Sensing that Czechoslovakia was beginning to slip out of the family of socialist countries, 55 years ago in August 1968, the Soviet Union and its allies occupied the country in a lightning-quick operation, ending Czech and Slovak aspirations for freedom. The events in Czechoslovakia have many similarities with how the successor of the Soviet Union, Russia, started the war in Ukraine.
1968 began in Czechoslovakia with the so-called Prague Spring, when the newly elected leader of the Communist Party, Aleksandr Dubček, began implementing political reforms to create “socialism with a human face.” In April 1968, Dubcek announced the so-called program of action. It was a set of several reforms and plans, such as the abolition of censorship, freedom of expression, the introduction of elements of the free market, the lifting of travel restrictions, as well as the restoration of Slovakia’s autonomy.
The Soviet government, of course, did not like such efforts of Dubček. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev, repeatedly tried to “bring the Czechoslovakian leaders to their senses” in negotiations, however, since they did not give up, the Soviet side decided to neutralize Dubcek and his associates by force.
“For most of the population of Czechoslovakia, the invasion of 1968 was a time of lost dreams and lost dignity. We remember well what it was like. Because Ukraine now only wants the same thing we wanted then. They want to determine their own destiny. Since then, Russia has not has changed – the country has a different name, but its foreign policy and values are exactly the same,” Czech President Petr Pavel said in a speech on August 21 this year in the center of Prague, on Wenceslas Square, commemorating the 55th anniversary of the Soviet invasion.
However, the similarities between the occupation of Czechoslovakia 55 years ago and the war launched by Russia in Ukraine last year are not only at the level of slogans and values. Both of these events started with
2023-08-25 21:00:41
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