Czechoslovakia

Jan Pauer

pp. 163-177

in: Martin Klimke, Joachim Scharloth (eds), 1968 in Europe, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008

Abstract

The "Prague Spring" of 1968 was the first peaceful attempt at reform "from above" and marked the beginning of the transformation of the whole system in former Eastern bloc countries. It was significant because it did not result in a dramatic split between society and the Communist-controlled state, military, and police bodies, similar to the situation in Hungary in 1956 or Poland in 1980/81. On the contrary, interdependence developed between the successful reform wing of the party, led by the then-unknown Slovakian Communist Alexander Dubček, and the activities of the emerging civil society that expressed itself within an independent public sphere.