Alexander Dubcek biography, birth date, birth place and pictures Email Print The Czechoslovak politician Alexander Dubček (1921-1992) served briefly as head of his country's Communist party. His attempts to liberalize political life led to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army and his dismissal from office, only to be vindicated years later when the Communist regime fell. Alexander Dubček was born on Nov. 27, 1921, the son of a cabinetmaker who had just returned from the United States. His family lived in the U.S.S.R. from 1925 to 1938, and it was there that he received his education. During World War II he was an active member of the underground resistance to the Germans in Slovakia. After the war Dubček made his career as a functionary of the Communist party. He was elected to the Presidium of the Slovakian and then of the Czechoslovakian Communist party in 1962, and in the following year he became first secretary of the Slovakian party's Central Committee.

Yet when he succeeded Antonin Novotny in January 1968 as first secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist party, he was not well known in his own country and was hardly known at all outside it. Pressure for the relaxation of the rigid dogma prevailing in political life had been mounting in Czechoslovakia for a considerable time and had been strengthened by economic discontent. Dubček became the personification of this movement and promised to introduce "socialism with a human face." After coming to power, censorship was relaxed and plans were made for a new federal constitution, for new legislation to provide for a greater degree of civil liberty, and for a new electoral law to give greater freedom to non-Communist parties. The Soviet government became increasingly alarmed by these developments and throughout the spring and summer of 1968 issued a series of warnings to Dubček and his colleagues. Dubček had attempted to steer a middle course between liberal and conservative extremes, and at a midsummer confrontation with the Soviet leaders he stood firm against their demands for a reversal of his policies. It was thought that Dubček had won his point on this occasion, but on August 20 armies of the U.S.S.R.

and the other Warsaw Pact countries occupied Czechoslovakia. Some historians believe that the immediate cause of the Soviet invasion was the Action Program, initiated by Dubcek the previous year. Mass demonstrations of support for Dubček kept him in power for the time being, but his liberal political program was abandoned. Over the next 2 years Dubček was gradually removed from power. In April 1969 he resigned as first secretary of the party, to be replaced by the orthodox Dr. Gustav Husak. That September he was dismissed from the Presidium, and in January 1970 from the Central Committee. In December 1969 he was sent to Turkey as ambassador. The final blow came on June 27, 1970, when he was expelled from the Communist party, and shortly afterward he was dismissed from his ambassadorial post. From there he was confined for almost twenty years to a forestry camp in Bratislava, with little contact with the outside world and constant and intense supervision by the secret police. Meanwhile, the attitudes that Dubček had set in motion continued under their own power.

A small underground movement known as Charter 77, named after its inaugural declaration on January 1, 1977, grew to 2,000 members over the next twelve years. Influenced by the movement in neighboring Poland for greater openness and human rights, Charter 77 was created by a broad spectrum of leaders, including former Communists and religious activists. They were constantly hounded and persecuted by the Communist government, but did not relent. Police arrested ten of the group's leaders, including Vaclav Havel and Jiri Dienstbier, who became, respectively, President and Foreign Minister of the new Czechoslovak government in 1989. Charter 77 continued until 1995, when it became apparent it had fulfilled its function. Dubček highly approved of Russian prime minister Mikhail Gorbachev's progressive policy of glasnost, and eventually its successor of perestroika. While he noted there were some fundamental differences, he believed it came from the same ethic he had tried to promote in the Prague Spring. After Gorbachev visited Czechoslovakia in 1987, the secret police started leaving Dubček alone.

On November 17, 1989, a student commemoration of a Nazi atrocity in 1939 was brutally assaulted by riot police with little provocation. The factionalized oppositions to the government became united to a single purpose by the event, and formed the Civic Forum, led by Havel. He obtained video of the riot, interviewed victims, and had thousands of copies distributed across the country that were surreptitiously played on available televisions. The people became inflamed, and larger and larger demonstrating crowds filled Wenceslas Square. This rapid yet peaceful movement came to be known as the Velvet Revolution. Just a week after the riot, Havel and Dubček appeared together to the throng, who in one voice demanded the latter's restoration. At first, Havel, the playwright, insisted on standing in the shadow of Dubček; by the time of the federal elections in 1990, it had been decided that Dubček would become chairman of the federal parliament. Dubček then proposed Havel for the presidency, which was accepted unanimously. In his last years, Dubček aligned himself with the ideas of European Social Democracy and especially with German chancellor Willy Brandt.

In 1992, Dubček became leader of the Social Democratic party in Slovakia. By that time he was already sick, having worked virtually around the clock for over two years as chairman of the Czechoslovak assembly. A huge shock, one he did not get over, was the death of his wife, Anna, in September 1991. A year later, Dubček was in a car accident, and barely escaped immediate death. Physicians diagnosed him with with a broken spine, as well as other serious illnesses. He passed away on November 1, 1992. Shortly thereafter, Czechoslovakia peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, an event known as the Velvet Divorce. The best biography of Dubček, and a successful attempt to relate his career to developments within Czechoslovakia as a whole, is William Shawcross, Dubček (1990). The best book on the 1968 crisis itself is Philip Windsor and Adam Roberts, Czechoslovakia, 1968 (1969).

The best way to see these events through the eyes of the man who lived them is in Dubček's autobiography, Hope Dies Last (1993), edited by Jiri Hochman. Valuable background is provided by Edward Taborsky, Communism in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1960 (1961). The cultural and political climate of Eastern Europe in the late 1980's is decsribed in Lighting the Night: Revolutions in Eastern Europe (1990) by William Echikson. Alexander Dubcek, 70, Dies in Prague - NYTimes.com Alexander Dubcek, 70, Dies in Prague By RICHARD SEVERO Published: November 9, 1992 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 on Saturday night at a hospital in Prague. He was 70 years old. Mr. Dubcek died of multiple organ failure as a result of injuries he suffered in an automobile accident on Sept. 1. Mr.

Dubcek had been listed in critical condition at Homolse Hospital for the last two weeks and had been hospitalized since the accident. The accident occurred when a car driven by Mr. Dubcek's chauffeur left the highway in a rainstorm and plunged down a ravine. Mr. Dubcek suffered serious spine and chest injuries and underwent surgery. The chauffeur, Jan Reznik, who was not seriously injured, was charged with "causing bodily harm," the state news agency reported. The death of Mr. Dubcek may complicate the political situation in Czechoslovakia, which plans to split into two independent states on 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. Opposed Nation's Breakup Although he opposed the breakup of Czechoslovakia, he had been mentioned as a possible candidate to become President of an independent Slovakia. There were Czechs and Slovaks who thought he was too old to lead again, but nobody questioned his courage and his ideals.

Almost immediately upon succeeding Antonin Novotny as first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in January 1968, Mr. Dubcek began to loosen the stringent control that had defined Communist political life in Eastern Europe under the dominant influence of the Soviet Union. He quickly found himself in confrontation with the Kremlin. 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, modern, and profoundly humane society." Eased Censorship Mr. Dubcek relaxed the party's censor 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 no more.

This was heady wine in 1968; nothing remotely resembling such independence had existed in Eastern Europe since the Hungarian uprising of 1956, which had also been crushed by Soviet troops. Party conformists in and out of Czechoslovakia were amazed and angry. By the middle of July 1968, Communist leaders from East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria were meeting in Warsaw to deliberate what had become the Dubcek problem. Conspicuously absent from the meeting was Mr. Dubcek himself, who would have nothing to do with it. He said the very goal of the gathering constituted meddling in the internal affairs of his country and was thus unacceptable. When other Warsaw Pact nations denounced his own behavior as unacceptable, the Czechoslovak Communist Party's Central Committee announced rather nervously that Mr. Dubcek's liberal moves would only strengthen the nation's ties to the rest of the Warsaw Pact nations. The relationship between Moscow and Prague crumbled rapidly. In July 1968, the Soviet authorities reluctantly agreed to a meeting on Czechoslovak soil near the Soviet border between Mr. Dubcek and Leonid I. Brezhnev, the Soviet Communist Party leader.

Some concessions were reportedly made by the Czechoslovaks, but Mr. Dubcek resisted Mr. Brezhnev's insistence that the important liberal reforms that had become known as the Prague Spring be rescinded. In the weeks that followed, Mr. Dubcek got some words of encouragement from President Tito of Yugoslavia and President Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania. Walter Ulbricht, the hard-line leader of East Germany, warned Mr. Dubcek that prudence dictated a quick return to Communist orthodoxy. On Aug. 21, 1968, after it became clear to the Moscow that Mr. Dubcek was not going to compromise in any substantive way, Czechoslovakia was invaded by armed forces from the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Bulgaria. Flowers vs. Tanks For days, the world read accounts and watched on television 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 invasion had taken place only because Communist leaders within Czechoslovakia had asked for such intervention. Inside and outside the Communist world, there was widespread condemnation of the invasion.

The Communist parties of France, Italy, Yugoslavia and China, among others, denounced the Soviet move. The United Nations Security Council voted 10 to 2 for a resolution that called for withdrawal of the invading forces, but the Soviet Union vetoed it. Sporadic violence erupted. Within a few days, 20 Czechoslovaks were killed and more than 300 were wounded in Prague, according to Government estimates. 1 Alexander Dubcek | Slovak statesman | Britannica.com Alexander Dubcek Tomáš Masaryk Alexander Dubček, (born Nov. 27, 1921, Uhrovec, Czech. [now in Slovakia]—died Nov. 7, 1992, Prague , Czech. [now in Czech Republic]), first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Jan. 5, 1968, to April 17, 1969) whose liberal reforms led to the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Alexander Dubček, April 28, 1969.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Dubček received his early education in Kirgiziya (Kyrgyzstan) in Soviet Central Asia , where his father, Stefan Dubček, a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, had settled. The family returned to Czechoslovakia in 1938. During World War II , Dubček took part in the underground resistance to Nazi occupation and after the war rose steadily in Communist Party ranks, becoming in 1958 chief secretary of the regional committee in Bratislava and a member of the central committees of both the Slovak and the Czechoslovak Communist Parties. In 1962 he became a full member of the Central Committee’s Presidium. In October 1967, at a Central Committee meeting in Prague, Dubček rallied the support of party and economic reformers, as well as Slovak nationalists, against the leadership of Antonín Novotný . Novotný was forced to resign as first secretary on Jan. 5, 1968, and Dubček replaced him.

During the early months of 1968 the Czechoslovak press was granted greater freedom of expression, and victims of political purges during the Stalin era were rehabilitated. On April 9 a reform program called “Czechoslovakia’s Road to Socialism” was promulgated that envisaged economic reforms and a wide-ranging democratization of Czechoslovak political life. The trend of developments aroused concern in the Soviet Union . From July 29 to August 2, the top leaders of the two countries conferred at the Slovak town of Cierna; their deliberations concluded with only minor compromises by Dubček. Still dissatisfied with developments in Czechoslovakia and fearful of the implications of liberalization, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country the night of August 20–21. Dubček and five other Presidium members were seized and taken to Moscow, where the Soviets wrested major concessions from them. On his return to Prague Dubček gave an emotional address to his countrymen, requesting their cooperation in the curtailment of his reforms.

The deterioration of relations between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, following the period of … Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library Dubček was in a weak position. Gradually, his more progressive aides were removed, and in April 1969 he was demoted from first secretary of the party to president of the Federal Assembly (the national parliament). In January 1970 he was appointed ambassador to Turkey , but, after being expelled from the party, he was made an inspector of the forestry administration, based in Bratislava. Britannica Stories Dubcek - definition of Dubcek by The Free Dictionary Dubcek - definition of Dubcek by The Free Dictionary Dub·ček (do͞ob′chĕk, do͞op′-), Alexander 1921-1992. Czechoslovakian politician. As first secretary of the Communist Party (1968) he introduced reforms and pursued an independent foreign policy. In August 1968 Soviet authorities sent tanks into Prague and arrested Dubček, who was forced to resign. Dubček (Czech ˈduptʃɛk) n (Biography) Alexander (ˈaleksandə).

1921–92, Czechoslovak statesman. His reforms as first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party prompted the Russian invasion of 1968 Dub•ček n. Alexander, 1921–92, Czechoslovakian political leader. Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Prague Spring References in periodicals archive ? Wladyslaw Gomulka in Poland, Janos Kadar in Hungry and Alexander Dubcek in Czechoslovakia were first saved and then dumped.

There's no free lunch in politics Hostile to the Prague Spring, aimed at the liberalization of the Communist regime, in August 1968 he enforced, in the name of the doctrine of "limited sovereignty" also called the "Brezhnev doctrine", the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Treaty troops (nota bene: Romania took no part in the invasion); he caused the removal of Alexander Dubcek and imposed a policy of "normalization" that put an end to the experience of "socialism with a human face" (Judt, 2008: 404-411). ON THIS DAY We have an Archbishop Makarios Marg, named after the first president of Cyprus, an Olof Palme road, and roads named after Kwame Nkrumah, Nasser and Mandela, Ataturk, Alexander Dubcek, but none for, say, John Kennedy who came to India's assistance in our dark hour of defeat in 1962.

A love- hate bond with America Thanks to the courage of millions of unnamed and largely forgotten martyrs who fought to end Marxism-Leninism -- the true heroes of the Soviet Union -- and largely forgotten dissident leaders like Imre Nagy in Hungary and Alexander Dubcek in Czechoslovakia, followed by Lech Walesa in Poland, aided and abetted by the Polish Pope John Paul II, with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher cheering from the bleachers, communism in Russia imploded, bringing down with it the Soviet puppet regimes in Eastern Europe. The perversity of the Cuban embargo It began on January 5, 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubcek was elected the First Secretary of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until August 21, when the Soviet Union and all members of the Warsaw Pact, with the exception of Romania, invaded the country to halt the reforms. Alexander Dubček: The leader of the 1968 Prague Spring – Prague Blog By Tracy A.

Burns Alexander Dubček is best known as the Slovak First Secretary of Czechoslovakia who instigated the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring in 1968, when the country experienced more freedoms as it seemed desti to find its own individual identity while remaining a Communist country in what was called “socialism with a human face.” Yet he also was a prominent politician before 1968 and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. His life ended tragically on November 7, 1992. First years in democratic Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubček was born November 27, 1921, in Uhrovec, nestled in the Strážovské Mountains of western Slovakia. He came into the world in the former home of the founder of the Slovak language, Ľudovít Štúr. At that time, independent and democratic Czechoslovakia was just over three years old.

After many years of being subjected to Magyarization by the Hungarians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Hungarian language and customs were imposed, Slovaks finally experienced freedom and the right to express their own national identity in this democratic, multiethnic country governed by President Tomáš G. Masaryk. Before Alexander was born, the family had lived in Chicago, but his father refused to do military service because he was a pacifist. Yet Masaryk’s democratic ideals did not resonate well with Štefan. Moving to the Soviet Union When Alexander was three years old, his father moved the family to Kirghizia, now Kyrgyzstan, of the Soviet Union because he could not find work in Slovakia and because he was a communist. While Dubček studied in Gorkiy in 1937, for instance, he was treated as an outsider because Soviets were not supposed to mingle with foreigners. There, Alexander saw the famine, watching people die in the streets. He also witnessed poverty and collectivization. Still, Alexander became intensely loyal to the Soviet Union.

The family moved back to Czechoslovakia during 1938, when Stalin announced that all foreign residents in the Soviet Union must apply for Soviet citizenship or leave immediately. Under Nazi rule During 1939, the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia and created the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia while Slovakia became a Nazi puppet state. Dubček joined the illegal Communist Party in Slovakia and was a member of the underground anti-Nazi resistance movement. During August of 1944, he fought against the Germans in the Slovak National Uprising, when he was injured. His brother, Július, was killed by the Nazis. Curiously enough, when Dubček was wounded, he was taken to the home of a fellow partisan, Anna Ondrišová, who would, in 1945, become his wife. The couple would have three sons – Milan, Pavel and Peter. Rising in the ranks After the war, the popular Dubček received promotion after promotion. From 1951 to 1955 he was a member of the National Assembly, which was Czechoslovakia’s Parliament.

During 1958 he became a member of the Central Committee of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party and was reelected to the Slovak Central Committee. From 1955 to 1958, he studied Communist management, economics and ideology at the Higher Party School in Moscow. One of his classmates was Mikhail Gorbachev. Political democratization, economic reform and Slovak nationalism During the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia experienced a serious economic decline. Slovaks were disgruntled with Prague centralism, and destalinization was not popular. Dubček rose in the ranks, although Czechoslovak President Antonín Novotný, a hard-liner, became his arch rival. In 1962 Dubček became a member of the Czechoslovak Party Presidium. From 1963 he served as First Secretary of the Slovak branch of the Party. From 1960 to 1968, he was a member of Parliament. From 1964 to 1967 he was dismayed by the dogmatic procedures at the top levels of the Party apparatus, strongly disagreeing with the Party’s methods.

The relationship between Dubček and Novotný became even more tense during the mid-1960s. Still, before 1968 Dubček saw the West in a very negative light and professed undying loyalty to the USSR. He believed that the betrayal of Munich and the war tied Czechoslovakia to the USSR. Dubček favored political democratization, economic reform and Slovak nationalism. During the 150th anniversary of Štúr’s birth in 1965, Dubček embraced the creator of his mother tongue as a true hero, even though Karl Marx had condemned Štúr. Replacing First Secretary Novotný In October of 1967, Dubček and other reformers fervently opposed President Novotný at a Central Committee Meeting. Novotný was so incensed that he persuaded Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to come to Prague in December of 1967, but his plan to discredit Dubček and other reformers worked against him. Brezhnev was not impressed with Novotný, acknowledging the lack of support for the president.

In January of 1968, Novotný was forced to resign as First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, and Dubček became first Slovak to hold the highest position in the Party. During that month Dubček also traveled to Moscow to assure the Soviet Union that Czechoslovakia remained a faithful ally. Implementing reforms during the Prague Spring While Dubček remained loyal to Moscow and Communism, he wanted Czechoslovakia to embark on its own individual path while maintaining a socialist government. The country experienced liberal reforms that allowed writers to demand that the purge victims of the 1950s be rehabilitated and allowed social and political organizations to be free of Communist Party control. The April 5 Action Program described what came to be referred to as “socialism with a human face.” It demanded full equality in economic relations between Czechoslovakia and the USSR and urged the Soviets to take their advisors out of the country. Dubček and his followers wanted real elections for party officials with secret ballots. National minorities were represented in institutions, and strikes were legalized.

Censorship was abolished June 26, 1968, and a day later many newspapers published Ludvík Vaculík’s 2,000 Words proclamation, supporting reform and democratization. Failed attempts at negotiations The Soviet Union was less than pleased. It tried to put a halt to the liberal reforms by means of negotiations. Dubček was summoned to Moscow, but he refused to go. Instead, the Soviets and Dubček met for negotiations at Čierná nad Tisou on the Slovak-USSR border. Although Dubček tried to reassure Moscow that the country remained faithful to Communist doctrine, the hard-liners did not back down. Dubček had been under the impression that he could continue to put reforms in place as long as he assured Moscow he was a loyal ally. Dubček was so incensed by the Soviet demands that he walked out of the meeting. At a second meeting in Bratislava, Dubček was pressured to assure the Soviet Union that his country remained loyal to the foundation of the socialist regime, a declaration that disappointed many reformers.

The Soviet Invasion On the night of August 20-21 of 1968, 200,000 troops from the Warsaw Pact countries of the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria entered the territory of their defenseless ally, as tanks crushed the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring in the largest military operation in Europe since World War II. Still, Dubček pleaded his people not to use force against the Warsaw Pact soldiers. Brezhnev bullied Dubček and other reformers and even threatened to incorporate Slovakia into the USSR and to force Bohemia and Moravia to be autonomous under Soviet rule. Dubček was arrested by the Soviets and taken to Moscow. The Moscow Protocol In Moscow on August 26, after he was threatened and suffered from fainting spells, Dubček signed the 15 doctrines of the Moscow Protocol, paving the way for the rigid era of normalization that would restore Communist order in Czechoslovakia. When Dubček came back to Prague a day after signing the document, he was still serving as First Secretary. Then, on March 21 and March 28, the Czechoslovak ice hockey team defeated the Soviet Union in the World Cup in Stockholm.

Czechoslovak fans destroyed the offices of the Soviet airline Aeroflot and other Soviet institutions. Shortly thereafter, Dubček was forced to resign as First Secretary. But Dubček was not totally out of the picture – yet. He was reelected to the Federal Assembly as Speaker. Then, during 1969 and 1970, he served as the country’s ambassador to Turkey, but he was not allowed to take his children with him. The Communists hoped he would emigrate, but he disappointed them again. Expulsion In 1970 Dubček was expelled from the party. From 1970 to 1985, he worked for the Forestry Service while still residing in his villa in a posh section of Bratislava. He did not take part in any dissident activities. In 1988 he was permitted to travel to Italy to accept an honorary doctorate from Bologna University. During and after the 1989 Velvet Revolution During the 1989 Velvet Revolution, Dubček was an avid supporter of the pro-democracy Public Against Violence and Civic Forum organizations.

On November 24, he received applause from the crowd when he appeared with future president Václav Havel on the Melantrich building balcony overlooking Wenceslas Square. Dubček was on the stage of the Lanterna Magika theatre, which served as the Civic Forum headquarters, with Havel when the Communist Party officials resigned. He was even a candidate for president, but was elected Chairman of the Federal Assembly December 28, 1989 instead. He was reelected to that post in 1990 and 1992. In 1992 he became the leader of the Slovak Democratic Party of Slovakia while serving on the Federal Assembly. Dubček mainly dealt with improving Czech and Slovak relations and foreign affairs. After it was announced in 1992 that Czechoslovakia was splitting into two states, Dubček refused to continue his political role, citing fear of a Slovak government controlled by autocratic Vladimír Mečiar. During the early 1990s, he received international recognition, too.

In 1990 he was the recipient of the International Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and that same year he gave the commencement address at The American University in Washington, DC, on his first visit to the States. A tragic fate But fate had tragic plans for Alexander Dubček. He was traveling in thick rain on a highway near Humpolec, Czech Republic at 9:00 am on September 1, 1992, when his driver was going too fast. Dubček, not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the car. He died of his injuries November 7 in a Prague hospital. He is buried in Bratislava’s Slávičie údolie Cemetery. In 2003 he posthumously received the Czech Republic’s Order of the White Lion award. Related Tours On This Day: Reformist Alexander Dubcek Takes Power in Czechoslovakia On This Day: Reformist Alexander Dubcek Takes Power in Czechoslovakia January 05, 2012 06:00 AM by findingDulcinea Staff On Jan.

5, 1968, Alexander Dubcek became first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He initiated the “Prague Spring,” a period of liberalization in the socialist state that prompted violent Soviet suppression. Dubcek and Prague Spring Antonin Novotny, a traditional Stalinist, had served as the president of Czechoslovakia since 1957 and as first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) since 1958. Under Novotny’s rule, the economy had become stagnant and the Czechoslovakian people began calling for reform. On Jan. 5, 1968, the unpopular Novotny was replaced as head of the KSC by Alexander Dubcek , who advocated “socialism with a human face.” Dubcek—with the approval of Ludvik Svoboda, who succeeded Novotny in March—introduced an “action program” of democratic reforms. He instituted free market reforms, granted greater freedom of speech, press and assembly , and created a more democratic government, with more power to local councils and the national legislature.

The Czechoslovakian people were ready for change, having endured 20 years of rigid Communist rule following the Communist takeover in February 1948. Over the next eight months, a period known a “Prague Spring,” arts and culture flourished, while Czechoslovakian youths dreamed of a more free, Western society. It was “a beautiful time because after 20 years it was possible to breathe and speak freely ,” said Czech President Vaclav Havel in 1998. However, the Soviet Union feared that the ideals of Prague Spring could develop into a full-scale revolution. In an Aug. 13 telephone conversation, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev accused Dubcek of “outright deceit.” On the night of Aug. 20, the Soviet Union sent 200,000 troops and 2,000 tanks into Czechoslovakia to put an end to Prague Spring. Dubcek ordered passive resistance, as the Czechoslovakian people took to the streets in protest. Dubcek, Svoboda and other leaders were arrested and taken to Moscow, where they were forced to sign the Moscow Protocol.

The agreement brought about the gradual repeal of Dubcek’s reforms as part of normalization, described by Insight Central Europe as “a harsh period of indoctrination and communist propaganda.” Alexander Dubcek Alexander Dubcek Alexander Dubcek Alexander Dubcek Alexander Dubček was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovak from 1968 to 1969. He is best known for leading the country during the Prague Spring of 1968 . Dubček was a communist, but he housed strong reforming tendencies. Moscow could not tolerate the Prague Spring and Dubček was swiftly toppled and sent into exile. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he briefly re-emerged as a leading political figure until his death in 1992. Born on 27 November 1921 in Uhrovec, Slovakia, at the age of three Alexander Dubček and his family relocated to the Soviet Union. Dubček grew up under the rule of Joseph Stalin Dubček returned to Czechoslovakia in 1938. Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Nazis in 1939 and Dubček fought with the resistance movement during World War Two .

During the war Dubček became a member of the Communist Party of Slovakia. After the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took control of Czechoslovakia. In 1949, Dubček became a Communist official and he became a member of the National Assembly in 1951. During the 1950s he was returned to Moscow to receive a “political education”. He graduated from the Moscow Political College in 1958. Alexander Dubcek By 1958, Dubček was viewed as a politician who could be relied on by Moscow. In 1958 he also joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which he served as a secretary from 1960 to 1962 and as a member of the presidium after 1962. From 1960 to 1968 he once more was a member of the federal parliament.

In the mid-1960s opposition mounted against Antonin Novotný, the party's leader in Czechoslovakia, as he was not able to come up with a solution to country’s deteriorating political situation. Dubček did not initiate an attack against Novotný, but he made no protestations at the thought of being chosen to succeed him. O Dubček became the new First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on 5 January 1968. This marked the beginning of the Prague Spring. During this time Dubček took steps to liberalise the party by scaling back its totalitarian aspects, while maintaining its dominance. Dubcek promised reform, democratisation and, using Nikita Khrushchev‘s phrase, ‘socialism with a human face’. He eased press censorship, allowed greater artistic and cultural freedom, pardoned victims of political purges, eased travel restrictions, promised to guarantee civil rights and liberties and permitted a degree of democratic reform. Communist Party members were also encouraged to question the policy of the party and advance their own views - something that had previously been strongly discouraged. But newspapers took advantage of the lack of censorship to publish scathing reports about government corruption and incompetence.

Under Dubček, farmers were also given more independence to form co-operatives and trade unions enjoyed more bargaining rights. However, Dubček was adamant that Czechoslovakia would not leave the Warsaw Pact. From July to August 1968, the new leader met senior Moscow officials on the Slovakia-Ukraine border to let them know that his actions would not affect the Warsaw Pact. On 3 August 1968 he reiterated this message to the members of the Warsaw Pact. But Moscow informed Dubček that West Germany was planning an invasion of the Sudetenland. The Soviet Union would supposedly provide Czechoslovakia with troops to defend herself from the upcoming invasion. Dubček refused this offer, but it made little difference. On 20-21 August Soviet troops, along with some other troops from the Warsaw Pact , invaded Czechoslovakia. Dubček was arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was later released. Dubček later called the talks “comradely” and confirmed that he would not be continuing with his reform programme. He was returned to office in Prague but his work was highly censured.

He remained First Secretary until April 1969 when he was appointed Speaker of the Federal Assembly - a minor political post. He was replaced by Gustav Husak, a man more loyal to Moscow and devoted to the socialist cause, who immediately reversed his reforms. In 1970, Dubček was expelled from the Communist Party. For the next 19 years Dubček was politically dormant. But when the Cold War ended he came back into the political limelight. In November 1989, Dubček was re-appointed Speaker of the Federal Assembly. He was fiercely against the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into two separate countries (the Czech Republic and Slovakia). He believed that a continued union between the two regions was mutually beneficial. However, he did not live to see the dissolution take place on 1 January 1993. He died on 7 November 1992 as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident. Alexander Dubcek Alexander Dubcek ▼ Primary Sources ▼ Alexander Dubcek Alexander Dubcek was born in Slovakia in 1921. When he was a child his family moved to the Soviet Union.

He returned to Czechoslovakia on the outbreak of the Second World War and as a member of the Communist Party fought in the resistance movement against the German Army . After the war Dubcek gradually rose in the party hierarchy and eventually became secretary of the Slovak Communist Party. In the early 1960s the country suffered an economic recession. Antonin Novotny , the president of Czechoslovakia , was forced to make liberal concessions and in 1965 he introduced a programme of decentralization. The main feature of the new system was that individual companies would have more freedom to decide on prices and wages. These reforms were slow to make an impact on the Czech economy and in September 1967, Dubcek presented a long list of grievances against the government. The following month there were large demonstrations against Novotny. In January 1968 the Czechoslovak Party Central Committee passed a vote of no confidence in Antonin Novotny and he was replaced by Dubcek as party secretary. Gustav Husak , a Dubcek supporter, became his deputy.

Soon afterwards Dubcek made a speech where he stated: "We shall have to remove everything that strangles artistic and scientific creativeness." During what became known as the Prague Spring , Dubcek announced a series of reforms. This included the abolition of censorship and the right of citizens to criticize the government. Newspapers began publishing revelations about corruption in high places. This included stories about Novotny and his son. On 22nd March 1968, Novotny resigned as president of Czechoslovakia . He was now replaced by a Dubcek supporter, Ludvik Svoboda . In April 1968 the Communist Party Central Committee published a detailed attack on Novotny's government. This included its poor record concerning housing, living standards and transport. It also announced a complete change in the role of the party member. It criticized the traditional view of members being forced to provide unconditional obedience to party policy. Instead it declared that each member "has not only the right, but the duty to act according to his conscience." The new reform programme included the creation of works councils in industry, increased rights for trade unions to bargain on behalf of its members and the right of farmers to form independent co-operatives.

Aware of what happened during the Hungarian Uprising Dubcek announced that Czechoslovakia had no intention of changing its foreign policy. On several occasions he made speeches where he stated that Czechoslovakia would not leave the Warsaw Pact or end its alliance with the Soviet Union . In July 1968 the Soviet leadership announced that it had evidence that the Federal Republic of Germany was planning an invasion of the Sudetenland and asked permission to send in the Red Army to protect Czechoslovakia. Dubcek, aware that the Soviet forces could be used to bring an end to Prague Spring , declined the offer. On 21st August, 1968, Czechoslovakia was invaded by members of the Warsaw Pact countries. In order to avoid bloodshed, the Czech government ordered its armed forces not to resist the invasion. Dubcek and Ludvik Svoboda were taken to Moscow and after meetings with Leonid Brezhnev and Alexsei Kosygin announced that after "free comradely discussion" that Czechoslovakia would be abandoning its reform programme. In April 1969 Dubcek was replaced as party secretary by Gustav Husak .

The following year he was expelled from the party and for the next 18 years worked as a clerk in a lumber yard in Slovakia. After the collapse of communism government in November 1989, Dubcek was elected chairman of the Federal Assembly. He was awarded the Sakharov Peace Prize and his book, The Soviet Invasion, was published in 1990. This was followed by his autobiography, Hope Dies Last. Alexander Dubcek died as a result of a car accident in 1992. Primary Sources (1) Alexander Dubcek, Hope Dies Last (1992) Spring and summer 1942 was probably the worst period of internal terror in Slovakia. It was also the time of mass deportation of Slovak Jews to the extermination camps in Poland. Between March and October that year, 58,000 were forcibly sent to Auschwitz and other camps; most of them never returned. Slovak prisons, too, were full of political opponents, among them hundreds of Communists. The Slovak Communist Party was hard hit again in April 1943, when the whole fourth illegal leadership group was arrested, together with eighty leading functionaries.

The Moscow leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party then sent to Slovakia two instructors, one of whom, Karol Smidke, formed the fifth and last underground Central Committee in the summer of 1943. After Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor, the war tide slowly turned against the Axis. In August and September 1942, Britain and the French government in exile declared the Munich Pact invalid, and soon afterwards the Czechoslovak government in London was recognized by all three principal Allies - the USSR, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In February 1943, Germany lost the battle of Stalingrad, and the Western Allies soon landed in Italy. In Slovakia, as in other parts of German-dominated Europe, hope was rising again. (2) Alexander Dubcek, Hope Dies Last (1992) The Action Program did not even touch on the possibility of an independent initiative in foreign policy; for now this was a secondary issue. It focused entirely on domestic problems, political, economic, or cultural. Even in these areas, however, the Soviets had been accustomed to meddle. It was obvious that they were not happy that the program had been composed without their advice and consent.

The program declared an end to dictatorial, sectarian, and bureaucratic ways. It said that such practices had created artificial tension in society, antagonizing different social groups, nations, and nationalities. Our new policy had to be built on democratic cooperation and confidence among social groups. Narrow professional or other interests could no longer take priority. Freedom of assembly and association, guaranteed in the constitution but not respected in the past, had to be put into practice. In this sphere, there were to be no extralegal limitations. The program proclaimed a return to freedom of the press and proposed the adoption of a press law that would clearly exclude prepublication censorship. Opinions expressed in mass communications were to be free and not be confused with official government pronouncements. Freedom of movement was to be guaranteed, including not only citizens' right to travel abroad but their right to stay abroad at length, or even permanently, without being labeled emigrants. Special legal norms were to be established for the redress of all past injustices, judicial as well as political.

Looking toward a new relationship between the Czechs and the Slovaks, there was to be a federalization of the Republic, full renewal of Slovak national institutions, and compensatory safeguards for the minority Slovaks in staffing federal bodies. In the economic sphere, the program demanded thorough decentralization and managerial independence of enterprises, as well as legalization of small-scale private enterprise, especially in the service sector. This proposal, I should say, was immediately viewed by the Soviets as the beginning of a return to capitalism. Brezhnev made this accusation directly during one of our conversations in the coming months. I responded that we needed a private sector to improve the market situation and make peoples lives easier. Brezhnev immediately snapped at me, "Small craftsmen? We know about that! Your Mr. Bata used to be a little shoemaker, too, until he started up a factory!" Here was the old Leninist canon about small private production creating capitalism "every day and every hour." There was nothing one could do to change the Soviets' dogmatic paranoia. Neither my allies nor I ever contemplated a dismantling of socialism, even as we parted company with various tenets of Leninism.

We still believed in a socialism that could not be divorced from democracy, because its essential rationale was social justice. We also believed that socialism could function better in a market-oriented environment, with significant elements of private enterprise. Many legitimate forms of ownership, mainly cooperative and communal, had not been used to any effective extent mainly because of the imposition of Stalinist restrictions. (3) Statement issued by Alexander Dubcek's government on 21st August, 1968. Yesterday, August 20, 1968, around 11:00 p.m., the armies of the Soviet Union, of the Polish People's Republic, of the German Democratic Republic, the Hungarian Peoples Republic, and the Bulgarian Peoples Republic crossed the borders of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It happened without the knowledge of the President of the Republic, of the Chairman of the National Assembly, of the Prime Minister and of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of CPCz, and of all these organs. The Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPCz was meeting in these hours and was discussing the preparations for the Fourteenth Party Congress. The Presidium appeals to all citizens of our Republic to keep calm and not to resist the armed forces moving in.

Therefore neither our army, security forces or the People's Militias have been ordered to defend the country. The Presidium believes that this act contradicts not only all principles of relations between socialist countries but also the basic norms of international law. All leading officials of the state, of the CPCz and of the National Front remain in their functions, to which they were elected as representatives of the people and of the members of their organizations, according to the laws and other statutes valid in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Constitutional officials convene for immediate session the National Assembly and the government of the Republic, and the Presidium of the CPCz convenes a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the CPCz to deal with the situation. (4) Alexander Dubcek, Hope Dies Last (1992) The main door flew open again and in walked some higher officers of the KGB, including a highly decorated, very short colonel and a Soviet interpreter I had met before somewhere; I think he had been in Prague a few weeks earlier with Marshal Yakubovsky.

The little colonel quickly reeled off a list of all Czechoslovak Communist Party officials present and told us that he was taking us "under his protection." Indeed we were protected, sitting around that table - each of us had a tommy gun pointed at the back of his head. I was delivered to the Kremlin around 11:00 p.m. Moscow time, on Friday, August 23. My watch had stopped somewhere in the Subcarpathians, so I had only a vague idea of what time it was. Today, however, I can reconstruct a rather accurate chronology of those days based on documents and testimony. In the Kremlin, they gave me no time to wash away the dust and dirt of the previous three days. They led me directly to "a meeting," as one of the KGB men called it. I remember a tall door, an antechamber behind it, another door, and then a large office with a rectangular table. There I saw the four men most responsible for the criminal invasion of my country: Brezhnev, Kosygin, Podgorny, and Voronov.

(5) Discussion that took place in Moscow between Alexander Dubcek and Leonid Brezhnev in August 1992. Leonid Brezhnev: Lets agree not to bury ourselves in the past, but to discuss calmly, proceeding from the situation that has developed, in order to find a solution that will work to the benefit of the Czechoslovak Communist Party so that it can act, normally and independently along the lines laid down by the Bratislava Declaration Let it be independent. We don't want and we're not thinking of further intervention. And let the leadership work according to the principles of the January and May plenary sessions of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. We have said this in our reports and we're prepared to affirm it again. Of course, we can't say that you re in a good mood. But your moods aren't the point. We must sensibly and soberly direct our talks toward the search for a solution. It can be stated flatly that the failure to carry out fixed obligations impelled five countries to extreme and inevitable measures.

The sequence of events that has materialized confirms entirely that behind your back (by no means do we wish to say that you were at the head of it) right-wing powers (we will simply call them antisocialist) prepared both the congress and its actions. Underground stations and arms caches have now come to light. All of this has now come out. We don't want to raise claims against you personally, that you're guilty. You might not even have been aware of it; the right-wing powers are broad enough to have organized it all 'We would like to find the most acceptable solutions that will serve to stabilize the country, normalizing a workers' party without links to the right and normalizing a workers' government free from those links. We don't need to conceal from each other that if we find the best solution we will still need time for normalization. No one should have the illusion that everything will all of a sudden become rosy. But if we do find the correct solution, then time will pass and every day will bring us successes, material talks and contacts will begin, the odor will dissipate, and propaganda and ideology will start to work normally.

The working class will understand that, behind the backs of the Central Committee and the government leadership, right-wingers were preparing to transform Czechoslovakia from a socialist into a bourgeois republic. All that is clear now. Talks on economic and other matters will begin. The departure of troops, et cetera, will begin according to material principles. We have not occupied Czechoslovakia, we do not intend to keep it under "occupation," but we hope for her to be free and to undertake the socialist cooperation that was agreed upon in Bratislava. It is on that basis that we want to talk with you and find a workable solution. If need be, with Comrade Cernik as well. If we stay silent we will not improve the situation and will not spare the Czech, Slovak, and Russian peoples from tension. And with every passing day the right-wingers will fire up chauvinistic emotions against every socialist country, and first of all against the Soviet Union. Under such circumstances it would be impossible to pull out the troops; it's not to our advantage. It is on these grounds, on this basis, that we would like to conduct the talks, to see what you think, what's the best way to act.

We're ready to listen. We have no diktat; let's look for another option together. And we would be very grateful to you if you freely expressed different options, not just to be contrary, but to calmly find the proper option. We consider you an honorable communist and socialist. In Cierna you were unlucky, and there was a breakdown. Let's cast everything that happened aside. If we start asking which one of us was right, it will lead nowhere. But let's talk on the basis of what is, and under these conditions we must find a way out of the situation, what you're thinking and what we must do. Alexander Dubcek: It's hard for me, given the trip and my bitter mood, to explain immediately my opinion about why we must reach a solution about the real situation that has arisen. Comrades Brezhnev, Kosygin, Podgorny, and Voronov, I don't know what the situation is at home. In the first day of the Soviet Army's arrival, I and the other comrades were isolated and then found ourselves here, not knowing anything. ... I can only conjecture what could have happened.

In the first moments, the members of the Presidium who were with me at the Secretariat were taken to the Party Central Committee under the control of Soviet forces. Through the window I saw several hundred people gathered around the building, and you could hear what they were shouting: "We want to see Svoboda!" "We want to see the president!" "We want Dubcek!" I heard a number of slogans. After that there were shots. It was the last thing I saw. From that point on I know nothing, and can't imagine what's happening in the country and in the Party. As a Communist who bears a great responsibility for recent events, I am sure that - not only in Czechoslovakia but in Europe, in the whole Communist movement - this action will cause us the bitterest consequences in the breakdown of, and bitter dissension within, the ranks of Communist parties in foreign countries, in capitalist countries. Thus the matters at hand and the situation are, it seems to me very complex, although today was the first time I read the newspapers.

I can only say, think of me what you will, I have worked for thirty years in the Party, and my whole family has devoted everything to the affairs of the Party, the affairs of socialism. Let whatever is going to happen to me happen. I'm expecting the worst for myself and I'm resigned to it. Alexander Dubcek - OVO.com POLITICIANS AND SOLDIERS Alexander Dubcek was a Czechoslovak politician and a leader of the Prague Spring reform effort. Dubcek was born November 27, 1921 in Uhrovec, Czechoslovakia (now in the Slovak Republic). He spent his childhood in Kirghizia, present-day Kyrgyzstan, in Soviet Central Asia. When his family returned to Czechoslovakia in 1938, he went to work in a factory. During World War Two, Dubcek joined the underground resistance against German occupation. Like the rest of Eastern Europe, the end of the war left Czechoslovakia under the control of the Communist superpower, the Soviet Union. Dubcek joined the Slovak Communist Party and was elected a deputy of the Czech federal parliament in 1951.

He was sent to Moscow for communist leadership training and by 1963 had risen to the party’s highest ranks. During this time, some Eastern bloc nations distanced themselves from the Soviet Union’s Communist party line, establishing their own interpretations of Marxist doctrine. Demands for change, especially from intellectuals, were also advanced in Czechoslovakia. On January 5, 1968, Dubcek was appointed first secretary of the Slovak branch of the communist party, a position empowering him to govern the country. He made significant headway in implementing a market economy, while granting greater freedom of expression. Dubcek’s goal to create “socialism with a human face” represented a bold departure from the oppressive, Soviet brand of communism. This movement became known as Prague Spring. But Moscow opposed Czechoslovakia’s new course. On August 19, 1968 Dubcek received a letter from Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, imploring him to conform to communist orthodoxy. The very next day, troops from the USSR and other Eastern European countries invaded Czechoslovakia, reaching Prague at dawn on August 21,where they put an end to the short-lived season of renewal.

Dubcek and other communist officials were arrested and replaced by men loyal to Moscow. After a brief interlude as Ambassador to Turkey, Dubcek was expelled from the party and returned to his homeland. Dubcek resurfaced in the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union was close to collapse, and played a crucial role in the effort to accelerate the end of communism in Czechoslovakia. Once the country made the transition to democratic government, Dubcek was elected chairman of the Federal Assembly. Alexander Dubcek died in Prague on November 7, 1992 as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash. He was 70. RELATED

Question: In which country was Alexander Dubcek First Secretary of the Communist Party in 1968-1969?
Answer: CZECHOSLOVAKIA