DOCSLIB.ORG

1968: the Prague Spring and Beyond” by Brian Crozier

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1968: the Prague Spring and Beyond” by Brian Crozier Topic 3: The Rise and Rule of Single-Party States NAME AND AUTHOR OF THE PACKET READING: “1968: The Prague Spring and Beyond” by Brian Crozier Major Theme: Origins and Nature of Authoritarian and Single-Party States Conditions That Produced Single-Party States Emergence of Leaders: Aims, Ideology, Support The letter created by Vasil Bilak, the leader of the Slovak Communist Party, marked “NEVER TO BE OPENED” by Brezhnev after he read it, called for the Soviet Union to intervene “to preserve socialism in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.” In this letter, Bilak states that “the very existence of socialism in our country is under threat” and later pleads to the USSR, saying “we are appealing to you, Soviet Communists…with a request for you to lend support and assistance with all the means at your disposal.” Brezhnev doesn’t answer this letter or the second letter sent on August 19, 1968, instead rallying with the Warsaw Pact countries (except Romania) to invade Czechoslovakia on August 20. Czechoslovakian Communist Party’s President and first secretary of the Party Antonin Novotny was harshly criticized by the Slovaks for “neglecting their half of the Republic and treating it in an ‘insulting’ manner.” Brezhnev ignored him when he called for support. The Central Committee reconvened in January 3, 1968, and were overwhelmingly in favor of replacing Novotny with Alexander Dubcek, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia. In Dubcek’s first public address, he said “Much will be achieved to begin with if…past obstacles to progress are removed and creative efforts set in motion…so that every honest citizen believing in socialism and the unity of this country feels that he is being useful and counts for something.” Antonin Novotny’s position on the Presidium was taken by Josef Smrkovsky and on the Secretariat by Cestmir Cisar, and Ludvik Svoboda was chosen as the Party’s choice as candidate for the presidency of the republic. Totalitarianism: the Aim and the Extent to Which it was The Soviet Union sent a communique to Dubcek, saying “in Achieved other words: ‘Do as we say, or face the consequences’”, followed by a show of strength in Prague. Historiography “How did the crisis begin? The story is well known, but the facts have to be restated if, decades later, the nature of the crisis is to be fully understood.” “What followed [Dubcek’s appointment] was a resolution best described as an ideological oxymoron: a call for freedom of expression and internal Party democracy, while at the same time reaffirming loyalty to Marxism- Lenninism.” “The Party resolutions and the speeches that followed Dubcek’s promotion illustrated either the new leader’s apparent incapacity to see the contradictions for what they were, or his hopeful awareness that only by reaffirming his faith in the basic ideology could he hope to retain Moscow’s support.” “By then, the wave of freedom seemed unstoppable. One of the most significant factors was a fast-growing movement for the rehabilitation of political prisoners.” “By this time Dubcek had clearly lost control over the events that he had allowed to happen.” “The two state visits may have strengthened Dubcek’s will to resist pressures from the Soviet Union and the more obedient Warsaw Pact countries, but the situation was already out of hand. Scarcely had Ceausescu returned to Bucharest than Moscow resumed its pressure, mostly appositely by organizing large-scale military maneuvers along the targeted borders.” Major Theme: Establishment of Authoritarian and Single-Party States Methods: Force Methods: Legal Form of Government, (Left & Right Wing) Ideology Nature, extent and Treatment of Opposition “At the end of October, rebellious Czech and Slovaki students took to the streets. Several hundred of them had been left in darkness or candlelight following power cuts in a new hostel of the Charles University. The marching students, carrying torches or candles, shouted, ‘Give us light!’ The security police attacked the demonstrators with tear gas and truncheons. Many of the students were taken to the hospital.” “Those who took refuge in the West fell into two incompatible categories: dissenters and defectors.” Dissenters disagreed with the totalist system and spoken against it, while defectors were “career Party men” who fled to avoid a purge or “liberalization of their own careers.” Many people that weren’t rehabilitated, like Rudolf Slansky, former CPC secretary-general, were executed. Slansky was executed in 1953 “on the groundless charges of ‘Titoist-Zionist imperialist conspiracy.’” “One of the first acts of the KGB contingent among the invaders was to instruct its Czech counterpart, the StB, to arrest Dubcek and several others, including Smrkovsky, chairman of the National Assembly, and Cernik, the prime minister.” Historiography “The buildup was necessary, from Moscow’s viewpoint, because the urge for freedom and democracy was stronger in Czechoslovakia than in the other Soviet satellites.” Major Theme: Domestic Policies and Impact Structure and Organization of Government and The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, or CPC, took Administration power in a “bloodless coup” in 1948, becoming the “highest ratio of members to the total population of any ruling Communist Party…and the number continued to grow.” Political Policies Economic Policies The Czechoslovakian Communist Party instituted a “New Economic Model” in 1966 to try and prevent their imminent bankruptcy, which failed. Social Policies Religious Policies Role of Education Role of the Arts Role of Media, Propaganda Status of Women Treatment of Religious Groups and Minorities Historiography .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Czechoslovak-Polish Relations 1918-1968: the Prospects for Mutual Support in the Case of Revolt
    University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1977 Czechoslovak-Polish relations 1918-1968: The prospects for mutual support in the case of revolt Stephen Edward Medvec The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Medvec, Stephen Edward, "Czechoslovak-Polish relations 1918-1968: The prospects for mutual support in the case of revolt" (1977). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 5197. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/5197 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CZECHOSLOVAK-POLISH RELATIONS, 191(3-1968: THE PROSPECTS FOR MUTUAL SUPPORT IN THE CASE OF REVOLT By Stephen E. Medvec B. A. , University of Montana,. 1972. Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 1977 Approved by: ^ .'■\4 i Chairman, Board of Examiners raduat'e School Date UMI Number: EP40661 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
    [Show full text]
  • Factors in the Soviet Decision to Invade Czechoslovakia Antony Kalashnikov
    Factors in the Soviet Decision to Invade Czechoslovakia Antony Kalashnikov This essay describes the factors in the Soviet decision to invade Czechoslovakia and argues that the principle motive was to prevent political reforms which would have established Czechoslovakia as multi-party state. The paper will be organized in three parts: after establishing factual background of the ‗Prague Spring‘ reforms, the essay outlines the various factors contributing to the decision. I will then analyze them in comparative historical light in order to single out the most important reason for the invasion. Introduction On the night of August 20-21, 1968, Warsaw Pact troops led by the Soviet Union crossed the Czechoslovakian borders and occupied the country in an impeccably executed manoeuvre lasting only a few hours. General Secretary Alexander Dubcek and other key figures of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were immediately seized and brought to Moscow before the Politburo. There, they signed the Moscow Protocols, repealing all the reforms launched in the preceding months, dubbed the ‗Prague Spring‘. Dubcek remained nominally in his post, but was voted out within a few months and replaced with the conservative leader Gustav Husak. These events epitomized the Brezhnev Doctrine, whereby the Soviet Union showed its commitment to hold on to its interests in Eastern Europe even if it meant resorting to military action. This essay will describe the factors in the Soviet decision to invade Czechoslovakia and argue that the principle motive was to prevent political reforms which would have established Czechoslovakia as a multi-party state. The paper will be organized in three parts: after establishing factual background to the ‗Prague Spring‘ reforms, the essay outlines the various factors which contributed to the decision.
    [Show full text]
  • Opting out of Halloween
    THE ACADEMIC FORUM I NEW JERSEY CITY UNIVERSITY Opting Out Of HallOween Donna M. Farina, Professor of Multicultural Education There’s nothing in the streets Looks any different to me And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye And the parting on the left Are now parting on the right And the beards have all grown longer overnight —the who, Won’t Get Fooled Again ecently, a well-informed friend wryly commented that this election season in the u.S. is really no different from any other. it is a ritual, a cultural phe - nomenon like american Halloween—no more significant than that. as is often the case, the most perceptive comments on life in the u.S. come to me R from people like my friend, who was not born here and whose experiences elsewhere give her that critical and perceptive eye. My friend’s comment 6 reinforced my own serious and considered decision to ignore this election season completely, as the only recourse left open to a concerned global citizen. i had to choose to do the most responsible thing i could to get ready to vote in november. So i am opting out of Halloween. The world came into my consciousness for the first time with today my main voting interests revolve around things that the closing of the Suez Canal at the beginning of the 1967 Six- struck me as a child: the waste and destruction that results Day war between faraway and unknown egypt and israel. as from war, the oppression of peoples, and the hope that people a ten-year-old who read the Chicago Sun Times daily, i thought everywhere stubbornly try to maintain as they strive to make a most about the amount of sand that was filling the Suez difference and improve their own reality.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics of Collective Inaction NATO's Response to the Prague
    The Politics of Collective Inaction Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-pdf/1/3/111/695152/152039799316976823.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 NATO’s Response to the Prague Spring ✣ John G. McGinn Introduction The successful outcome of a high-level meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in December 1967 augured well for the alliance in the coming year. NATO had adopted a new strategic concept, known as “flex- ible response,” to replace the outdated strategy of massive retaliation. NATO also had approved the Harmel Report, a landmark document on “The Future Tasks of the Alliance,” which proposed to move away from Cold War con- frontation and toward peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.1 Auspicious though these developments may have seemed, the Harmel Report’s two-track approach of “defense and détente” was soon overshad- owed by events in Eastern Europe. In early January 1968, a new leader, Alexander Dubãek, ascended to power in Czechoslovakia and promptly embarked on a series of far-reaching reforms that came to be known as the Prague Spring. Although memories of the bloody fate that befell Hungarian reformers in 1956 spurred Dubãek to offer constant reassurances to the So- viet Union and other members of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) of 1. North Atlantic Treaty Organization, “The Future Tasks of the Alliance,” 14 December 1967. The Harmel Report was attached as a separate document to the December 1967 North Atlantic Coun- cil Communiqué, because the report was not approved by all of the allies.
    [Show full text]
  • Events That Led to the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring and Its Immediate Aftermath
    Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Scholarship Spring 2015 Events that led to the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring and its immediate aftermath Natalie Babjukova Trinity College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Recommended Citation Babjukova, Natalie, "Events that led to the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring and its immediate aftermath". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2015. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/469 Events that led to the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring and its immediate aftermath Senior thesis towards Russian major Natalie Babjukova Spring 2015 ` The invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union on August 21 st 1968 dramatically changed not only Czech domestic, as well as international politics, but also the lives of every single person in the country. It was an intrusion of the Soviet Union into Czechoslovakia that no one had expected. There were many events that led to the aggressive action of the Soviets that could be dated way back, events that preceded the Prague Spring. Even though it is a very recent topic, the Cold War made it hard for people outside the Soviet Union to understand what the regime was about and what exactly was wrong about it. Things that leaked out of the country were mostly positive and that is why the rest of the world did not feel the need to interfere. Even within the country, many incidents were explained using excuses and lies just so citizens would not want to revolt. Throughout the years of the communist regime people started realizing the lies they were being told, but even then they could not oppose it.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialism with a Human Face
    Socialism With a Human Face: The Leadership and Legacy of the Prague Spring Anna Stoneman Senior Division Historical Paper 2,499 Words They may crush the flowers, but they cannot stop the Spring. - Alexander Dubček, 19681 In January of 1968, Czechoslovakian leader Alexander Dubček introduced a program of unprecedented economic and political liberalization, intending to revitalize the nation. After two decades of harsh and oppressive Communist rule, the reforms ended the censorship of the media, press, and travel, and granted citizens the right to think, speak, and behave freely. Dubček’s leadership gave rise to an explosion of artistic expression, free discussion, and alignment with democratic ideology known as the Prague Spring. Although forcibly suppressed by a Soviet-led invasion in August of 1968, the Prague Spring left as a legacy the renewal of active citizenship and democratic ideals, paving the way to the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. Communist Occupation of Czechoslovakia The citizens of Czechoslovakia endured a tumultuous history of decades of occupation. After declaring its independence in October 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, Czechoslovakia was initially a thriving, autonomous, constitutional democracy.2 After just twenty years, however, with the signing of the Munich Agreement on September 29, 1938, the country was “sacrificed” to Nazi Germany.3 Czechoslovakia was occupied by Nazi forces throughout the Second World War, suffering “repression… exploitation, and extermination.”4 After the war, rather than having its constitutional democracy restored, a Soviet-endorsed Communist dictatorship was installed, and 1 Rombova, Lenka, and Dardis McNamee.
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 2019 CAS IR 350/CAS HI 334 HISTORY of INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS from 1945 to the PRESENT MW 2:30-3:45 P.M., LAW AUD Igor Lukes [email protected]
    Spring 2019 CAS IR 350/CAS HI 334 HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS FROM 1945 TO THE PRESENT MW 2:30-3:45 p.m., LAW AUD Igor Lukes [email protected] SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES Heraclitus taught that while rivers may appear to stay the same, the waters are always changing. For similar reasons I believe that historical events never repeat themselves. Yet, we must study history to learn what previous policies were beneficial and which led to disasters. This becomes evident when we consider that the most urgent questions of today are similar to those asked in 1945: “Can the east and west coexist in peace? Can Russia be trusted? Will there be another war? What will happen in the Middle East?” This course will analyze the relations between the major international players. The themes covered will include the gradual deepening of ideological divisions between east and west at the end of the war against Hitler, the outbreak of the Korean War, and the death of Joseph Stalin. We will study the conflicts and the search for compromise in the Middle East, the brief thaw in US-Soviet relations in the middle of the fifties, followed by the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban missile crisis, the roots of ethnic conflicts and causes of poverty in Africa, and the Vietnam war. The course will also analyze the growing inability of Moscow to deal with the crises in eastern Europe (1968-1989) and to find a response to the newly assertive West in the 1980s. The emergence of John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the steady handling of US-Soviet relations will be credited for the peaceful end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
    [Show full text]
  • NEW EVIDENCE on the WAR in AFGHANISTAN Introduction
    COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN, ISSUE 14/15 NEW EVIDENCE ON THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN Introduction By Christian Friedrich Ostermann hat was behind the Soviet decision in December a substitute foothold in Afghanistan and worried about main- 1979 to invade Afghanistan? And when and why taining its credibility with communist world allies. Soviet lead- Wdid Mikhail Gorbachev decide to pull out Soviet ers were genuinely concerned that Afghan strongman troops nearly ten years later? What was the role of the US Hafizullah Amin was either a US agent or prepared to sell out covert assistance program, in particular the Stinger missiles? to the United States. At the CWIHP conference, former US What role did CIA intelligence play? How did the Afghan Charge d’Affaires J. Bruce Amstutz as well as other partici- War’s history, a key step in the rise of militant Islam, intersect pants forcefully refuted allegations of Agency links to Amin. with the history of the final decade of the Cold War? These In his five conversations with Amin in the fall of 1979, Amstutz were among the questions addressed at a major international remembered, the Afghan leader did not in any way suggest conference, “Towards an International History of the War in that he was interested in allying himself with the United States. Afghanistan,” organized in April 2002 by the Cold War Inter- US relations with successive communist regimes in Af- national History Project (CWIHP) in cooperation with the ghanistan had been volatile since the April 1978 communist Woodrow Wilson
    [Show full text]
  • Tito's Yugoslavia
    The Search for a Communist Legitimacy: Tito's Yugoslavia Author: Robert Edward Niebuhr Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1953 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2008 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of History THE SEARCH FOR A COMMUNIST LEGITIMACY: TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA a dissertation by ROBERT EDWARD NIEBUHR submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ABSTRACT . iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . v NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS AND TERMS . vi INTRODUCTION . 1 1 A STRUGGLE FOR THE HEARTS AND MINDS: IDEOLOGY AND YUGOSLAVIA’S THIRD WAY TO PARADISE . 26 2 NONALIGNMENT: YUGOSLAVIA’S ANSWER TO BLOC POLITICS . 74 3 POLITICS OF FEAR AND TOTAL NATIONAL DEFENSE . 133 4 TITO’S TWILIGHT AND THE FEAR OF UNRAVELING . 180 5 CONCLUSION: YUGOSLAVIA AND THE LEGACY OF THE COLD WAR . 245 EPILOGUE: THE TRIUMPH OF FEAR. 254 APPENDIX A: LIST OF KEY LCY OFFICIALS, 1958 . 272 APPENDIX B: ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF JNA, 1963 . 274 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 275 INDEX . 289 © copyright by ROBERT EDWARD NIEBUHR 2008 iii ABSTRACT THE SEARCH FOR A COMMUNIST LEGITIMACY: TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA ROBERT EDWARD NIEBUHR Supervised by Larry Wolff Titoist Yugoslavia—the multiethnic state rising out of the chaos of World War II—is a particularly interesting setting to examine the integrity of the modern nation-state and, more specifically, the viability of a distinctly multi-ethnic nation-building project.
    [Show full text]
  • Paper 2 Superpower Relations and the Cold War C1941-‐91
    Year 11 Revision Period Study – Paper 2 Superpower Relations and the Cold War c1941-91 Revision Programme – Paper 2 Superpower Rivalry 1941-91 Paper 2 is one hour and forty five minutes long. It has two distinct sections ; Section A – Period Study - Superpower Rivalry 1941-91 ( 50 minutes) Section B – British Depth Study – Elizabethan England 1588-1601 (55 minutes) Section A – Three Questions. All assess AO1 and AO2. All rely on factual knowledge and understanding. Question 1- Explain two consequences of …. ( 8 marks) Allow 10 minutes for this answer. Write about two consequences – you only need to write half a page so be brief. Focus should only be on the effect of an event – good discourse markers to use would be as a result of; as a consequence; the effect was; so Question 2 Write a narrative account analysing… ( 8 marks) Allow 15 minutes. This answer expects a narrative explaining how events lead to an outcome. You are given two information prompts but are expected to add to this to gain the best marks. The key is to write an organised answer, putting events into the right order and most importantly showing how each event links to the next. There should be a clear beginning, middle and end to this response Question 3 Explain two of the following… the importance of xxx for …. ( 16 marks) Allow 25 minutes. You need to choose TWO from the three listed. You must explain the impact of an event – thinking what did this event lead to? What difference did this event make ? KEY TIP : Throughout revision focus on what events are; the effect they have on each other and the overall Cold War tensions.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction CSCE, the German Question, and the Eastern Bloc
    Introduction CSCE, the German Question, and the Eastern Bloc ✣ Gottfried Niedhart During a visit to Israel in June 1973, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt spoke at the Weizmann Institute in Jerusalem about the development of East-West relations. As always, he emphasized the gradual nature of his own approach. A “sustainable peace policy” was to him no “project of large leaps.” Instead, he described his own policy as one of “small, progressing steps.” Even the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which was about to start in Helsinki in the summer of 1973 and comprised all European states (with the exception of Albania) plus Canada and the United States, should not lead to “wishful thinking,” Brandt declared. “And yet, who would have dared to predict a decade ago that a conference of such constructive substance was taking shape!”1 The preceding years—the early 1970s—had witnessed a new form of rapprochement between East and West in general and between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the member-states of the Warsaw Pact in particular. Although this new form of interaction did not eliminate the fundamental conflict between East and West, it did change the mode and framework in which the conflict was to be conducted from then on. The Final Act of the CSCE, signed in Helsinki on 1 August 1975 by 35 national leaders, was an expression of this change: “It was there that Europe’s postwar era finally came to an end.”2 This document defined the principles that ought to guide all relations and interactions among the signatory states.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Did the Soviet Union Invade Afghanistan in 1979? Written by Uday Rai Mehra
    Why Did the Soviet Union Invade Afghanistan in 1979? Written by Uday Rai Mehra This PDF is auto-generated for reference only. As such, it may contain some conversion errors and/or missing information. For all formal use please refer to the official version on the website, as linked below. Why Did the Soviet Union Invade Afghanistan in 1979? https://www.e-ir.info/2014/10/09/why-did-the-soviet-union-invade-afghanistan-in-1979/ UDAY RAI MEHRA, OCT 9 2014 The near seventy-year history of the Soviet Union is one dominated by its tradition of foreign military interventions that spanned most of its existence and stretched geographically from Krakow to the Kuril Islands. Within this trajectory, the Soviet invasion of, and subsequent war with Afghanistan (1979-1989) stands out in particular, as a lasting legacy of the Cold War. Globally, its outcome continues to plague international society in the current struggle between the Western liberal democratic order and Islamic extremism. Domestically, the remains of the war have rendered the nation’s political institutions, economy and society fragile, and transformed Afghanistan into a battlefield for factional rivalries and a breeding ground for religious fundamentalism. As a rooted historical understanding of the war is necessary to contextualize the struggles from the region that dominate our contemporary international affairs, the very nature of the event’s historiography has evolved over time. Previously, it was commonplace among scholars to examine the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan within the Cold War framework: the USSR invaded foreign nations in the name of socialist internationalism, prestige and with the objective to thwart their Western enemies.
    [Show full text]