From: hybl@umbc4.umbc.edu (Dr. Albert Hybl (UMAB-BIOPHYS))
Subject: Alexander Dubcek dies
Organization: Univ. of MD, Baltimore County
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 14:30:30 GMT

Copied from The Baltimore Sun Vol. 92 Number 48, published on
Sunday, November 8, 1992 page 6B in the Obituaries section.


Article title:  Alexander Dubcek, 70, Czechoslovak reformer
Byline: New York Times News Service
Photo: A 1990 Associated Press file photo
Photo Caption:  Alexander Dubcek fostered the "Prague Spring" of 1968.

Text:  Alexander Dubcek, the Czechoslovak leader whose bold
attempt in 1968 to give his country "socialism with a human
face" was crushed by an invasion of Soviet-led Warsaw Pact
troops, died yesterday.  He was 70.

He died yesterday morning at Homolse Hospital from "failure of
vital organs," the official state news agency CSTK reported.
Mr. Dubcek has been hospitalized since an automobile accident
Sept. 1.

The death of Mr. Dubcek may complicate the political situation
in Czechoslovakia, which plans to split into two independent
states Jan. 1.

Mr Dubcek, who had been subjected to years of banishment by the
Communist authorities who replaced him after the collapse of
his "Prague Spring" in 1968 remained a popular figure.
Although he opposed the breakup of Czechoslovakia, he had been
mentioned as a possible candidate to become president of an
independent Slovakia.

In January 1968, almost immediately upon succeeding Antonin
Novotny as first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party,
Mr. Dubcek began to loosen the stringent control that had
defined Communist political life in Easter Europe under the
dominant influence of the Soviet Union.  He had previously been
known as a loyal Communist with strong party credentials and
was regarded as a shy man, certainly not one given to impulsive
action.

Within weeks of taking office, however, Mr. Dubcek stunned
Moscow and the rest of the world with his publicly stated
determination to achieve the "widest possible democratization
of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of "a free, moder, and
profoundly humane society."

Mr. Dubcek relaxed the party censor's control of Czechoslovak
newspapers and broadcasts and permitted the Writers Union, a
group of militant dissidents, to freely write and edit a
literary journal.  And he sent out word that the purges and
political vendettas of the past were to be not more.

This was heady wine in 1968; nothing remotely resembling such
independence had existed in Easter Europe sine the unsuccessful
Hungarian uprising of 1956, which had been crusted by Soviet
troops.

The relationship between Moscow and Prague crumbled rapidly.

On Aug. 21 1968, after it became clear to Moscow that Mr.
Dubcek was not going to compromise in any substantive way,
armed forces from the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, East
Germany, and Bulgaria invaded Czechoslovakia.

For days the world watch as unarmed Czechoslovak students and
workers confronted Soviet tanks and soldiers with flowers and
placards pleading with them to go home.

The images contrasted with Moscow's assurances that the Warsaw
Pack invasion had taken place only because Communist leaders
within Czechoslovakia had asked for such intervention.

Mr. Dubcek was arrested and, with a number of his closest
political allies, was flown to Moscow.  Eventually, he was
expelled from the party and  dispatched to Turkey, where he
served as Czechoslovak ambassador to Ankara.  Then, in June
1970, he was banished to an even more obscure job dealing with
forestry in his native Bratislava, where he remained until
1987.

In November 1989, he reappeared in Czechoslovak national life,
delivering a speech before a huge rally in Bratislava, as the
wave that would sweep communism from power reached its crest in
nationwide strikes and demonstrations, Mr. Dubcek backed Vaclav
Havel, the playwright who had been jailed by the communists,
and his so-called "Velvet Revolution."  On the night Mr. Havel
was elected president, Czechoslovaks cheered wildly when Mr.
Dubcek appeared on the balcony overlooking Wenceslas Square.

Ahead of his time and not forgotten by the people, he was
unanimously elected speaker of parliament, as Mr. Havel assumed
the presidency.  At the time of his death, Mr. Dubcek was the
leader of Slovakia's Social Democrats.