Before the Prague Spring - Cold War DOCUMENTARY

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video with the events before the Prague Spring, as we introduce the ongoing processes that brought about this rejection of the Soviet dominance in Czechoslovakia.

#ColdWar #Czechoslovakia #SovietUnion #PragueSpring

[befeleme]

I lived through this. I was 14yo in 1968, a starry-eyed and naive dreamer. The buzzword of the day was "socialism with human face". We were all so very excited about it; there was so much freedom in the air; the newspapers became more readable, TV became more watchable, new avantgarde theaters sprang up, formerly banned books were being reprinted; one could speak without fear of repercussions. And we did speak a lot! The iron curtain was almost lifted. But it did not last very long. A rude awakening followed. I spent the next 13 years in depression, and then finally escaped from the country. But that's another story.

[viktornovomestsky]

As a Czech myself, I would like to thank you for covering this topic, so important for our country...
As it was the brutal Soviet invasion in 1968 ending the period of liberalization, which has led us to the 1989 peacefull Velvet revolution..
And due to that action by the USSR, we were always worried about today's Russia and Putin, which led Russia to add the Czech republic in the official list of its enemies 1 year prior to the Ukraine war...
So it consisted of the USA and the Czech republic in 2021 only, something we are very proud of:)
Due to that experience, we were the first country to provide tanks, howitzers, attack helicopters and much more to Ukraine, making a way for the other countries to do the same...
Even our PM was the first to visit the then besieged Kyiv on March 15th 2022, together with the Polish PM and Slowenien PM..
Due to the actions of the USSR in 1968, we are one of the leading voices in support of Ukraine, hosting the most refugees per capita in the EU (524.000 by a population of 10, 5 million) and making sure Ukraine will prevail...
Btw. in terms of GDP per capita, we are the leading post-soviet country, though Estonia is very near...

[Chilly_Billy]

Fun fact: the great Czech hockey player Jaromír Jágr, one of the best wingers in NHL history, choose 68 for his player number in remembrance of the Prague Uprising.

[queenofdramatech]

My best friends were alive in Prague during the Prague spring! Their stories are beautiful and powerful. Also, the documentary/movie Burning Bush did a good job of portraying what happened post spring.

[garymartinez]

A great historical what if of the 20th century. If Moscow allowed the Czech’s reforms to play out and the results were favorable, a much gentler transition to perestroika and glasnost would have been achievable. Their system would still be far behind the West but at least they would have been happier.

[SergeiVasilev-uc]

Have been waiting for this video for many years, because there are no many detailed materials about these events. Thanks!

[stanislavstz]

Hey, the Bratislava Declaration was signed by Bulgaria, too. Also, this is a good place to mention that no matter how great this channel is, Bulgaria is the most overlooked Eastern Bloc country. And there is plenty to cover like Goryani guerillas (like Forest Brothers in the Baltics), the somewhat unique relationship with the USSR, the idea of uniting Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and their Macedonian policy, the rule of Todor Zhivkov, one the longest serving dictators in the Eastern bloc, the assassination of the Bulgarian journalist and dissident - Georgi Markov with a poisoned umbrella.

[TomKroupa]

This was an awesome episode for me, because I am Czech. Thank you for it. ... Also, David, good work with the pronunciation of the names. Almost every name was very close to perfect, I am giving you B+ :-). Plus is for Mr. Dubček, you pronouced his name like a native Czech:-).

[mohammedsaysrashid]

It was informative and had sufficient historical footage about Czechoslovaka political, economic circumstances during the Cold War before Prague uprising. No one has the ability to hold a fire 🔥 bunch and an ice block with one hand...opportunities in attitudes are not remaining forever

[jesseberg]

You need to cover the fall of Khrushchev.

[wiktorberski]

Nice to watch. Waiting for the next episode

[treadheadpete]

I just watched you on OTD, great discussion!
I wirk nights in a Veterans Hospital in Canada, so once things are quiet, I will check out your videos, apparently you have 265 to help get me through a 12hr shift!
I am looking forward to it!

[OTDMilitaryHistory]

Great backgrounder to the Prague Spring. I'm looking forward to the next video.

[marekhavrlik]

Hi from CZ!
Well made video, I enjoyed it. I do not agree on the narative of why to go for supression through just Breznhnev. The matter also made divison among several politbyro and army high ranking officials and I was suprised to found out, that for Brezhnev military operation and ocupation were not the first picks how to solve it. Looking forward for the second part.

[EnzoFerrari]

David, there's another 'spring' quite unknown: the Zagreb spring in 1971.
USSR didn't jump on that stage, but the uprising failed.

[bigcityragdolls]

As a russian, I am so sorry for that 😭😭😭
I wish my contry tried building a human-faced democracy nowadays 💀

[brokenbridge]

This was a nice idea into a pivotal even during the Cold War.

[vojtechkubinek]

I have my personal theory that onem of the reasons to why Novotný didn't have the support of Brezhnev is because Novotný was one of the staunchest allies of Khruschev when Brezhnev deposed him, so I think Brezhnev wanted to take a sort of a revenge on Novotný and because of that supported Dubček.

[TheMagicLemur]

Would be great it The Cold War did biographies too - e.g. Vaclav Havel.

[AB]

It was briefly mentioned that young Dubček lived for a while in Kirgizstan. Story went like this - before World War I his parents actually emigrated for work to the USA, where his father became communist symphatizer. After WWI they moved back to Czechoslovakia, where was Dubček born in 1921. In 1925 his father and others put his money earned in USA into this Kirgizstan venture, but commune did not prosper much, conditions were harsh, he lost invested money, stalinist purges were beginning and in the end his father asked for the passport to go back to Czechoslovakia. Somebody would say such experience would teach intelligent person something, but you can not really change true believer...