15 November, 2013
The Unbearable Lightness of Prague Spring
The year 1968 provided for a considerable amount of cultural and historical material all around the world. In Czechoslovakia, 1968 represents the year of the Prague Spring and the attempted liberalization of the Eastern Bloc country. During the 1960’s, De-Stalinization had begun under the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Antonín Novotný. By late 1967, Novotný was losing support and even Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev began to oppose him. A major source of the opposition came from members of the Czech writers union and other intellectuals. Many citizens supported the opposition because of the struggling economy that the almost-Western country faced under the Soviet model of industrialization. Novotný was eventually ousted, and on January 5, 1968 reformer and career party politician, Alexander Dubček took over as First Secretary. Soon after, on the anniversary of “Victorious February” (the communist takeover celebration), Dubček delivered a speech advocating change. He wanted socialism to fit the historical context of Czechoslovakia. The avenue that he used for his reforms was called the Action Program which would allow for freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, availability of more consumer goods, limited power to the secret police, and the possibility of an eventual multiparty government. For us these reforms are cornerstones built into American history, but to an Eastern Bloc country, these had the possibility to be viewed as extremely dangerous measures (Perestroika and Glasnost, anyone?). Dubček’s slogan for his new agenda was “Socialism with a Human Face” and sounds a bit hostile to the Marx-Leninists in the motherland.
After Dubček took over, scholar Eduard Goldstucker became editor in chief of the formally strictly communist controlled paper Literarni listy (renamed from Literarni noviny) and head of the writers union. He tested Dubček’s loyalty to reform by criticizing Novotný’s leadership and the lack of Czechoslovakian economic progress and Dubček passed and earned the writer’s trust. Everything seemed to be optimistic and peaceful in Czechoslovakia during the Dubček reforms, which came to be known as Prague Spring (the predecessor to Beijing Spring, Croatian Spring, and most relevant to us: Arab Spring).. that is until members of the Warsaw Pact, (Brezhnev) began to grow concerned. Negotiations between the “Warsaw Five” and Dubček began to take place almost immediately after the launch of the Action Program. Dubček did his best to defend his reforms despite some opposition in his own party, and attempted to compromise. In the end, even if Dubček had really wanted to, he likely could not have reeled in the fervor that had resulted from the liberalizations attained during the Prague Spring. The Soviet Union was not happy with this and in The Warsaw Letter it is clear that Czechoslovakia’s communist deviance would soon be met with force as it reads,
…”a bold and decisive offensive should be launched against right-wing and anti-socialist forces; that all the defensive means set up by the socialist state should be mobilized; that a stop should be put to the activity of all political organizations that come out against socialism; that the party should take control of the mass-information media-press, radio, and television-and use them in the interests of the working class, of all working people, and of socialism; that the ranks of the party itself should be closed on the principled basis of Marxism-Leninism; that the principle of democratic centralism should be undeviatingly observed; and that a struggle should be undertaken against those whose activity helps the enemy…
We express the conviction that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, conscious of its responsibility, will take the necessary steps to block the path of reaction. In this struggle, you can count on the solidarity and all-around assistance of the fraternal socialist countries.” (The Warsaw Letter, July 18, 1968)
Throughout the rest of the summer of 1968, negotiations between the Warsaw Pact and Czechoslovakia were not satisfactory to the Soviet Union. By the end of August, it was clear that the only way to put down the Prague Spring, was through force- This would become known as the Brezhnev Doctrine. This doctrine was to be the means through which the Soviet Union would get socialist governments to subordinate to their national interests and the interests of socialism, and if force was necessary it was to be used.
On August 20, the Warsaw Pact countries sent in their tanks and invaded Czechoslovakia with troops in the hundreds of thousands and with the backing of the Politbiuro . The invasion killed a little over one hundred citizens and barely took a day to take control of the country.
The Soviet Press printed a “Letter to Brezhnev” (which it turned out had not come from the Czechoslovakian leadership) in which the KSČ government had invited the invasion. A line from the “letter” reads (in Russian, not Czech or Slovak, by the way),
“We realize that for both the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government, this ultimate step to preserve socialism in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic will not be easy. Therefore, we will struggle with all our power and all our means. But if our strength and capabilities are depleted or fail to bring positive results, then our statement should be regarded as an urgent request and plea for your intervention and all-round assistance.” (Letter to Brezhnev, August 1968)
To the credit of Dubček, he asked his citizens not to respond violently. The public relations disaster that followed this was bad enough for the Soviet Union. In addition to much Western criticism, Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, and countries like Romania and Finland saw it as a scandal as many saw this invasion as an act of imperialism. In Red Square, eight demonstrators were arrested for protesting against the invasion and for supporting Czechoslovakia.
The Current Digest of the Russian press provides us with the voice to the Soviet about the situation in their satellite country a few months after the invasion. The author writes,
“There is a growing understanding in Czechoslovakia of the need for truly socialist development of the country.
…Many Czechoslovak patriots emphasize in their statements and letters that the allied troops have helped to defend the state’s socialist foundations and to thwart the intrigues of internal reaction and external imperialist forces-particularly the West German revanchists, who have still not renounced their claims to Czechoslovak soil.”
The article continues to denounce the anti-socialist aims of Czechoslovakia, and expresses a genuine need for Czechoslovakia to put their media under communist control (so that articles like this can be mass read in Czechoslovakia). So at first glance you may ask, ‘What is the significance of this?’. After all, we just finished discussing a similar situation in Hungary that had to be put down a little over a decade earlier. In my opinion, this act of rebellion was different. It was not different in that it produced a result that was not a communist victory, but it was different in that it produced a concrete idea that would have lasting effects for the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, and the rest of the world two decades later. Future Soviet Premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, would later admit that he saw the need for Perestroika and Glasnost (Socialism with a Human Face) from the events of the Prague Spring. In fact, Gorbachev and Dubček were both students at the Moscow State University in the 1950s and had mutual associates. Gorbachev told a Slovak newspaper in 1998 that he “found courage and strength to start fundamental changes” in the 1980s because of the events of the Prague Spring. I took the idea for the title of this entry from the Czechoslovakian novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera which was set during the Prague Spring. Kundera took the title from an idea furthered by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that essentially says that the events of the earth have already occurred and will continue to occur forever, and sought to challenge the idea in the novel. In 1989, when a similar situation occurred in East Germany that would have normally been met with the force under the Brezhnev Doctrine, Gorbachev did not repeat history’s precedent; He let change happen- Change that Brezhnev was not ready to allow in 1968.
I used the module 1968: Crisis in Czechoslovakia for the topic of my post this week. The module can be found at:
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1968czechoslovakia&Year=1968
Some primary sources that I used in this post can be found at the following sites:
Warsaw Letter: http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1968spring1&SubjectID=1968czechoslovakia&Year=1968
Letter to Brezhnev: http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1968bilak1&SubjectID=1968czechoslovakia&Year=1968
Current Digest of the Russian Press: http://dlib.eastview.com/searchresults/article.jsp?art=12&id=13759124
I also used the Wikipedia article Prague Spring to frame a lot of my background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring
And finally this article for some interesting points: http://www.aworldtowin.net/resources/PragueSpring.html
The photos are found at theses sites in the order in which they appear:
http://prague-stay.com/lifestyle/review/128-the-20th-century/, https://wikiwillows2011.wikispaces.com/Cold+War+Era, http://www.walesartsreview.org/two-thousand-words-on-two-thousand-words-by-ludvik-vaculik/, http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2008/08/page/2/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Za_vashu_i_nashu_svobodu.jpg, and http://all-that-is-interesting.com/iconic-photograph-1968-prague-spring
2 December, 2013
Solidarity, Nothing Can Stop You
By the early 1970’s many Soviet controlled cities were experiencing similar problems such as economic stagnation, food price increases, and generally low morale. The Solidarity movement in Poland fought against these problems and promoted a non-violent and anti-communist social movement that would lead to successful and lasting changes. Solidarity’s roots began in December of 1970 in the Polish port town of Gdansk. There, the workers at the Lenin Shipyards marched to the Polish Communist Party headquarters and set it on fire- beginning a wave of strikes and resistance that would continue for nearly two decades.
In August of 1980, electrician Lech Wałęsa led workers in a massive strike (over 15,000 workers) that succeeded in the government not only giving workers the right to strike, but also allowing for a trade union independent of the communist party control (the first in any Warsaw Pact country). This strike led to the formation on September 22 of a nation-wide trade organization called Solidarity (Solidarnosc ). Lech Wałęsa became the first president of the trade union and it quickly transformed into a social movement with a membership of over a quarter of the Polish population. The goal of Solidarity was to “create dignified conditions of life in an economically and politically sovereign Poland. By this we mean life free from poverty, exploitation, fear and lies, in a democratically and legally organised society” . The movement was careful to never use violence, and the Communist government could not find a way to control the movement without suppressing it. As you could guess, this did not impress the Soviet Union, and the Central Party Committee forced Polish First Secretary, Stanisław Kania to resign. Kania was replaced by hardliner Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski whose solution to the problem was simple: Martial Law. On December 13, 1981, Jaruzelski delivered a speech to the Polish people and described their country as falling apart. He believed it was his duty to fix the situation, so he proclaimed:
I announce that today a Military Council of National Salvation has been established. Today at midnight, the Council of State, in accordance with the Constitution, introduced martial law throughout the country. I want everyone to understand the motives and the aims of our action. We are not striving for a military coup, for a military dictatorship. The nation has enough strength, enough wisdom to develop an efficient democratic system of socialist rule. In such a system the Armed Forces will be able to remain where they belong-in the barracks. No Polish problem can, in the long run, be solved through force. The Military Council for National Salvation is not replacing constitutional organs of power. Its sole task is the protection of legal order in the country and the creation of executive guarantees that will make it possible to restore order and discipline. This is the last path we can take to initiate the extrication of the country from the crisis, to save the country from disintegration….
“In this difficult moment I address myself to our socialist allies and friends. We greatly value their trust and constant aid. The Polish-Soviet alliance is, and will remain, the cornerstone of the Polish raison d’etat, the guarantee of the inviolability of our borders.
Poland is, and will remain, a lasting link in the Warsaw Pact, an unfailing member of the socialist community of nations….”
(Wojciech Jaruzelski, Announcement of Martial Law in Poland and TASS Reaction. December 13-14, 1981)
General Wojciech Jaruzelski announces martial law as a means to restore Poland
Martial Law in Poland, 1981
After the announcement, over 5,000 members of Solidarity, including many leaders were arrested. By October of 1982, Solidarity was banned. The martial law officially lasted until July of 1983, but all civil liberties were not retained. The arrests and official ban on Solidarity may lead one to speculate that the movement would eventually die down. This was the case with many previous resistances to communism, but it was not the case with Solidarity. The movement survived as an underground organization throughout the 1980’s with tens of thousands of members and hundreds of different newspapers. One reason that this movement was able to continue despite so much governmental opposition was the support from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Solidarity was playing out live on the international stage, and rather than work with Solidarity, the communist party repeatedly scored bad PR with the West. In 1983, Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, however the government denied his passport and he was unable to travel for its acceptance. One particularly bad episode occurred in 1984, with the murder of Pro-Solidarity priest, Jerzy Popiełuszko.
In addition to Wałęsa, another immensely influential Pole was the Catholic Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyla. In October of 1978, Wojtyla was elected as Pope and became Pope John Paul II. Professor Veronica Shapovalov wrote of the importance of the election of a Polish Pope (the first non-Italian in 455 years),
“I remember when the Polish pope was elected. That was a very bad blow for the Soviet propaganda because before it was totally that the Vatican and the Catholic Church were supported by capitalists and imperialists. But now the Pope was from Socialist Poland.”
(Shapovalov, 2012)
Pope John Paul II visited Poland in June 1979 in what was called ‘Nine Days that Changed the World”. He is credited with emboldening the worker-activists, as his initial visit coincided with the formation of the Solidarity movement. In later trips, the Pope gave tacit support for Solidarity. In addition to Polish support, the Solidarity movement had plenty of support abroad. Respected world leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan supported the movement in Poland. Some media from the United States on the Solidarity Movement includes: “Let Poland Be Poland“, a film produced by the US Information Agency in 1982 and Ronald Reagan’s address to the United States in 1981 on the Situation in Poland (he feared a Soviet Invasion like that in Czechoslovakia).
Two Poles who made a difference:
Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa
Margaret Thatcher was the first Western leader to meet with Lech Walesa at the Gdansk Shipyard
Obviously, one group of leaders that did NOT support Solidarity was the Soviet Union. A. Petrov wrote a piece on “The Intrigues of Socialist Poland’s Enemies” in 1980. He wrote on the Solidarity movement,
“They are inflicting direct damage to real socialism in the Polish land. They want to destroy the link between the party and working class, the chief source of strength of the PUWP and the Polish state. It is precisely for this reason that the antisocialist elements find support among Poland’s enemies operating from outside. It is precisely for this reason that the mass information media in the West are building up a slanderous and provocateur campaign against the Polish People’s Republic”
(Pravda)
Solidarity was officially outlawed in Poland, but the support from foreigners combined with non-direct Soviet intervention allowed the organization to prosper underground throughout the 1980’s. Solidarity was finally legalized in 1989 and they fielded candidates in that year’s elections. The election produced a majority of non-communist victors, and the majority of the seats went to Solidarity or coalition members. The peaceful fall of communism in Poland, as a result of the Solidarity movement of the 1980’s prompted the fall of many other communist governments throughout the Eastern Bloc. The fall of communism in the satellite states has a direct link to the Gdansk Strike of 1980. It may have taken nearly two decades, but eventually Lech Walesa’s Solidarity came out on top.
Solidarity will forever claim the legacy as a key factor in the communist fall in Poland
By the way, a Lech Walesa biopic from this year was is nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign films category. It is called Walesa: Man of Hope.
This week I chose the “Solidarity in Poland” module for the topic of my blog post. It is found here:
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1980solidarity&Year=1980
The Freeze text helped with some background information, as well as this web page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Solidarity
I used some primary sources from the 17 Moments site such as:
Martial Law in Poland: http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1980jaruz1&SubjectID=1980solidarity&Year=1980
Veronica Shapavalov: http://85856021.nhd.weebly.com/shapovalov.html
and Soviet Evaluation of Polish Solidarity Crisis: http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1980petrov1&SubjectID=1980solidarity&Year=1980
The images that I used were from these sites in the order in which they appear:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/europe_solidarity_in_poland0/html/1.stm
http://prodos.thinkertothinker.com/poland-on-the-eve-of-martial-law-prodos/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law_in_Poland
http://www.polishgreatness.com/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/8523996/Margaret-Thatcher-dies-Lech-Walesa-on-valuing-her-good-spirit-and-decisiveness.html
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/81233.htm
http://www.filmfestivals.com/blog/robert_bodrog/wajdas_walesa_biopic_to_debut_at_venice_film_festival
By Kelsey Shober Uncategorized 4 Comments