Not only the public but also the political circles were split. Although all the politicians of the Prague Spring must have known for sure that their political career was over after the 21st of August, some of them acted as if nothing had happened. Some of the voices that had been barely audible before the occupation were getting louder. It was voices such as these that are always heard when it is obvious that new people are in power.

The above mentioned division within the society can be demonstrated by two events that took place at the beginning of September. First of all, the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister accepted in Prague Castle a numerous delegation of representatives of artistic associations and they tried to justify to them the acceptance of the Moscow dictatorship. They tried to comfort the perturbed artists saying that the limited freedom of media was only temporary for the sake of normalization and consequent departure of the army. After that, they claimed, that post-January development would continue. On the same day, different Communist organizations started calling the occupation international aid…

The invaders were not happy to free the media

The occupation soldiers were leaving the media‘s headlines slowly and unwillingly. They only started to withdraw after the press, the television and the radio bound themselves that they would not speak about occupation and “invaders”, that they would not promote the slogan “neutrality” nor they would talk about the damage done, about those who were killed or injured…It was, in fact, new censorship which officially started in the middle of the month. The director of the television, Jiří Pelikán and the director of the radio, Zdeněk Hejzlar, were dismissed from their offices shortly after, on 25th September.

But it still was not enough. The popular debate programmes, such as Hovory s Lidmi, O Čem se Hovoří, etc. were gradually disappearing from the TV screens.

The first politician who “voluntarily” resigned was the economic star of the Prague Spring Ota Šik on the 5th of September. Together with him stepped down the Minister of Interior Josef Pavel. One day later, it was the chairman of the National Front František Kriegel and on the 19th of September, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jiří Hájek. Others were to follow.

The new course of the country’s politics was quite clear from the fact that at the beginning of the month, the Ministry of Interior turned down the constitutions of the Club of Engaged Non-Members of the Party (KAN), which meant a definite end to the organization. It was much the same for K 231 – an organization of former political prisoners. Nonetheless, K 231 managed to make some achievements. Thanks to its pressure, 1500 convicts from after 1948 had been rehabilitated since June. Let’s mention probably the most well-known personalities: Dr. Milada Horáková, whose sentence was cancelled, but she was not fully rehabilitated until after November 1989 and general Heliodor Píka, who was rehabilitated in December 1968.

The rehabilitation process went on, yet at the same time there were new charges, based on the so called White Book. The book was published just one day after the start of the occupation and its name was derived from the colour of its cover. It was the work of some Soviet journalists, and it contained facts, documents and press and eye witness testimonies. The aim of the book was to discredit the post-January development in our country. This propaganda was further supported by the press issued by the invaders and also the Vltava transmitter broadcasting. Dubček protested against it to the Soviets but in vain. The ambassadors in the countries of the Warsaw Pact were not successful, either.

Those, who had thought that the occupational army would soon leave, lost their hope on the 25th of September. On that day, after talks of the highest level with the Soviet party, the Czechoslovakian government adopted the resolution that seventy thousand Soviet soldiers will temporarily stay in the ČSSR. All that had to be done at that time was to secure the soldiers’ accommodation, stock and training grounds…the rest was to come in no time. The agreement on the temporary stay was signed on 16th October.

Sources: contemporary press, totalita and others

František Sládek