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Prague Spring and NormalizationTowards the end of the 1960's the strict regime of Communist Czechoslovakia began to relax a little. In January 1968, Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak born in Uhrovec, became the first secretary of the Communist Party. Dubcek was one of the truly great men of the C20th, under his leadership Czechoslovakia entered a period of liberalization. For about half a year Dubcek's Czechoslovakia, and his 'socialism with a human face' was the focus of Central Europe, as well as the rest of the world. Censorship was abolished, which was unheard of before in a Communist State, and Czechoslovakia enjoyed a limited Democracy. Meanwhile, Moscow frowned upon Dubcek's actions, scared that his liberalization Policy may spread throughout the Warsaw Pact countries. Their reaction was one of force, sending in tanks from the Soviet Union, as well as from Hungary, to restore 'order' back to the hard-line communists. In the seventies and eighties, to ensure there would never be a
repeat of the Prague Spring, the Communists adopted a policy of
Normalization - a modern version of Stalinism - which meant that
in the 70's Czechoslovakia now had the most severe regime of all
the Communist countries, including the Soviet Union. |
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