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Remembering Prague Spring

Remembering Prague Spring

Aug-24-08 09:08 am

http://incentraleurope.radio.cz/pictures/politik/dubcek_alexander_blava1968.jpg

Alexander Dubcek in 1968

One of my earliest memories of international politics was the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. I remember watching the news in the morning before going to elementary school and seeing the Soviet tanks and hearing about the fate of Alexander Dubcek's experiment. In today's New York Times, Jiri Pehe, a former political adviser to Vaclav Havel, has an excellent op ed reminding us of the significance of the famous "Prague Spring" of 1968. Pehe notes:

The political thaw that culminated in 1968 had started in the early ’60s when the communist regime eased restrictions on culture. This, in turn, encouraged intellectuals and artists to demand further liberalization. In the fall of 1967, the Congress of the Czechoslovak Writers’ Union became a major political event, where writers like Milan Kundera, Ludvik Vaculik, Pavel Kohout, Ivan Klima and Vaclav Havel issued calls for greater freedom. The election of Dubcek to the highest party post was partly a reaction to this pressure.

Equally important was the awakening of civil society. A generation of older people who grew up in a democratic Czechoslovakia before and just after World War II joined forces with younger people who were disappointed by Stalinist communism to create a social movement. This widespread renewal of active citizenship showed that a majority of people wanted to be free and would pursue their dream, even knowing that the Kremlin would do its best to stop the movement.

Moreover, Pehe explains:

The Prague Spring had a real impact outside Czechoslovakia. The Kremlin’s decision to use brutal force to destroy the experiment had a devastating effect on the Euro-communist movement. After 1968, once powerful communist parties in France, Italy and other Western European countries gradually faded.

Ideas generated during the Prague Spring were a source of inspiration for Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika in the mid-1980s. Like the Czechoslovakian leaders of 1968, Mr. Gorbachev believed that a degree of political and economic democracy could be combined with communist rule.

Pehe concludes:

The year 1968 saw upheavals elsewhere in Europe and in the United States, with young people rebelling against the establishment and searching for new models of life. The Czechoslovak experiment was part of that global movement. And like revolutions in the West, it generated ideas that survived — especially its emphasis on human rights. A strong effort was made to build a robust civil society. Today, as the Western world seeks to revive popular interest in the democratic process, this is the Prague Spring’s most important legacy.

Very true. And perhaps the West-- and the new American Administration in particular-- will do well to recall that "Prague Spring" came from forces within Czechoslovakia.

Tags: human rights use of force

About the editor:

Anthony Clark Arend

Professor

Commentary and analysis at the intersection of international law and politics.

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» Learn more about the M.A. in International Law and Government at Georgetown University.

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