| Socialism With A Human Face |
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| prague spring | |
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ORIGIN The programme was an attempt to overcome the disillusionment of the people of Czechoslovakia with the current political and economic situation. As the name suggests, the plan was to breathe new life into the ideals of socialism, which had lost popular support due to the government policies of the previous two decades. It never intended to bring back market capitalism. The subsequent developments became known as the Prague Spring . PROGRAMME The programme initially called for greater participation of people in local and country politics under umbrella of the Communist Party, for greater freedom of press and in culture and emphasised need for personal initiative in economics. The most loathed representants of previous style of ruling were left to go. The programme did not envisage the existence of independent political parties or private ownership of companies. Participation in Eastern Bloc structures was not questioned. The events of the Prague Spring, especially their speed and escalation, outstripped the original programme, to the surprise and dismay of its authors. SUPRESSION The Soviet Union feared losing control over the country and invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21 , 1968, with 200,000 troops and 5,000 tanks. The liberalizing reforms were eliminated step by step, and the country eventually returned to the centralized model with the Communist Party organizing every aspect of political and economical life. Most of the influential people involved in the programme lost their political power and became targets of persecution. OUTCOME The only surviving change was federalisation of the country (by creating Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic in 1969). The Communist Party soon labeled ''socialism with a human face'' as an "attempt to destroy advantages of socialist society and bring back old system of exploiting people" and accused Western imperialism and emigrants for starting and nurturing the programme. In 1987 the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that his liberalizing policies of Glasnost and Perestroika owed a great deal to Dubček's ''socialism with a human face''. When asked what the difference was between the Prague Spring and his own reforms, Gorbachev replied, "Nineteen years." |
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