Alexander Dubček

The Czechoslovak politician Alexander Dubček (1921-1992) served briefly as head of his country's Communist party. His attempts to liberalize political life led to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army and his dismissal from office, only to be vindicated years later when the Communist regime fell.

Alexander Dubček was born on Nov. 27, 1921, the son of a cabinetmaker who had just returned from the United States. His family lived in the U.S.S.R. from 1925 to 1938, and it was there that he received his education. During World War II he was an active member of the underground resistance to the Germans in Slovakia.

After the war Dubček made his career as a functionary of the Communist party. He was elected to the Presidium of the Slovakian and then of the Czechoslovakian Communist party in 1962, and in the following year he became first secretary of the Slovakian party's Central Committee. Yet when he succeeded Antonin Novotny in January 1968 as first secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist party, he was not well known in his own country and was hardly known at all outside it.

Pressure for the relaxation of the rigid dogma prevailing in political life had been mounting in Czechoslovakia for a considerable time and had been strengthened by economic discontent. Dubček became the personification of this movement and promised to introduce "socialism with a human face." After coming to power, censorship was relaxed and plans were made for a new federal constitution, for new legislation to provide for a greater degree of civil liberty, and for a new electoral law to give greater freedom to non-Communist parties.

The Soviet government became increasingly alarmed by these developments and throughout the spring and summer of 1968 issued a series of warnings to Dubček and his colleagues. Dubček had attempted to steer a middle course between liberal and conservative extremes, and at a midsummer confrontation with the Soviet leaders he stood firm against their demands for a reversal of his policies.

It was thought that Dubček had won his point on this occasion, but on August 20 armies of the U.S.S.R. and the other Warsaw Pact countries occupied Czechoslovakia. Some historians believe that the immediate cause of the Soviet invasion was the Action Program, initiated by Dubcek the previous year. Mass demonstrations of support for Dubček kept him in power for the time being, but his liberal political program was abandoned.

Over the next 2 years Dubček was gradually removed from power. In April 1969 he resigned as first secretary of the party, to be replaced by the orthodox Dr. Gustav Husak. That September he was dismissed from the Presidium, and in January 1970 from the Central Committee. In December 1969 he was sent to Turkey as ambassador. The final blow came on June 27, 1970, when he was expelled from the Communist party, and shortly afterward he was dismissed from his ambassadorial post. From there he was confined for almost twenty years to a forestry camp in Bratislava, with little contact with the outside world and constant and intense supervision by the secret police.

Meanwhile, the attitudes that Dubček had set in motion continued under their own power. A small underground movement known as Charter 77, named after its inaugural declaration on January 1, 1977, grew to 2,000 members over the next twelve years. Influenced by the movement in neighboring Poland for greater openness and human rights, Charter 77 was created by a broad spectrum of leaders, including former Communists and religious activists. They were constantly hounded and persecuted by the Communist government, but did not relent. Police arrested ten of the group's leaders, including Vaclav Havel and Jiri Dienstbier, who became, respectively, President and Foreign Minister of the new Czechoslovak government in 1989. Charter 77 continued until 1995, when it became apparent it had fulfilled its function.

Dubček highly approved of Russian prime minister Mikhail Gorbachev's progressive policy of glasnost, and eventually its successor of perestroika. While he noted there were some fundamental differences, he believed it came from the same ethic he had tried to promote in the Prague Spring. After Gorbachev visited Czechoslovakia in 1987, the secret police started leaving Dubček alone.

On November 17, 1989, a student commemoration of a Nazi atrocity in 1939 was brutally assaulted by riot police with little provocation. The factionalized oppositions to the government became united to a single purpose by the event, and formed the Civic Forum, led by Havel. He obtained video of the riot, interviewed victims, and had thousands of copies distributed across the country that were surreptitiously played on available televisions. The people became inflamed, and larger and larger demonstrating crowds filled Wenceslas Square. This rapid yet peaceful movement came to be known as the Velvet Revolution. Just a week after the riot, Havel and Dubček appeared together to the throng, who in one voice demanded the latter's restoration.

At first, Havel, the playwright, insisted on standing in the shadow of Dubček; by the time of the federal elections in 1990, it had been decided that Dubček would become chairman of the federal parliament. Dubček then proposed Havel for the presidency, which was accepted unanimously.

In his last years, Dubček aligned himself with the ideas of European Social Democracy and especially with German chancellor Willy Brandt. In 1992, Dubček became leader of the Social Democratic party in Slovakia. By that time he was already sick, having worked virtually around the clock for over two years as chairman of the Czechoslovak assembly. A huge shock, one he did not get over, was the death of his wife, Anna, in September 1991. A year later, Dubček was in a car accident, and barely escaped immediate death. Physicians diagnosed him with with a broken spine, as well as other serious illnesses. He passed away on November 1, 1992. Shortly thereafter, Czechoslovakia peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, an event known as the Velvet Divorce.

Further Reading

The best biography of Dubček, and a successful attempt to relate his career to developments within Czechoslovakia as a whole, is William Shawcross, Dubček (1990). The best book on the 1968 crisis itself is Philip Windsor and Adam Roberts, Czechoslovakia, 1968 (1969). The best way to see these events through the eyes of the man who lived them is in Dubček's autobiography, Hope Dies Last (1993), edited by Jiri Hochman. Valuable background is provided by Edward Taborsky, Communism in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1960 (1961). The cultural and political climate of Eastern Europe in the late 1980's is decsribed in Lighting the Night: Revolutions in Eastern Europe (1990) by William Echikson. □

Alexander Dubček , 1921-92, Czechoslovakian political leader. A member of the Slovakian national minority, he was active in the Communist underground in World War II and rose in the party hierarchy after the war, becoming head of the Slovakian Communist party and a member of the presidium of the Communist party's central committee. In 1967 he led the liberal opposition to the party's first secretary, Antonín Novotný . In Jan., 1968, Novotný was forced to resign; Dubček succeeded him. In Dubček's brief term in office he relaxed censorship, placed liberal Communists in leading state posts, began to pursue an independent foreign policy, and promised a gradual democratization of Czech political life. This period is known as the Prague Spring. The USSR became increasingly alarmed at Dubček's policies, and in Aug., 1968, Soviet and other Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia. Dubček was arrested along with other leaders, taken to Moscow, and forced to consent to the cancellation of key reforms. He retained his post as first secretary, but pro-Soviet elements in the Czech party soon (1969) removed him. After serving briefly as ambassador to Turkey (1969-70), he fell into official disgrace. He returned to public view in the late 1980s as a supporter of the Civic Reform opposition party led by Václav Havel . From 1989 to 1992, Dubček served as speaker of the Czechoslovak parliament, where his presence provided a direct connection between the new government and the reforms of the Prague Spring.

Bibliography: See K. Dawisha, The Kremlin and the Prague Spring (1984).

Dubc̆ek, Alexander (b. 27 Nov. 1921, d. 7 Nov. 1992). First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party 1968 Born in Uhrovek (Slovakia), he grew up in the Soviet Union. He joined the Slovak Communist Party upon his return in 1938, and was active in the Slovak resistance throughout World War II. After 1945, he was a minor party official until in 1951 he joined the Central Committee of the Slovak Communist Party. A member of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party from 1958, he became increasingly opposed to Novotny's hardline policies, arguing that the Communist Party needed to reform itself in order to ensure its survival. As de facto leader of the country from January 1968, he embarked upon the period of reform known as the Prague Spring, with the aim of creating ‘socialism with a human face’. He failed to appreciate the extent to which his policies were unacceptable to the hardline Brezhnev and Ulbricht. His programme came to an abrupt halt in August 1968 with the invasion by Soviet, East German, and Polish troops. He was briefly sent as an ambassador to Turkey, and finally ended up working in forestry. He retired, but reappeared before jubilant crowds in 1989 after the collapse of Husák's Communist regime. He was elected Parliamentary President on 28 December 1989, and was confirmed in that office by the new freely elected Parliament on 27 June 1990.

Dubček, Alexander (1921–92) Czechoslovak statesman, First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (1968–69). He is generally regarded as the driving force behind the attempted democratization of Czech political life in 1968 that became known as the Prague Spring. At this time he and other liberal members of the government made plans for a new constitution as well as legislation for civil liberties and began to pursue a foreign policy independent of the Soviet Union. In response, Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and Dubček was removed from office the following year. After the abandonment of Communism at the end of 1989 he returned to public life and was elected speaker of the Federal Assembly in a new democratic regime.

Dubček, Alexander (1921–92) Czechoslovak statesman, Communist Party secretary (1968–69). Dubček was elected party leader at the start of the Prague Spring. His liberal reforms led to a Soviet invasion in August 1968, and Dubček was forced to resign and expelled from the party. Following the collapse of Czech communism, he was publicly rehabilitated and served as speaker of the federal parliament (1989–92).

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