August '68

August 1968 certainly did not start with Wednesday 21st August. The first three quarters of the month were still “free” and for most inhabitants it was the holiday month. And people did enjoy their holidays forty years ago. The Iron Curtain was still there at that time, but it was possible to go to some places, e.g. to the Adriatic Sea, where Praguers used to go already in the times of the First Republic.

August 1968 certainly did not start with Wednesday 21st August. The first three quarters of the month were still “free” and for most inhabitants it was the holiday month. And people did enjoy their holidays forty years ago. The Iron Curtain was still there at that time, but it was possible to go to some places, e.g. to the Adriatic Sea, where Praguers used to go already in the times of the First Republic.

That August, some artists and musicians also went abroad and there’s no way that some of them would have imagined that they would never come back or return much, much later.

And Czechoslovakia was also the destination of more and more foreign tourists. Little pubs and shops near the borders were a popular place, mostly for our Austrian neighbours and with all these foreigners coming, nobody really paid attention to the fact that the planned touristic trips from the Soviet Union unexpectedly started cancelling their stays booked for the second half of August.

And of course, a lot of people celebrated their personal anniversaries, among them one Prague student who only turned 20 on 11th August and set off for a summer job in the USSR. He did not even cross his mind at that time, that five months later, his name will be known all over the world.

All in all, people lead an ordinary life but at the same time they followed contemporary political events. They participated in public debates to support the establishment of that time, there were maybe manipulated demonstrations in front of the Communist headquarters and there were many other activities to support the changes that were taking place in society. However, behind the walls of the Communist headquarters and the government’s secretariat, the situation looked different. People there knew that the prospects were not very optimistic. Some of them were trying to convince themselves that things will improve somehow, others engaged in secret activities, e.g. in Orlik some people were setting up a “workers-peasants government”.

The public did not really know about the fight that was fought abroad. As usual, it was decided on us in our absence. The army was for a long time kept at bay but it was clear beforehand that the battle was lost.

And then came the fatal Wednesday. It actually already started in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. People were woken up at one o’clock in the morning by a radio announcing a special news bulletin.

On the days between the twenty-first and twenty-seventh, Praguers and other inhabitants of Czechoslovakia spontaneously and courageously resisted the occupation. The majority of people did not think of themselves and risked sometimes even their lives for others and for the changes that happened earlier that year. Yet they were betrayed. Betrayed by those that they supported when they come out in the streets. They even planned a general strike if they were not to be freed from the Kremlin internment. All these people were shocked when they had learnt that those who they had fought for signed Moscow Protocol, despite the fact that it was done under pressure. Why did they give up when we did not fear anything, not even the tanks? Such was the beginning of the end of one dream…

Articles within the field

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  • 14. 8. 2008

    Short Story of the Invitation Letter

    Although we are reminded of the fortieth anniversary of the invasion of five socialist countries to our territory, it has to be mentioned, that it did not happen solely as a result of the decision of leaders in the Kremlin. The insistence from the former GDR with W. Ulbricht in the charge, Poland with W. Gomulka and Bulgaria's T. Živkov played their role as well. Also, what should not be forgotten are the activities of Czech and Slovak political forces and their share in the instigation of the intervention. A significant part of it had been an initiative contained in what later became well known as the “invitation letter”.

  • 12. 8. 2008

    Moscow Just Like Munich

    When on 21st August 1968, the occupation army entered Czechoslovakia, some leading politicians - Dubček, Černík, Smrkovský, Kriegel, Šimon and Špaček – were interned and taken outside Czechoslovakian territory. The president of the republic, Ludvík Svoboda, announced the following day that he had negotiated the release of the politicians in Prague but without success. This is why, on 23rd August, he left for Moscow to continue the negotiations there.

  • 12. 8. 2008

    Vysočany Congress

    In the socialist era, almost every Communist Congress was dubbed as “epoch-making”. Of course, in most cases this was just a “bombastic” description of an event that most of the population didn’t give a damn about. Teams of workers would officially undertake to carry out whatever was decided at a Congress, but in reality they were moaning that there was nothing on TV but politics. There was, however, one Congress that shattered this mould. It was the XIV Congress, which from the very beginning, was planned as “extraordinary”. In the end, however, this Congress was wiped out from the Communist version of history.

  • 11. 8. 2008

    Talks at Cross-Purposes

    The tiny Slovakian town of Čierna nad Tisou spreads out around a freight railway and transhipment station on the Czechoslovakian border. This is where all goods have to be reloaded or undercarriages have to be changed since the track width in the USSR and the rest of Europe differed. However, precisely forty years ago, this railway town became the venue of dramatic political discussions at the highest level. This peculiar “theatre play” then went on in Bratislava.

  • 11. 8. 2008

    Czechoslovakian TV and the First Days of Occupation

    In the 1960’s, the position of the Czechoslovakian Television (ČT) was far behind the radio. The TV only broadcast in the evening time and there was only one channel. On 21st August, however, ČT started exceptional broadcasting just before seven o’clock in the morning.

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Created: 7. August 2008 | Updated: 7. August 2008