Communist Purification in Czechoslovakia.

Zsoldos

Andrej Zsoldos

Mr. Osterlund

20th Century History

2003/04/30

Communist Purification in Czechoslovakia

In August 1968, the Soviet Union under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev has invaded Czechoslovakia to restore communism, to minimize western influence and to counterbalance any measures of democratization. As early as in the late 40’s, under the leadership of Stalin, the Czechoslovakian officials were informed and warned not to accept the aid from the Marshall Plan proposed by the United States. The real reason that provoked Brezhnev and ignited his power to use his Soviet might, was the Prague Spring. This short era was gradually launched by Alexander Dubcek, the Secretary General of the Slovak Communist Party and the leader of Czechoslovakia from January 1968 till the invasion. The Soviet Union was technically forbidden to allow any state within their sphere of influence to turn or become democratic. After the invasion, Czechoslovakia’s foreign and internal affairs were closely bonded with the Soviets’, and so the Czechoslovak population felt isolated and even erased from the rest of Europe. However, towards the mid 1970’s communism in Eastern Europe gradually began to lose its strength mainly thanks to the Helsinki Conference, which tackled European Cooperation and Security, in 1975. In August 1968, Leonid Brezhnev proceeded with an ideological purification on the last independent government in Eastern Europe and sought to end the cultural and economical reforms; and to crush the democratic efforts developed by Alexander Dubcek. Brezhnev however had many other motives and speculative reasons in intervening with Czechoslovakia’s domestic matters.

One of the major dilemmas that the Soviet Union faced during the Cold War was its struggle to monitor and to ensure that the other communist nations were running accordingly to the ideal communist system. This led to Leonid Brezhnev’s unhappiness regarding the Communist Parties around the world. This was the main reason why had chosen Czechoslovakia, being geographically close and strategically advantageous to the Soviet Union. In addition, even though Czechoslovakia led its internal affairs towards democracy, its foreign affairs were “comradely” close with the Soviets, since it was the neighboring Superpower. Also many of the Czechoslovak representatives and governmental officials used to be trained and educated in the Soviet Union and therefore the government sometimes played a two-faced, or in other words a diplomatic, role. Even though Brezhnev did not really have a clear and solid motive for invading Czechoslovakia, he seemed to take advantage of the country’s democratic popularity in the west. Since the Czechoslovak democrats cooperated both with native and Soviet communists, the western observers became more and more disenchanted in Czechoslovak democratic attempts and claimed it as being fake and a bad example to a true western democracy.

In 1967 the Czechoslovak economy languished and intellectuals and the elite minority sought for a creative freedom. At this point, Antonin Novotny was the head of the country, and was unfortunately Stalinist. Before, when Khrushchev was the leader of the Soviet Union, Novotny put all his efforts to resist Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization policy and so till that year the ties and relations with the next-door might were tense and weak. In late 1967 Novotny lost power to Alexander Dubcek, and he became the new leader from January 1968. He set up new goals for the conservative state, and planned to conduct ...

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Brezhnev did not know Dubcek’s history and background so he was unaware of his future plans for Czechoslovakia. Due to this distrust, Brezhnev made numerous travels to Prague and asked Dubcek to guarantee loyalty and alliance towards Soviet Union. Although Dubcek satisfied Brezhnev’s needs and claimed to stay trustworthy to the Warsaw Pact and keep allegiance with the Soviet Union, he continued to pursue his goals in democratizing and reforming his country. Among his initiatives were to eliminate Stalinist movements and crimes; allow non-communists to apply for governmental posts; and to democratize the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia. Dubcek also declared that he desires to put an end to censorship so that more opinion could be shared and expressed among the people without fear or oppression. He also wished to improve the human rights condition in Czechoslovakia. During the Stalinist era people were arrested and being accused as a threat to the communist system and labeled as nationalist bourgeoisie. Moreover, Alexander Dubcek, with his charismatic quality, made efforts to help this situation and compensate these victims with a process called rehabilitation. However, in the political sense, Dubcek did not want to put an end to the socialist system but simply fill socialism with a sound content and give it “a human face”.

He achieved and developed great deal of improvements during those seven months-from January to July 1968-and enlightened and freed the minds of intellectuals and the average populace. This glorious period of time in the Czechoslovak history is known as the Prague Spring. Artists and writers prospered and no longer were their works and masterpieces hidden and unpublicized. The regular Czech, Slovak, or ethnic Hungarian could freely participate and discuss the party’s role at open debates. This was when the public started to realize the previous government’s flaws and the communist regime’s impracticality and its disadvantages.

Throughout the Eastern bloc the Communist Parties’ leaders being Todor Zhivkov of Bulgaria, Wladyslaw Gomulka in Poland and Walter Ulbricht in East Germany, were all against and in panic about Dubcek’s reforms and developments. These leaders were mainly concerned about their communist party being overthrown and weakened if by any chance the democratization efforts and movements would reach their countries. The only Eastern European country’s ruler that agreed and supported Dubcek’s actions was Tito in Yugoslavia. (Schlesinger 84-85)

However, Leonid Brezhnev was the most upset and uneasy regarding Czechoslovakia’s movement towards democracy and liberality. At the climax of the Prague Spring, in March, Brezhnev announced in a speech that he would no longer accept and abide by Dubcek’s disgraceful measures. Nonetheless, Dubcek did not get threatened. The Soviet leader could not tolerate Dubceks’s policies and so in late July he insisted on a personal meeting with him on the Soviet-Czechoslovak border. Brezhnev tried to intimidate and oppress Alexander Dubcek to immediately mitigate the reforms and obliterate any efforts of democratization. However, the Soviet speculative mind had not settled for negotiations, and so Brezhnev, in his usual and expected manner, took the violent route. Besides his negativistic attitude towards this struggle, he also received pressures and requests from fellow communist leaders; such were Ulbricht and Gomulka, to crush and contain the Czechoslovak reform movements. (Schlesinger 85)

On the night of August 20th, 1968, Soviet troops penetrated Czechoslovakia. Tanks rolled into major cities and towns, and paratroopers landed at larger airports, such as in Prague, Brno and Bratislava. (Schlesinger 86) USSR had about sixteen times larger military might as opposed to Czechoslovakia. (The Prague) In 1968 the Soviet Union had 8,000,000 combat forces and Czechoslovakia had about half a million.(The Prague) On top of this, not only were the Soviets involved but also the Warsaw Pact nations. The Czechoslovak public was evidently protesting and as result there were approximately one thousand casualties. It was not a major loss as far as collateral damage goes, since the invasion was merely symbolic, representing the Soviet Union’s imperial and military power.

On August 22nd, after a whole day had passed since the invasion, Leonid Brezhnev secretly took Dubcek and few of his ministers to Moscow. Brezhnev formally proposed Dubcek to create Czechoslovakia into a puppet state having it controlled by the Soviet Union. Dubcek was prepared to agree to this suggestion, under the condition of remaining head of state. Since Brezhnev was not satisfied with Dubcek’s response, he sidelined him from politics the following year in 1969. The Prague Spring, the seven months of glorification and the feeling of rewarding and fearless lifestyle was over.

This invasion could be interpreted as a warning to all the communist states in world and demonstrating them the consequences for abandoning the communist system. After Brezhnev’s succession in Czechoslovakia, in September 1968 he procalimed a policy that is named today as the “Brezhnev Doctrine”. It was a doctrine created as reaction to the Czechoslovak incident. It addressed the combat against “anti-socialist forces” and also pursued the “limitation of sovereignty”. Brezhnev’s ignorance and impulsive character can be understood during simple reasoning. (Halsall) Alexander Dubcek craved to give socialism “a human face”. (Schlesinger 84) He did not want to eliminate nor violate it, but simply slightly amend it within domestic grounds. However, Brezhnev did not consider this fact and as a result he acted with force. This Doctrine, as many say, became the basis of his foreign policy.(Halsall) The Brezhnev Doctrine also clearly stated that the Communist party was not only responsible for its own people, but also to all the socialist countries and to the entire Communist world. In Brezhnev’s eyes, whichever country broke this policy, or has done otherwise, would also diverge itself from the communist international duty and face similar consequences as Czechoslovakia. (Halsall) The doctrine also mentions some of the Marxist-Leninist principles which oppose one-sidedness, and promote diversion. (Halsall) The fight against narrow-mindedness, seclusion, discrimination and isolation is also proclaimed as one of the major clauses of the doctrine. (Halsall) Brezhnev’s magical words of wisdom, meant none other but a reason to invade into countries’ domestic affairs and to embed them in the communist ideology for good.

About a year passed since the invasion, when Brezhnev established the World Communist Conference in June 1969. The aim of this meeting was to share the goals and opinions of communist leaders, officials and representatives and give one another support. However, Brezhnev was disappointed with the results and participants at the conference. Only 75 of the 111 parties attended the conference. In addition Albania, China, North Korea, North Vietnam boycotted the conference. China, the great and powerful neighboring communist nation, was building towards socialism and had many admirers, including the Romanian Communists.( Schlesinger 86) This truly embarrassed Brezhnev; since he construed that he was losing influence over its Eastern partners. Towards the mid 1970’s communism was no longer appealing to nations, and people, at least the educated elite, became disheartened in the ideology and began to realize and see the flaws in the system.

Brezhnev presented a friendlier approach and attitude towards the west since he knew that his political might was gradually losing its relevance. This is the reason to his détente policies and yearned for a treaty that was called the Helsinki Accord. Now, of course Brezhnev would not have supported European cooperation and security if there had not been any benefit to him. First of all, the détente promised the Soviet Union increasing military power. Secondly, at the Helsinki Conference, where the Helsinki Accord was born, the Soviets were recognized large territorial gains in Eastern Europe from World War II. This treaty was signed by 35 countries in July 1975 in Helsinki, Finland. (Schlesinger 93)

The dilemma was simple and Brezhnev’s hypocrisy and double standard became visible and obvious. The treaty included human rights and freedom of speech/press clauses that Brezhnev ignored and so later on he had to face severe consequences to his detriment. Monitoring from Helsinki was commenced in Moscow, and later in Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia, and Armenia. This was Brezhnev’s unintended side effect hegemonistic and territorial greed. (Schlesinger 93)

Leonid Brezhnev invaded Czechoslovakia with the aim to restore communism and counter any efforts of democratization and reform conducted by Alexander Dubcek, the head of Czechoslovakia since January 1968 and the coordinator of the Prague Spring. Brezhnev put all is power, military and political, to purge the communist parties around the world by assigning them obligations according to the Marxist Leninist authoritarian system. Brezhnev has succeeded to overthrow the government and restore the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, however failed to convince the bulk of a country, and that is the populace. And in the end the western public realized that no longer was communism the appealing and ideal system for developing countries. Leonid Brezhnev’s territorial and influential ravenousness showed the world that his hypocrisy and two-faced character was inappropriate to lead one of the two superpowers in the bipolar world.