Czechslovakia 1968
- Created by: Katy Andrew
- Created on: 29-05-13 10:28
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- Czechoslovakia
- It was a soviet satellite state.
- Mid 1960's, Czech was run by secret police which brutally abolished all political opposition.
- Communism was highly popular to the Czech people.
- 5th January 1968, Dubcek became the communist party leader.
- Dubcek
- His aim was to create a popular form of communism.
- He wanted to get rid of the most repressive aspects of communism rule and allow more cultural freedom.
- He hoped to revitalise Czech politics, economics and social life.
- Prague Spring
- Liberal changes brought from Dubcek April 1968
- He introduced these reforms:
- relaxation of the press censorship.
- legalisation of political opposition groups.
- more power given to regional governments.
- More power to Czech parliment.
- reintroduction of capitalist elements into Czech economy.
- Brezhnev and allies across eatern europe did not like Dubcek's reforms.
- Brezhnev Doctrine
- Brezhnev tried to persuade Dubcek to change his reforms but Dubcek did not.
- Late August 1968, Brezhnev ordered a full scale invasion of Czech in order to over throw Dubcek.
- Brezhnev argued that Dubcek's actions threatened to undermine the Warsaw pact and communist control in eastern europe.
- Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia.
- Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia on the evening of 20th August 1968.
- Dubcek ordered the Czech people not to respond with violence- many students stood in the way of tanks.
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- International reaction
- America; Brezhnev believed that America would do nothing to help Czech, as they did not help Hungary.
- America were already fighting a bloody war against communism in Vietnam so they wanted to avoid a further war.
- Western Europe; Communist parties in the west were outraged by the soviet invasion.
- Therefore they declared themselves as independent of the communist party.
- This created rival forms- soviet communism in the west and eurocommunism in the west . This was inportant because it showed the extent to which soviet communism had lost support of the invasion.
- Therefore they declared themselves as independent of the communist party.
- Eastern Europe: Yugoslavian and Romanian governments distanced themselves from the soviet union.
- 1968, they formed allies with China, the worlds other major communist world.
- east German and Polish governments welcomed the soviet response and they were concerned Czech were being too liberal.
- America; Brezhnev believed that America would do nothing to help Czech, as they did not help Hungary.
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