Posted on 03/22/2018 7:41:28 AM PDT by rktman
March 22 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first flowering of the Prague Spring, when Marxism in Czechoslovakia tried to end the abuses of power and to grant to the people a measure of the sort of freedom so solemnly promised in the charters of every communist regime in the world. The Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia demonstrated to anyone who could be convinced by facts that leftism seeks only power and nothing else.
The Prague Spring did not begin with a repudiation of Marxism. Indeed, the slogan used by the Czechs involved in the Prague Spring was that they wanted to create "Socialism with a Human Face." These reformers were careful not to criticize communism or the Soviet Union and not to pull out of the Warsaw Pact. Dubcek, the first secretary of the Communist Party, having ousted the prior first secretary, was actually using the Communist Party as an agent of reform
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I remember this.
I was in High School, and a great fan of Classical Music at the time, and the Prague Spring reminded me of THIS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6kqu2mk-Kw
Listen...and contemplate the incredible spirit of a people to overcome tyranny.
Bkmk
Alexander Dubcek ended up tending forests in a remote corner of Slovakia.
Interesting.
That may seem like a downfall to some, but for others may be the fulfillment of a dream.
Who knows what it was for Alexander Dubcek?
Thanks for that bit of information.
Ham Radio operators helped to prevent major blood shedding by keeping people in and outside of country informed and by coordinating resistance to Russian tanks.
Mighty “Warsaw Pact” tanks squashed the uprising, Dubcek was “corrected”, many people arrested and commie “paradise” has returned (for awhile). Many Hams were arrested and lost their licenses.
Hero was OK1ZQ, who barricaded in the attic of Ministry of Interior, for few days, with no food and Russians occupying the building, managed to keep communications between new government and UN delegate in NYC.
Strangely in these Communist dictatorships killing off the deposed leader was not the norm. Normally they were just put out to pasture someplace. Dubcek lived until 1992.
“Put out to pasture” LOL.
Like an old nag.
I think Ceausescu would have preferred that alternative.
Ten years, or so, ago we spent three days prior to a river cruise in Prague. The citizens were the most fervent capitalists I have ever met.
Ceaucescu was not killed by fellow Communists, but by his own outraged citizens.
There was some sort of tacit “shut-up and we’ll let you live” pact amongst Communist leaders. Khrushchev likewise quietly lived out his days in a dacha someplace.
Actually he kind of was, granted they were opportunistic and fed off of the public's dissatisfaction, but the guy that replaced Ceausescu still was a Communist IIRC.
“Shut up and we’ll let you live”
We’re not supposed to do that in America, but Hillary, Obama, and even some republicans come to mind./s
Our country has been through so much. Civil War, Vietnam, the 60s chaos, to name a few...and we continue to be a living, breathing battlefield for freedom...
But at the most consequential junctures in our history, the American people manage to make the right choice, sometimes at great cost, in the knick of time — and we are spared the fall into the precipice of unchallenged tyrannical darkness. Trump’s continuing fight of victory attests to that.
The same cannot be said of other nations, who even in the midst of newfound freedom and prosperity, can’t seem to break free from the cycles of tyranny: Russia, China, to name a few. The people tire of the struggle fast.
And a post like this, about Czechoslovakia, the memory and lessons of which has been all but lost (or distorted) in much of Europe and the former Soviet Union: posts like this would hold more weight on a board like “Free Republic” — if there weren’t so many people blinded by false prophets like Putin touting it.
According to the (incorrect) alt left radical extremist dems, that is the same as today’s Trump supporters. Weird how that works huh? There were many relo/re-education camps in Yugoslavia under Tito. Mrs. Rktman’s mom spent time there with her family. Why? Christians.
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