RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY

Advanced Search

I I I I

I I I I I I I

RFE/RL Specials

E-mail this page to a friend

Czechoslovakia in 1968: An Invasion Remembered

Soviet soldiers and tanks in front of the National Museum on Wenceslas Square in Prague were surrounded by Czechoslovaks in 1968. (Photograph courtesy of Jiri Vojta)

It has been 30 years since Soviet troops marched and tanks rolled down Wenceslas Square in Czechoslovakia's capital to crush a reform movement known as Prague Spring. Alexander Dubcek's attempts to create "socialism with a human face" are often seen as historical and ideological forerunners to Mikhail Gorbachev's reform policies of glasnost and perestroika in the 1980s in the USSR. The events of 1968 shattered many illusions about Socialism and the Soviet system -- both in Czechoslovakia and in the West.

A Chronology Of Events Leading To The 1968 Invasion

The 1968 Invasion And Its Meaning To Today's Czechs

1968 Viewed From The Occupiers' Perspective

Poland's Jaruzelski Says 1968 Invasion A Political And Moral Mistake

Western Press Recalls Prague Spring

top

homepage

special reports 1998