Europejskie partie komunistyczne wobec przemian w Czechosłowacji w 1968 roku

Abstract

In the night between the 20lh and 2151 of August, 1968, the armies of the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, the GDR and Bulgaria entered the territory of Czechoslovakia. In this way the “Prague spring”, a period of citizen life freedom, was terminated. The intervention evoked a clearly negative reaction in the international worker’s community, as it was perceived as an unjustified aggression. The explanations of the Soviet Union, that the action was a “brotherly help against counterrevolution”, were not accepted as believable. The greater the sympathy of the international community which was directed towards the Czechoslovakian reformative process, the more protests, bitter disappointment and opposition appeared in reaction to the news of the intervention. The greatest, most influential communist and labour parties of Europe condemned the aggression and supported the Czechoslovakian society and its constitutional authorities. This was the attitude of, among others, the Yugoslavian Communists Association, the communist parties of Romania, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Great Britain and Japan. Contrary to the disapproval expressed by the governments and parliaments of the European countries as regards the intervention, the protests of the communist parties could not be neglected not labelled “imperialist manipulation”. This especially concerned the protests of the greatest parties, the Italian and the French communist party, the latter up till then always faithful to Moscow. The crack that appeared in the unity of the “international communist movement” was the price the Soviet Union had to pay for keeping Czechoslovakia within the “bloc”. Beside the Chinese-Soviet conflict, this was the most serious crisis in relations between the CPSU and the communist parties of Europe and the United States. Thus the erosion of the unity of the communist movement began. After a few years it led to far-reaching transformations among the communist parties of Western Europe, which found their expression in the doctrine of “Euro-communism”.