry Service while still residing in his villa in a posh section of Bratislava. He did not take part in any dissident activities. In 1988 he was permitted to travel to Italy to accept an honorary doctorate from Bologna University. During and after the 1989 Velvet Revolution. During the 1989 Velvet Revolution, Dubček was an avid supporter of the pro-democracy Public Against Violence and Civic Forum organizations. On November 24, he received applause from the crowd when he appeared with future president Václav Havel on the Melantrich building balcony overlooking Wenceslas Square. Dubček was on the stage of the Lanterna Magika theatre, which served as the Civic Forum headquarters, with Havel when the Communist Party officials resigned. He was even a candidate for president, but was elected Chairman of the Federal Assembly December 28, 1989 instead. He was reelected to that post in 1990 and 1992. In 1992 he became the leader of the Slovak Democratic Party of Slovakia while serving on the Federal Assembly. Dubček mainly dealt with improving Czech and Slovak relations and foreign affairs. After it was announced in 1992 that Czechoslovakia was splitting into two states, Dubček refused to continue his political role, citing fear of a Slovak government controlled by autocratic Vladimír Mečiar. During the early 1990s, he received international recognition, too. In 1990 he was the recipient of the International Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and that same year he gave the commencement address at The American University in Washington, DC, on his first visit to the States. A tragic fate. But fate had tragic plans for Alexander Dubček. He was traveling in thick rain on a highway near Humpolec, Czech Republic at 9:00 am on September 1, 1992, when his driver was going too fast. Dubček, not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the car. He died of his injuries November 7 in a Prague hospital. He is buried in Bratislava’s Slávičie údolie Cemetery. In 2003 he posthumously received the Czech Republic’s Order of the White Lion award. Alexander Dubček. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Alexander Dubček , (born Nov. 27, 1921, Uhrovec, Czech. [now in Slovakia]—died Nov. 7, 1992, Prague, Czech. [now in Czech Republic]), first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Jan. 5, 1968, to April 17, 1969) whose liberal reforms led to the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia in . Dubček received his early education in Kirgiziya (Kyrgyzstan) in Soviet Central Asia, where his father, Stefan Dubček, a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, had settled. The family returned to Czechoslovakia in 1938. During World War II, Dubček took part in the underground resistance to Nazi occupation and after the war rose steadily in Communist Party ranks, becoming in 1958 chief secretary of the regional committee in Bratislava and a member of the central committees of both the Slovak and the Czechoslovak Communist Parties. In 1962 he became a full member of the Central Committee’s Presidium. In October 1967, at a Central Committee meeting in Prague, Dubček rallied the support of party and economic reformers, as well as Slovak nationalists, against the leadership of Antonín Novotný. Novotný was forced to resign as first secretary on Jan. 5, 1968, and Dubček replaced him. During the early months of 1968 the Czechoslovak press was granted greater freedom of expression, and victims of political purges during the Stalin era were rehabilitated. On April 9 a reform program called “Czechoslovakia’s Road to Socialism” was promulgated that envisaged economic reforms and a wide-ranging democratization of Czechoslovak political life. The trend of developments aroused concern in the Soviet Union. From July 29 to August 2, the top leaders of the two countries conferred at the Slovak town of Cierna; their deliberations concluded with only minor compromises by Dubček. Still dissatisfied with developments in Czechoslovakia and fearful of the implications of liberalization, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country the night of August 20–21. Dubček and five other Presidium members were seized and taken to Moscow, where the Soviets wrested major concessions from them. On his return to Prague Dubček gave an emotional address to his countrymen, requesting their cooperation in the curtailment of his reforms. Dubček was in a weak position. Gradually, his more progressive aides were removed, and in April 1969 he was demoted from first secretary of the party to president of the Federal Assembly (the national parliament). In January 1970 he was appointed ambassador to Turkey, but, after being expelled from the party, he was made an inspector of the forestry administration, based in Bratislava. Dubček returned to prominence in Czechoslovakia’s national affairs in December 1989 after the country’s Communist Party had given up its monopoly on power and agreed to participate in a coalition government. On December 28 he was elected chairman of the Federal Assembly, and by 1992 he had become the leader of Slovakia’s Social Democrats. He died of injuries suffered in an automobile accident. This article was most recently revised and updated by Heather Campbell, Senior Editor. Alexander Dubcek. Alexander Dubček was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovak from 1968 to 1969. He is best known for leading the country during the Prague Spring of 1968. Dubček was a communist, but he housed strong reforming tendencies. Moscow could not tolerate the Prague Spring and Dubček was swiftly toppled and sent into exile. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he briefly re-emerged as a leading political figure until his death in 1992. Born on 27 November 1921 in Uhrovec, Slovakia, at the age of three Alexander Dubček and his family relocated to the Soviet Union. Dubček grew up under the rule of Joseph Stalin Dubček returned to Czechoslovakia in 1938. Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Nazis in 1939 and Dubček fought with the resistance movement during World War Two. During the war Dubček became a member of the Communist Party of Slovakia. After the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took control of Czechoslovakia. In 1949, Dubček became a Communist official and he became a member of the National Assembly in 1951. During the 1950s he was returned to Moscow to receive a “political education”. He graduated from the Moscow Political College in 1958. Alexander Dubcek. By 1958, Dubček was viewed as a politician who could be relied on by Moscow. In 1958 he also joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which he served as a secretary from 1960 to 1962 and as a member of the presidium after 1962. From 1960 to 1968 he once more was a member of the federal parliament. In the mid-1960s opposition mounted against Antonin Novotný, the party's leader in Czechoslovakia, as he was not able to come up with a solution to country’s deteriorating political situation. Dubček did not initiate an attack against Novotný, but he made no protestations at the thought of being chosen to succeed him. O Dubček became the new First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on 5 January 1968. This marked the beginning of the Prague Spring. During this time Dubček took steps to liberalise the party by scaling back its totalitarian aspects, while maintaining its dominance. Dubcek promised reform, democratisation and, using Nikita Khrushchev‘s phrase, ‘socialism with a human face’. He eased press censorship, allowed greater artistic and cultural freedom, pardoned victims of political purges, eased travel restrictions, promised to guarantee civil rights and liberties and permitted a degree of democratic reform. Communist Party members were also encouraged to question the policy of the party and advance their own views - something that had previously been strongly discouraged. But newspapers took advantage of the lack of censorship to publish scathing reports about government corruption and incompetence. Under Dubček, farmers were also given more independence to form co-operatives and trade unions enjoyed more bargaining rights. However, Dubček was adamant that Czechoslovakia would not leave the Warsaw Pact. From July to August 1968, the new leader met senior Moscow officials on the Slovakia-Ukraine border to let them know that his actions would not affect the Warsaw Pact. On 3 August 1968 he reiterated this message to the members of the Warsaw Pact. But Moscow informed Dubček that West Germany was planning an invasion of the Sudetenland. The Soviet Union would supposedly provide Czechoslovakia with troops to defend herself from the upcoming invasion. Dubček refused this offer, but it made little difference. On 20-21 August Soviet troops, along with some other troops from the Warsaw Pact, invaded Czechoslovakia. Dubček was arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was later released. Dubček later called the talks “comradely” and confirmed that he would not be continuing with his reform programme. He was returned to office in Prague but his work was highly censured. He remained First Secretary until April 1969 when he was appointed Speaker of the Federal Assembly - a minor political post. He was replaced by Gustav Husak, a man more loyal to Moscow and devoted to the socialist cause, who immediately reversed his reforms. In 1970, Dubček was expelled from the Communist Party. For the next 19 years Dubček was politically dormant. But when the Cold War ended he came back into the political limelight. In November 1989, Dubček was re-appointed Speaker of the Federal Assembly. He was fiercely against the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into two separate countries (the Czech Republic and Slovakia). He believed that a continued union between the two regions was mutually beneficial. However, he did not live to see the dissolution take place on 1 January 1993. He died on 7 November 1992 as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident. Dubcek Speaks by Alexander Dubček. Year of unveiling. Person/persons/event to whom the monument is dedicated. Alexander Dubček, a Slovak politician and statesman, a leading personality of the Prague Spring 1968. Vodný vrch 2, Bratislava. Location in relation to the surroundings. A bust on the pylon in front of the building of the Slovak National Council. Text of the inscription. Bronze bust (100 x 48 x 47 cm). The circumstances of unveiling. On 20 th August 2002 a bronze bust of Alexander Dubcek, the leader of the Prague spring, was unveiled on the square named after him. The unveiling ceremony was at the anniversary of the Invasion to Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies and ten years after Dubcek’s tragic death. The ceremonial act of the unveiling was attended by the President Rudolf Schuster, the first Slovak President Michal Kovac with his wife and then Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda. The bust was created by the academic sculptor Ludmila Cvengrosova. Alexander Dubcek is respected in many parts of Europe. His first bust was unveiled in Bologna in 1993 – a year after his tragic death and later on in Strassbourg, Brussels, Rome and even little Czech town Humpolec near by which Dubcek had the fatal car accident. Alexander Dubček was born in 1921. When he was a four, he left Czechoslovakia with his parents who went to help the Soviet Union within Interhelpa programme. The family returned to Czechoslovakia in 1938. Dubcek during the World War II became a member of then illegal Communist Party and actively fought in the Slovak National Uprising. After the war ended, his career in the Communist Party rose quickly. In the 60s Dubcek became the face of the Prague Spring – a reformist movement within the Communict Party as well as the whole country. He became world famous and widely popular in his country. During the Cold War Czechoslovakia belonged to the Soviet sphere of influence. The Prague Spring ideas to reform the politics and economy were not approved by the USSR, therefore massive invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies to Czechoslovakia followed. It was the most extensive military operation since the end of the World War II. The top Czechoslovak politicians were kidnapped to Moscow, forced to change their opinions and political views, and shortly after were suspended and replaced by a new politicians satisfying Moscow demands. Occupation armies settled in Czechoslovakia until 1991 and had enormous impact on politics and life in the country. Shortly after a new political representation seized power, Dubček was offered the diplomatic post in Istanbul and later expelled from the Communist Party and downgraded to a worker and controlled by the Secret Police. Again he became active and popular politician in November 1989 and became the leader of the Social Democrats. He died unexpectedly in a car accident in November 1992. On 22nd August 2008 the Act about the merits of Alexander Dubcek was presented in the Parliament which proposed a bust of Dubcek and a commemorative tablet in the Parliament building. „The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Alexander Dubcek, significantly contributed to democracy, human rights and the freedom of Slovak nation.“ The legislators eventually decided to place the bust not in the entrance hall of the parliament building but add it to the commemorative tablet already existing in front of the building. The ideas of Alexander Dubcek exceeded the borders of Czechoslovakia, that may be the reason for his name to be famous even today. Alexander Dubček. Why Famous: Dubček was the leader of Czechoslovakia from January 1968 until he was ousted following the Warsaw Pact invasion of his country. During his time in office, he attempted to create a policy called 'socialism with a human face' by reducing some of the communist restrictions on the country, and introducing aspects of democracy and economic deregulation. These reforms were not supported by the Soviet Union, of which Czechoslovakia was a satellite state. After months of talks the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968, deposing Dubček the following year, who was later expelled from the Communist Party. Born: November 27, 1921 Birthplace: Uhrovec, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) Died: November 7, 1992 (aged 70) Cause of Death: Injuries sustained in a car crash.