Fifty years ago Soviet tanks rolled into Prague to crush the Czechoslovak Communist government's democratic reforms, ushering in a bloody occupation whose lessons many Czechs fear have been forgotten.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The anniversary, marked by ceremonies, exhibitions and films about the 'Prague Spring' and its brutal suppression that began on August 21, 1968, comes at a time of renewed influence for the long-marginalised Czech Communist Party in national politics.
Prominent European Union politicians said the anniversary also underlined the need to defend freedom and democracy today on a continent facing a new wave of authoritarianism in eastern Europe, as well as a more assertive Russia.
"August 21 (1968) was a punch to the face," said Vladimir Hanzel, recalling the raw violence of the day when 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops - mostly Soviet but also Polish, Hungarian and Bulgarian - descended on his country.
Hanzel, then a 17-year-old student, said he made his way to the centre of Prague against his mother's advice to see the foreign troops blast the National Museum with heavy machine gunfire, mistaking the ornate building for a government office.
Amid general confusion, as the troops struggled with Czech street names, he described Prague citizens erecting barricades with trams and other vehicles, which prompted the soldiers to open fire, killing and wounding dozens.
Moscow's Communist leadership had ordered the invasion to end the Czechoslovak Communist Party's reforms easing travel restrictions and censorship. This had allowed greater media freedom and left the regime open to corruption allegations.
The surprise invasion led to the end of Czech Communist leader Alexander Dubcek's 'Socialism with a human face" policy and to two more decades of totalitarian rule until mass peaceful protests in 1989 finally toppled the Communist regime.
Hanzel, who later served as personal secretary to Vaclav Havel, the country's first post-communist president, expressed concern that, for the first time since 1989, the Czech Communists are again wielding political influence.
In July, the Communists, who have maintained a place in parliament, helped Prime Minister Andrej Babis's minority government win a confidence vote.
"It is one of today's big paradoxes that... the Communists are again pushing forward and people don't mind," said Hanzel.
Babis told Reuters in an interview on July 31 that today's Communists were a democratic party and no foreign partners had raised concerns. He also said the pro-Russian, anti-NATO party would not influence him.
Australian Associated Press
