The process that began in October of 1967 wasn't completed until the January 1968. To fully grasp this reality we have to take into account the fact that the life of society was in those years revolving around meetings of the central committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. It is true that the meetings of top communist representatives hardly interested anybody in spite of their regular presence in daily papers, radio and television news and newsreels. However, in spite of this lack of interest among common citizens, these meetings still had a significant impact on their everyday life. The events of the October meeting of top communist representatives soon developed into something bigger…

October 1967 saw typical autumn weather. It didn't rain much but the sky was often overcast and temperatures were rather low, at some days they didn't get over 8 degrees. The weather was simply miserable.

The atmosphere among communist officials was also growing more severe. The ideas that were presented in the same year at the Congress of the Union of Czechoslovak Writers (we will come back to that later) worked like poking a stick into a hornets nest. The top nomenclature personnel really were reminiscent of hornets. Inside of communist party grew dissatisfaction with the work of chief party organs and the situation in the country started coming under criticism. Even though the first secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee and the President Antonín Novotný wasn't directly named in October, no one doubted that he was the target. Everybody was aware of that including the young general Šejna (we write about his role in those months in other part)

Novotný offended Slovaks


It is rather surprising that the top politician A.Novotný was criticised mostly by Slovaks. It makes the whole event look little bit like a conflict between the top party representatives of both nationalities. Antonín Novotný is indeed partly to be blamed. His speech was completely out of place and he managed to make enemies of Slovakian communists. He really wasn't a big fan of Slovakia and his unconsidered actions from the summer 1967 only aggravated the situation.

At that time he was on visit in Slovakia and a part of his program was a visit of the Gymnasium in Martin where the centenary celebration of its foundation was in process. The official part was al right but then came a problem. In the staff room was prepared refreshment for the precious top party and state visitor. To the big surprise and indignation of hosts, the First Secretary and President turned the offer down and left to have a lunch in a near by pub.

Brežněv didn't help


It is quite possible that the event was that last straw that brought the patience with Novotny governing to the end. He was well aware of that but was still strong enough to prevent an immediate failure. He refused the criticism and ended the session. The official reason was that delegations of the Party and government, that were to a large extent the same people, had to take part on the celebration of the October Revolution in the Soviet Union. Novotny wanted to use that occasion to gain a support from the most powerful man, Leonid Brezhnev. He was even prepared to invite Leonid Ilyich to visit Prague. His plan, however, failed and it was again his own mistake. Brezhnev didn't forget that Novotny didn't show sufficient amount of enthusiasm when Khrushchev was replaced by Brezhnev.

December came and the central committee held another session. It was well known that Novotný didn't come of well in Moscow and that Brezhnev said that the issue is the Czechoslovakian internal affairs. There was an apparent shift in the power structure. It was clear that Antonín Novotny's position was rather weak and a new political star entered the stage, the First Secretary of the Slovakian Communist Party, Alexander Dubček. He was gradually winning the power game and at the end all what he had to do was to rid Novotny of his function of the Czech communist leader. When he made an attempt in this direction, just a few supporters of Novotny managed to resist for the last time. They said that Christmas is drawing near and on 21st December interrupted the meeting. It was their last success because the session made it clear that the functions of the First Secretary of the Communist Party and the President of the state should be separated. It was just before Christmas Antonín Novotný could clearly see the stark writing on the wall.

Why Alexander Dubček


At the end of December 1967 snow started and it kept falling throughout the New Year and accompanied the continued session of the central committee that started in January 1968. At this time the attack against Novotny was deadly and he didn't stand a chance. The session didn't take long and it was soon decided that Novotny will resign on 5th January. On 6th January he was replaced by the hitherto hardly known Alexander Dubček.

The choice was rather surprising. As it later turned out Dubček was chosen mainly because he was less known and as such he caused problems neither for supporters nor for enemies of Antonín Novotny, who kept his position of the President of the state. Then there was the fact that he was a Slovak which helped to improve the fragile Slovak-Czech relationship. Together with this choice of convenience started other changes on all party levels. Offices were taken by people, who were later called January representatives

Citizens still didn't care much


It is rather curious that public didn't pay much attention to the whole process at that moment. The bank holiday had just finished and people had other things to worry about. The first signs of the crisis of socialist economy were bearing down on them. One of the reasons was that the economy was following the Soviet model and switched to the heavy industry. To put it simply, the main economic indicator was an amount of smelted iron.

Groceries, mainly meat, were in shortage. Other shortcomings appeared in the supply of the market. In various periods there was a lack of basic goods. Sometimes it was nappies, dishcloths, toilet paper, nails or coffins. Groceries, especially meat, were also scarce commodities and some kinds of fruit would appear in shops only in the times of special social and political anniversaries.

The difference between ideals and reality were apparent. People weren't treated equally and there was a difference between a member and a non party member. Apart from that there was equalitarianism. A hard working worker would get the same salary as his lazy colleague. It didn't pay to stick out. It was a source of unnecessary troubles. To keep oneself own opinion in secret became a necessity and it was done from the school days. There were, however, changes to come…