The second big fright of 1968 came from an unexpected place: Czecoslovakia.
First, in January 5th, Alexander Dubcek was elected First Secretary of Communist Party. And just after he announced a lot of measures completely out the socialist world. Mr. Dubcek wanted to grant rights to the population, started a plan to decentralize the economy and wanted freedmon for the press.
You could not imagine something more strange than these measures at the Soviet world, which included then Czecoslovakia. The so-called Iron Curtain, as the Soviet block was known, was the opposite (the exact opposite) of all these Mr. Dubeck plans.
But the population adored the Dubeck strategy. And as a culmination of this process, people went massively to the streets to support Dubeck plan to really liberalize the country, announced at April 5th. It was the beginning of a period called Prague Spring (Prague was the capital of Czecoslovakia).
The party started then and continued on an on, with people in the streets in enthusiastic manifestations to the reforms proposed by mr. Dubcek.
Unfortunatelly for most of the population, though, the party did not last too much.In August 21th, the Soviet Army, with some allies from the Warsaw Pact, invaded the country. Tanks were seen all over Prague. But the population did not quit. A lot of people faced the tanks and the manifestations, now protests, seem to be a serious obstacle to the Soviet invasion.
But the resistence was weaker than the tanks. The Soviet troops advanced and in the political front mr. Dubcek lost his position, replaced by a Soviet-oriented guy.
Could we say that Prague Spring was a failure? Maybe, but it does not look so. The movement and the popular manifestation showed clearly to the world that the Soviet domination, that seemed so strong, was not made of iron anymor.
It was one more message of the unbelievable 1968. That stayed for a long time.
PHOTO
People protest to Soviet soldiers in Prague, 1968
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