1 sept. 1968 - Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Description:

|August 1968|

[Continued from the "Prague Spring"...]

CAUSES:
- Brezhnev was unconvinced by Dubcek. He worried that Czechoslovakia would leave the Warsaw Pact and allow NATO to move in.
- Czechoslovakia also had the strongest economy and industry in the bloc
- If he was not tough with the reforms, he realised that they might spread to the other satellite states meaning the bloc would collapse and therefore the Soviet-Germany buffer zone would no longer exist.
- The other parties of the WP objected to the reforms.

WHAT HAPPENED:
- In august 1968, 500,000 troops from the WP countries invaded Czechoslovakia
- There was very little violent protests because the Czech's remembered what happened to the Hungarians in 1956.
- Instead they did non-violent protests such as sit-ins etc. Although Soviet tanks were attacked with petrol bombs.
- [Specific knowledge] One student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire to protest against soviet control and occupation.

CONSEQUENCES;
- Dubcek was replaced by a hardline communist called Husak. Because Dubcak and Brezhnev were initially friends, Dubcek was banished to Turkey rather than killed like Novotny
- The invasion directly lead to the Brezhnev Doctrine which stressed that a threat to one communist country was a threat to them all and force would be used when necessary to keep them under control.
- The WP did suffer, Romania refused to send troops to Hungary and took an opposing stance to the USSR Albania did the same and even left the Warsaw Pact.
- It lead to a temporary dip in relations between the west and the USSR. It showed the west that the USSR would not tolerate reform or opposition from the satellite states. But the west war to afraid of war to intervene and the US were busy fighting in Vietnam.

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