It was about 11 PM of August 20 when the Czechoslovak territory was invaded by the Soviet, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Polish military troops, altogether more than 500 thousand soldiers entered the country. At the same time, an extraordinary meeting of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSC) took place in Vysocany in Prague. Alexander Dubcek, Otakar Cerny, Bohumil Simon and other leading politicians were kidnapped and taken to Moscow for "political talks". The remaining leaders of the Communist Party strongly condemned the decision to invade Czechoslovakia, which broke the sovereignty of the state, and they asked citizens to remain in peace and not to resist the military troops. By doing this,

The key features of the economy in 1960's were the unrealistic production targets, lack of correlation between production costs and prices, principle of full employment, that means no firing of workers (except for political reasons). All these factors cost huge economic stagnation. Leading economists began demanding freedom of speech to allow free discussion of economic problems and reforms. Dubcek was aware of these facts. He supported economic reform and political liberalization. In April 1968, Dubcek as the leader of the Czechoslovak Communist Party published its reform program, titled The Action Program. The program criticized mistakes and crimes of the past, for example, Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. It proposed a complete decentralization, managerial independence, flexible market mechanisms, and legalization of small private sector, especially in services. It also guaranteed personal freedom. People should be free to travel abroad. There was to be respect for the law and court proceedings. Dubcek believed in the need of uncensored media, so he allowed censorship to lapse. As a result, people began to speak more freely about the situation in the country. They started to criticize the past and supported reform - both economic and financial. At this point, censorship disappeared from media. Many of the past mistakes and cruelties of the party were revealed. Dubcek's economic and financial reforms should improve the situation in the country and became his trademark as "socialism with a human face". However, the leaders of the Soviet Union, Poland and East Germany could not understand that people of Czechoslovakia would freely support a reforming Communist Party. They criticized Dubcek for allowing censorship to lapse the country and attacked him for loosing control over the country. They became very nervous and very afraid that people in their countries would call for the same reforms and liberalization as it was in Czechoslovakia. Indeed, Polish students prepared demonstrations demanding the abolition of censorship and organized sit-ins at the universities. There were also some small demonstrations in East Germany. Moreover, Dubcek dismissed many Czech army officers appointed on Soviet recommendation earlier, and replaced them with officers he trusted. This happened all without asking for an agreement of Moscow. By doing this, the Soviets lost their agents in the Czechoslovak army.

Soon, many Soviet "tourists" came to Prague. Today, we know that they were soldiers. Also, the Warsaw Pact maneuvers in Czechoslovakia were a preparation for the invasion.

To summarize, Dubcek's "socialism with a human face" which should bring politic and economic reform of the country and more freedom for media and, above all, for citizens of Czechoslovakia meant a threat for the Soviet Union. The invasion of Czechoslovakia was necessary because it was their duty to "help against the imperialists" (Brezhnev, 1968), and "save our common borders from which the Soviets would never retr

Some common words found in the essay are:
Warsaw Pact, Central Committee, Stalinism Czechoslovakia, Communist Party, Moscow Talks, Words Writers, Soviet Union, West Germany, Czechoslovak Party, Moreover Dubcek, warsaw pact, czechoslovak party, moscow talks, communist party, soviet union, brezhnev 1968, february 20 2000, url february, document url, february 20, east germany, url february 20, document url february, czech republic 1968, 1998 czech republic,
Approximate Word count = 2035
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)