Portál hlavního města Prahy

This was caused by the growing independence of media. Without the existence of censorship, the public became informed about issues that had been an absolute taboo for a long time. Growing self-confidence was apparent and the media were coming up with the formerly unthinkable topics such as political processes in the nineteen fifties.

The so called revivalist process that started in March was paradoxically partly caused by internal party events. The mood at district party conferences was influenced by the escape of the general Šejna and Generals were judged according to their relationship to the January events. It was the time when many were removed from offices and resignations were commonplace. This was something completely new because the issues were dealt with at lower party levels, closer to the public, and not just somewhere inside of high party secretariats. High posts were taken by people who were later nicknamed as men of the January and those who stepped against reformist movement and were against criticism of nineteen fifties etc, were removed.

Czechoslovakian citizens by and large were swiftly informed about changes. As a result people started to hope that the changes in the party would influence their lives. Wherever it was possible and without waiting for the approval of the communist authorities, citizens were founding new civic organisations and renewing those that had been long extinct. Let’s name some of those achievements:

· An interim committee of catholic clergy was founded. It was headed by the bishop and apostolic administrator of Prague Archdiocese, F. Tomášek.

· The national meeting of universities representatives in Brno asked for the foundation of an independent organisation of universities’ students (outside of the official Czechoslovak Union of Youth).

· Officials of the Physical Education Organisation made changes at a national and sector level.

· Club of Independent Writers was established as a part of the Union of Czech Writers. Its members were non-communist from Czech and Slovakia (as leaders were elected V. Havel, P. Kopta, A. Klimenta).

· Former officials of theSocial Democratic Partyset up an action group whose aim was a renewal of the party. The group was extended into the central preparatory committee.

· Political prisoners that were sentenced according to the act 231/1948 and headed by K. Nigrín set up a central committee of the Club 231. In the duration of three months its committees worked in all Czech districts and in most regions. The central committee registered 80 thousand applicants for membership (more about K231 in a separate document).
These steps had at that time a significant importance. Apart form them; there were, however, other nations that disapproved of the trend. Inside of the country these opinions were voiced primarily by those who lost important functions as a result of the changes inside of the Communist Party. It needs to be said that these voices were in March still rather weak. These people were on the defensive, alone and had no arguments to support them. Unfortunately they were about to receive help from outside

In March of 1968 the movement in the Czechoslovakia was nicknamed as a creeping contra revolution. This happened at the end of the March in Dresden where top leaders of Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union met with the Czech’s representatives in a two day meeting. The delegation consisted of Dubček, Lenárt, Černík, Kolder and Biľak. The discussion didn’t have confrontational character yet, however Czechoslovakian representatives were let known that the trend inside of their country is not to liking of the so called friendly countries. The Czechoslovakian public learnt hardly anything about the criticism and what they learned was embellished.

The train was set into motion and it appeared that nothing could stop it…

Source: totality, period press, Wikipedia etc

František Sládek