Prague Spring

• Czechoslovakia


  A communist country controlled by Moscow since the end of World War Two
• Prague Spring


  Czechs' attempt to exert some control over their own lives and reform the Communist system to create 'Socialism with a human face'
• The Prague Spring lasted for four months until it was crushed by the Soviet Red Army
• Antonin Novotny


  • Hard-line communist leader, unpopular, characterised by censorship of the press and lack of personal freedom for ordinary citizens
• Czech economy


  • Weak, controlled by the USSR for its own benefit, farmers had to follow Communist Party guidance on what to produce, efforts to modernise farming were discouraged
• Some Czechs thought the USA would come to their assistance if they stood up to Moscow
• Events of the Prague Spring

  1. Czech students began peacefully demonstrating against Novotny's rule

  2. Novotny asked Brezhnev for help to crackdown on the protests, but Brezhnev refused

  3. Novotny was replaced as Communist Party Secretary by Alexander Dubcek

  4. Dubcek announced an Action Plan to deliver 'Socialism with a Human Face'

  5. Dubcek's reforms began to worry the Soviets

  6. Brezhnev declared the USSR would not allow the countries of Eastern Europe to reject communism

  7. Brezhnev sent an invasion force of 500,000 troops from Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia

  8. Czechs employed peaceful protest tactics

  9. Dubcek was arrested and taken to Moscow, Gustav Husak was installed as the Czech leader
• The Western powers did nothing to actively support the Czechs in their 'Prague Spring'
• Roll back


  Intervention that would constitute a roll back of communism in Eastern Europe
• The US accepted that the Soviets were taking this action in their own sphere of influence, and the US was not going to consider any intervention that would constitute roll back of communism in Eastern Europe