Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Prague Post- Blast from the Past: Alexander Dubcek Visits Hometown

Friday, July 24, 2015

Prague Post- Blast from the Past: Alexander Dubcek Visits Hometown

#FlashbackFriday : Dubček makes a trip to his hometown

Category: Culture

Published: 24 July 2015

Written by André Crous

Hits: 102

Then-First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubček is seen here dancing shortly before he was removed from his post in 1969. Courtesy photo.

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Czechoslovak leader whose attempts to liberalize country were quashed by Moscow in 1968 is seen smiling, dancing two months before his removal from power

Alexander Dubček was one of the most interesting characters of the Czechoslovak political scene in the 1960s. He led a quiet revolution within the ranks of the country's stuffy Communist Party with the ultimate goal of transforming hardline communism and applying its principles in a way that was more humane. This desire to replace suppression with a degree of liberty quickly ushered in the blossoming period of freedom that would be called the Prague Spring of 1968.

Unfortunately, as we know too well, the Soviet Union balked at this approach, and by the end of the summer its leader, Leonid Brezhnev, commandeered the region's powers to invade Czechoslovakia, shut down the reforms and revert the country to its former ways. It took just a few months for Dubček to be removed from power and after being expelled from the party, he was relegated to a life outside the political arena, at least until the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

Dubček was born in the western Slovak town of Uhrovec in 1921 and grew up in the democratic Czechoslovak Republic under the leadership of founding father Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. After Slovakia declared independence and was dubbed the Slovak State while it was being run by the Nazi collaborator Father Jozef Tiso, the Communist Party of Slovakia was formed, of which Dubček soon became a member.

In the early 1960s, Dubček brought about the fall of the old guard in the party that had been loyal to Czechoslovak President and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Antonín Novotný. He subsequently led the party toward a more liberal approach to communism.

After a disastrous economic downturn in the country at the end of the 1960s led to widespread opposition to Novotný's continued tenure as the head of state, Dubček took the position as first secretary, while Novotný's post as president was taken up by General Ludvík Svoboda.

Under Dubček, the country was opened up to allow greater freedom of expression than had been permitted under Novotný. However, despite him giving assurances to Moscow that Czechoslovakia was still in the orbit of the Soviet Union and, Brezhnev was unconvinced and put his foot down by sending thousands of tanks and hundreds of thousands of troops into the country the night of Aug. 20–21.

On Feb 10, 1969, two months before he was kicked out of his post as first secretary, Dubček paid a visit to his hometown, where he attended the 20th anniversary of the founding of its peasant cooperatives, or collective farming (jednotné roľnícke družstvá). In the video below, his human touch is unmistakable, as he dances with many of the women in attendance and happily partakes of the roasted piglet and wine. Years later, The Washington Post would describe his smile as “kindly, slightly diffident and tinged with sadness,” and indeed he appears to have been one of the most radiant public figures the country ever had.

His slide back to civilian life was gradual but incredibly fast, and by 1970 he was working for the forestry service of Slovakia, where he would remain until the mid-1980s.

André Crous can be reached at acrous@praguepost.com

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Alexander Dubček Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

About the Author

ANDRÉ CROUS

Hailing from the Cape Winelands in South Africa, André spent his student years at home and all over France before making the move to Prague in 2011. He has worked as a film critic and copy editor, and is a member of the renowned international association of film critics, FIPRESCI.