Brezhnev Doctrine and Prague Springs

Maddie Dickson, AJ Johnson, Julia Stephenson
Shropshire, 3rd period

What was Prague Springs?

Prague Spring was a political liberalization movement within Czechoslovakia (ruled by Soviet Union) after World War II. The reforms (which started in 1968) were led by Alexander Dubček, leading a "democratic socialist revolution," exactly what the Soviets did not want.  This movement aimed to grant citizens more broad rights, such as loosening restrictions on media, speech and travel. The reforms of loosening communist control was not accepted well by the Soviets, who in turn sent lots of Warsaw Pact troops, who led very violent resistance to the Prague Spring reform efforts. In the end, the Soviets overpowered the efforts of the Czech's to reduce the amount of communism, and in turn were new followers of the newly initiated Brezhnev Doctrine from the Soviets. While the Soviets saw this as instilling and preserving communism, the Czech's felt overpowered and manipulated.

What is the Brezhnev Doctrine?

The Brezhnev Doctrine was the Soviet foreign policy, written in 1968 by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. It meant that the communist parties limited the independence of satellite states, meaning no country would be able to leave the Warsaw Pact or disturb a ruling communist party's power. The Soviet Union gave themselves the power to use military force to stop socialist countries desire of turning to capitalism, this meant that if the Soviets saw that any nation was weakening its communistic hold, they would intervene.  It was a direct response to crushing the "Prague Spring Movement" in Czechoslovakia. The idea of conserving and especially preserving any communism, and attacking those who did not want/were leaning towards leaving the idea.

Violent Warsaw troops invade the streets of Czechoslovakia in efforts to overpower the Prague Spring reform movements.


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