The Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Why did Czecholslovakia want to break free from Soviet rule?

• Economic problems were a major reason for reform in Czechoslovakia. Before the Second World War, the country had been very economically successful. However, under the Soviet rule, many people were angry with the low standards of living.
• Also, before World War II, Czechoslovakia had been a democratic country and so the people resented the fact that they did not have much freedom of speech under Soviet rule. In 1966, students held demonstrations calling for more freedom of speech and greater democracy.

Why did the Soviet Union want to and end up invading Czechoslovakia?

In January 1968, a new communist leader had been appointed. He was Alexander Dubcek and he was determined to improve communism and make it more liberal. He began to introduce many reforms:

• state planning would be altered so that more responsibilty is given to farms and factories
• trade unions would get more freedom
• foreign travel to and from the West would be allowed
• people would be given more freedom of speech and there would be no censorship of the Press
• criticising the government would no longer be a criminal offence

Despite the introduction of these liberal reforms, Dubcek remained a communist; he did not want Western-style capitalism to be introduced. Dubcek wanted to make sure that his reforms were not as radical and against communism as those during the Hungarian Uprising; because of this he repeatedly made it clear that he wanted Czechoslovakia to remain a loyal memeber of the Warsaw Pact. 

However, Brezhnev, the Soviet leader did not believe these assurances from Dubcek would not affect the Soviet Union's security. He feared the fact that if…