Socialism With A Face - Czechoslovakia’s Seven Month Experiment
Before the Beijing Spring, the Croatian Spring, or even the Arab Spring, there was the Prague Spring. Czechoslovakia’s attempt to usher in reforms to Soviet communism would be but a flash in the pan.
Following Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, political reforms across the Soviet Union began. The process was called de-Stalinization, and in the Eastern Bloc it was a rather rapid occurring movement. Most countries embraced the political reforms quickly, but not Czechoslovakia.
Czechoslovakia’s leader Antonin Novotny explored reforms with a sluggish pace. His lack of urgency was indicative of his commitment to complete socialism and many Czech’s grew frustrated watching the reform all around them. An economic downturn struck Czechoslovakia and from that the heat on Novtony increased. The downturn stemmed largely from Czechoslovakia’s already having a robust industrialized economy, an economical structure that the Soviet communism emphasized. Again, the inability to break from Stalinist foundations grew tiresome. As a result, the churn and angst for more political reform dramatically increased.
Pressures for reform resulted in newly formed groups within Czechoslovakia committed to discussing and lobbying reforms they longed for. One such gathering of a Marxist group in 1963 was named the Liblice Conference. It was centered around the beliefs of Franz Kafka and aimed to increase cultural democratization of Czechoslovakia. It is here that the seeds of a new type of socialism were planted - seeds that would take another few years before they could blossom. Once they did, they blossomed into what we now call the Prague Spring.
The Prague Spring was Czechoslovakia’s temporary tryst with a different version of socialism. Its aim was to provide the country with “socialism with a face.” It was an experiment in deviating form traditional Soviet communism. An experiment that lasted seven months and would ultimately be snuffed out by the infamous iron curtain of Soviet Russia.
Alexander Dubcek, a Slavic politician, had led increasing pressure on the then Czech leader Novotny. The Soviets were surprised at the lack of support for Novtony and viewed Dubcek as a pair of safe hands to hand the reins to. In early 1968, Dubcek was appointed the position of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC). The Soviets would soon learn that Dubcek possessed what they feared were westernized reforms to their communist ideals. And unlike his predecessor, once leading the CPC, Dubcek was quick to implement changes.
Steering the country to what some would call a romantic version of socialism, Dubcek loosened travel restrictions for citizens, all but ended censorship, and introduced economical reforms aimed at steering the current economy away from Stalin-era heavy industry focused on raw materials and more towards the world’s economical pursuits in science and technology.
Dubbed the Action Programme, Dubcek and his team moved quick, but also managed their proposed changes with great caution. After all, the Soviets were not far away watching with a close eye, and one would not want to insult that regime. Instead, they sought to message the changes as an update to policies of old that had outlived their time.
With the newfound freedom of the press, it did not take long for voices of dissension to arise. While Dubcek still believed in the USSR’s communist principles, one has to wonder if even he was surprised at the increasing rise and influence of the newly formed and publicized Social Democratic Party. The Social Democrat party created alliances with various organizations and quickly started issuing requests of Dubcek’s “new” communist party. Suddenly the political landscape in Czechoslovakia looked just a little more westernized.
Some of the public were exuberant at the Social Democratic party’s rise. Requests to work alongside the communist party and a membership to the National Front enabling them to put forth candidates for election would be normal requests in a true democratic body - but certainly not what the Iron Curtain was tolerant of. Dubcek and others realized the threat of a second party to his new style of communism and began discussing the illegality of the Social Democratic activities and how to address them.
Cautious to walk back his reforms, Dubcek agreed that the Social Democrats must be stopped to maintain the primacy of the Communist of Czechoslovakia party. But how could they slow the Social Democrats momentum? Rather than force, the political presidium managed the newly budded party through negotiations. At its conclusion, the Social Democrats agreed they would not appear in public, conduct any media campaigns, nor would they make any decisions without consulting the communist party. At first blush, it would seem the turmoil had been contained.
For the Soviet’s, a promise was not enough. A month following the negotiations, in August of 1968, the experiment was over. The foray into a new type of communism had gone too far. 600,00 Warsaw Pact troops accompanied by Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia. Dubcek’s liberating reforms were repealed and he was replaced by a noted pro-Soviet named Gustav Hasek. There Hasek would stay in control until the fall of the Soviet Union and his formal concession to parliament in December of 1989 - a new parliament led by none other than Alexander Dubcek.
Looking back at the Prague Spring, one is left to wonder - was Dubcek’s venture into a more humanized form of socialism destined to collapse from the start? After all, he clung to the one-party system that was the lifeblood of communism. And of course, the Soviets were still ever dominant and were sure to not allow any seeds of western ideology to blossom in their backyard.
Nevertheless, the Prague Spring provided two things. First, hope. While the hope was short-lived, the Czech people for a brief period of time experienced freedoms they had never experienced under Soviet style communism. Even as late as 1993, nearly 60% of Czech’s were said to have remembered the liberties of the Prague Spring. More importantly, from that hope the disillusionment of the Soviet system gained momentum. Liberals were empowered to start looking for more ways to distance themselves from Soviet communism - a goal that would take a further 23 years to formally accomplish.
This was very interesting to read since both my Great Grandparents on my Mother's side came to America in the 1860's from Czechoslovakia.
Having been to Prague, it’s hard to imagine that just 23 years ago Communism even existed. Great read and interesting history.