1968 For Your Freedom and Ours
The 1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Red Square Demonstration
During WWII the United States and USSR fought Germany as allies, and emerged from the war as world powers. Once the war was over, the two countries became bitter enemies; the US fought to preserve existing democracies with American power. Meanwhile, the USSR used the influence and prestige they’d gotten from fighting in the USSR to create a buffer of communist countries around them. This became known as the Soviet Bloc.
In 1968 Alexander Dubeck, the new leader of Czechoslovakia, began to introduce reforms intended to democratize the communist dimensions of society. These included increasing freedom of speech, abolishing censorship, ending travel bans, and introducing democratic elections. This was known as Prague Spring, and it continued until August.
On August 20, 1968 the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia with 200,000 East German, Hungarian, and Bulgarian troops. This was the heaviest military deployment since the end of World War II. The Czech people responded by taking to the streets to protest. They even tore down street signs to confuse the invaders. Countries like the US advocated action be taken against the USSR during UN meetings.
In the Soviet Union, the USSR justified the invasion in their newspaper Pravda by claiming that they were simply helping Czechoslovakia “defend their socialist gains,” They emphasized the threat of NATO and that they were doing what was best for the socialist community of the East. When asked about the issue of nations being able to decide their own government, the paper stated that of course a nation was allowed to decide its own system of government — as long as it was a communist one.
Not all of the Soviets agreed with how the USSR was handling the situation in Czechoslovakia. Writers and intellectuals were speaking out against the communist regime and were arrested for it. This was known as the Soviet “dissident” era. Eight protesters (Larisa Bogoraz, Konstantin Babitsky, Vadim Delaunay, Vladimir Dremliuga, Pavel Litvinov, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Viktor Fainberg, and Tatiana Baeva) sat in front of Lobnoy Mesto, holding Czechoslovakian flags and banners. These banners read slogans such as: “Shame to the Occupiers” and “For your freedom and ours!” They were all arrested except for Tatiana, who was only 21. The remaining protesters convinced her to say she’d been caught there on accident. All of these protesters were sentenced to up to four years in prison or up to five years in exile, despite the fact that none of the eye witnesses could give a definitive statement as to what had happened.
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