Prauge Spring

• What were the causes of the Prague spring?

  1. Desire for political reform
  2. Economic stagnation-recession
  3. Industrial products were exported while Czechs starved
  4. The desire for freedom of the press-Union of wanted
  5. Soviet influence and control
  6. Leadership changes in Czechoslovakia
• What did Dubcek famously want?

  Socialism with a human face

  -less harsh and mechanical but still communist
• What was the Action Programme (Prague Spring)


  The Action Programme was a reform program introduced during the Prague Spring in 1968 by Czechoslovakia's leader Alexander Dubček to democratize and liberalize the country's communist regime and bring communism up to date.
• What were the points of the Prague Spring?

  -Freedom of speech

  -Less centralized economic control

  -Development of foreign trade

  -Removal of restrictions to travel abroad

  -Reduction of secret police powers
• Why did this scare Brezhnev and what did he do to express these concerns?

  -copied in other EE countries

  -Leaders of Poland + East Germany presents similar fears

  -In July, the USSR, Hungary, and Bulgaria wrote to express concerns
• What did Dubcek guarantee that was different from Hungary?

  That they would stay in the Warsaw Pact
• What did Brezhnev do on 20/08/1968

  Brezhnev got 400,000 troops to enter in response to 4 Czechs asking for help
• How did Dubcek act during this?

  He urged for ‘passive resistance’

  After going to Moscow he announced the Prague Spring ended and resigned months later and replaced by Husak
• How many died as a result?

  80
• What was the consequences of the situation?Albania left the Warsaw Pact

  • The leader of Romania called it a grave error
  • Many western communist party members resigned following the invasion
  • People who supported reforms lost jobs/homes
• Brezhnev Doctrine 1968

  -Justification of invasion

  -Prevented an eastern communist country from turning to capitalism

  -Declaration of USSR controlling iron curtain countries