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Prague Spring: What did it tell?By Michele Legge The 30th anniversary of the invasion that crushed 1968's Prague Spring served as a time to reflect on both the human cost of the Soviet-led invasion, and the long-term ramifications of the event for the entire region. Three decades ago, Warsaw Pact tanks rolled over the Czechoslovak border to stamp out the blossoming communist reform movement. During the invasion, an estimated 82 Czechs and Slovaks died and hundreds were injured. Years of hard-line policies, known as the period of "normalization," followed. A crowd of around 200 people -- including families of some of those killed during the invasion and occupation -- watched dignitaries, including Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and first lady Dagmar Havlova, lead commemorative wreath-laying ceremonies on Wenceslas Square and in front of the Czech Radio building, the spot where Prague saw its bloodiest fighting on Aug. 21, 1968. In his speech, Zeman described the aftermath of the Prague Spring as a time that broke the spine of the Czech nation and he said the leading politicians of that era should take the blame. "A politician who exposes himself voluntarily to blackmail in the hope that concessions will prevent even greater blackmail sets out on a slippery journey of collaboration and betrayal, a journey from which one cannot return," he said. President Vaclav Havel, speaking from Central Military Hospital where he is recovering from complications after a July 26 intestinal operation, told Czech Radio, "The weeklong resistance by the public and society to the occupation, the completely united resistance action, was a noteworthy phenomenon." Havel also recalled the Prague Spring as an enlightening time. "It was possible to freely breathe, to freely speak after 20 years," he said. "We naturally felt the political dilemmas of the time, but I believe that no one who lived then can forget about the period." However, many of those commemorating the date, most of whom were elderly, said they feel the younger generations do not understand the significance of the period. Josef Novak, 60, said he was part of the crowd that gathered in front of the Czech Radio building 30 years ago. "There's not enough people here today because the younger generation has forgotten about us," he said. "One of the boys who died here was my husband," said retiree Milada Sedlakova. The memorial service, she added, was "at least something, but not a lot." She said that the people who did it should be prosecuted. In a statement sent to the Congress of Russian Intellectuals, which organized a commemorative evening in Moscow on Aug. 20 to mark the Soviet-led invasion, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said the Prague Spring was "an attempt to escape from ideological dogma and lies." Yeltsin's statement said, "People believed that it was possible to build socialism with a human face. However, their attempts at reform raised fear among those who were trying to preserve totalitarian rule." The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) issued a statement Aug. 21 calling the occupation of Czechoslovakia a harmful move that led to socialism losing prestige in the world, and to the petrified bureaucratic system being identified with socialism. This identification prompted allegations that socialism could not be reformed, an idea which the KSCM opposes. Jan Ruml, chairman of the right-wing Freedom Union (US) party, told the Czech Press Agency CTK the events of August 1968 proved that communism is unreformable. On this basis, he said, "We find it irresponsible that people with many years' experience in the communist administration, which served as a means of repression of the people of this country, have now been given senior functions in the state authority." He gave as an example Deputy Interior Minister Yvonne Streckova who was a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party for 37 years. Former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher praised the role of the Prague Spring as a process which opened the door to German unification. "No one should forget that the Prague Spring was as important to the German unification as the Solidarity [movement] in Poland," Genscher said on Saar radio Aug. 20.
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