Editing Prague Spring (section)

==Aftermath==
{{main|Normalization (Czechoslovakia)}}
[[File:Radnice Liberec pamatnik 1968.jpg|thumb|upright|Memorial to the victims of the invasion, located in [[Liberec]]]]

In April 1969, Dubček was replaced as first secretary by [[Gustáv Husák]], and a period of "[[Normalization (Czechoslovakia)|normalization]]" began.<ref name = "Williams">Williams (1997), p. xi</ref> Dubček was expelled from the KSČ and given a job as a forestry official.<ref name="Auto"/><ref name="Schoolnet">{{Cite web|title = Alexander Dubcek|url = http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDdubcek.htm|publisher = Spartacus Educational|access-date = 25 January 2008|archive-date = 9 February 2008|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080209062623/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDdubcek.htm}}</ref>

Husák reversed Dubček's reforms, purged the party of its liberal members, and dismissed from public office professional and intellectual elites who openly expressed disagreement with the political transformation.<ref name=Interpolitics>Goertz (1995), pp. 154–57</ref> (Many of those purged would later become the [[dissident]]s of [[Czechoslovak underground culture]], active in [[Charter 77]] and related movements which eventually met success in the [[Velvet Revolution]].) Husák worked to reinstate the power of the police and strengthen ties with the rest of the Communist bloc. He also sought to re-[[Planned economy|centralize]] the economy, as a considerable amount of freedom had been granted to industries during the Prague Spring.<ref name="Interpolitics" /> Commentary on politics was forbidden in mainstream media, and political statements by anyone not considered to have "full political trust" were also banned.<ref name="KieranPress">Williams (1997), p. 164</ref> The only significant change that survived was the [[Federalization of Czechoslovakia|federalization of the country]], which created the [[Czech Socialist Republic]] and the [[Slovak Socialist Republic]] in 1969.

In 1987, the Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] acknowledged that his liberalizing policies of [[glasnost]] and [[perestroika]] owed a great deal to Dubček's "socialism with a human face".<ref>Gorbachev (2003), p. x</ref> When asked what the difference was between the Prague Spring and Gorbachev's own reforms, a Foreign Ministry spokesman replied, "Nineteen years."<ref>{{Cite news| last = Kaufman| first = Michael T.| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5D91F3EF931A25757C0A961948260 | title = Gorbachev Alludes to Czech Invasion|work=The New York Times | date = 12 April 1987| access-date =4 April 2008}}</ref>

Dubček lent his support to the [[Velvet Revolution]] of December 1989. After the collapse of the Communist regime that month, Dubček became chairman of the federal assembly under the [[Václav Havel|Havel]] administration.<ref>Cook (2001), pp. 320–21</ref> He later led the [[Social Democratic Party of Slovakia]], and spoke against the [[dissolution of Czechoslovakia]] before his death in November 1992.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/08/world/alexander-dubcek-70-dies-in-prague.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1| title = Alexander Dubcek, 70, Dies in Prague (New York Times, 8 November 1992)| website = [[The New York Times]]| date = 8 November 1992| last1 = Severo| first1 = Richard| archive-date = 18 April 2022| access-date = 18 February 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220418100105/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/08/world/alexander-dubcek-70-dies-in-prague.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1| url-status = live}}</ref>

=== Normalization and censorship ===
The Warsaw Pact invasion included attacks on media establishments, such as [[Radio Prague]] and [[Czechoslovak Television]], almost immediately after the initial tanks rolled into Prague on 21 August 1968{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}. While both the radio station and the television station managed to hold out for at least enough time for initial broadcasts of the invasion, what the Soviets did not attack by force they attacked by reenacting party censorship{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}. In reaction to the invasion, on 28 August 1968, all Czechoslovak publishers agreed to halt production of newspapers for the day to allow for a "day of reflection" for the editorial staffs.<ref>Williams, p. 147</ref> Writers and reporters agreed with Dubček to support a limited reinstitution of the censorship office, as long as the institution was to only last three months.<ref>Williams, p. 148</ref> Finally, by September 1968, the [[Czechoslovak Communist Party]] plenum was held to instate the new censorship law. In the words of the Moscow-approved resolution, "The press, radio, and television are first of all the instruments for carrying into life the policies of the Party and state."{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

While that was not yet the end of the media's self-called freedom after the Prague Spring, it was the beginning of the end. During November, the Presidium, under Husak, declared that the Czechoslovak press could not make any negative remarks about the Soviet invaders or they would risk violating the agreement they had come to at the end of August. When the weeklies ''Reporter'' and ''Politika'' responded harshly to this threat, even going so far as to not so subtly criticize the Presidium itself in ''Politika'', the government banned ''Reporter'' for a month, suspended ''Politika'' indefinitely, and prohibited any political programs from appearing on the radio or television.<ref>Williams, p. 175</ref>

The intellectuals were stuck at an impasse; they recognized the government's increasing normalization, but they were unsure whether to trust that the measures were only temporary or demand more. For example, still believing in Dubcek's promises for reform, [[Milan Kundera]] published the article "Cesky udel" (Our Czech Destiny) in ''Literarni listy'' on 19 December.<ref name="Holy, p. 119"/><ref>Williams, p. 182</ref> He wrote: "People who today are falling into depression and defeatism, commenting that there are not enough guarantees, that everything could end badly, that we might again end up in a marasmus of censorship and trials, that this or that could happen, are simply weak people, who can live only in illusions of certainty."<ref>Williams, p. 183</ref>

In March 1969, however, the new Soviet-backed Czechoslovak government instituted full censorship, effectively ending the hopes that normalization would lead back to the freedoms enjoyed during the Prague Spring. A declaration was presented to the Presidium condemning the media as co-conspirators against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in their support of Dubcek's liberalization measures. Finally, on 2 April 1969, the government adopted measures "to secure peace and order" through even stricter censorship, forcing the people of Czechoslovakia to wait until the [[Cold War (1985–1991)|thawing of Eastern Europe]] for the return of a free media.<ref>Williams, p. 202</ref>

Former students from Prague, including [[Constantine Menges]], and Czech refugees from the crisis, who were able to escape or resettle in Western Countries continued to advocate for [[human rights]], [[religious liberty]], [[freedom of speech]] and [[political asylum]] for Czech [[political prisoners]] and [[dissidents]]. Many raised concerns about the Soviet Union and [[Soviet Army]]'s continued military occupation of Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s, before the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] and the collapse of [[Communism]] in Moscow and Eastern Europe.

=== Cultural impact ===
The Prague Spring deepened the disillusionment of many Western leftists with [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] views. It contributed to the growth of [[Eurocommunism|Eurocommunist]] ideas in Western communist parties, which sought greater distance from the Soviet Union and eventually led to the dissolution of many of these groups.<ref>Aspaturian (1980), p. 174</ref>
A decade later, a period of Chinese political liberalization became known as the [[Beijing Spring]]. It also partly influenced the [[Croatian Spring]] in [[Communist Yugoslavia]].<ref>Despalatović (2000), pp. 91–92</ref> In a 1993 Czech survey, 60% of those surveyed had a personal memory linked to the Prague Spring while another 30% were familiar with the events in another form.<ref>Williams (1997), p. 29</ref> The demonstrations and regime changes taking place in North Africa and the Middle East from December 2010 have frequently been referred to as an "[[Arab Spring]]".

The event has been referenced in popular music, including the music of [[Karel Kryl]], [[Luboš Fišer]]'s ''Requiem'',<ref>{{Cite web| title = Luboš Fišer| url = http://www.musica.cz/fiser/| date = 5 February 2005| publisher = CZMIC| access-date = 23 January 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071008142700/http://www.musica.cz/fiser/ <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->| archive-date = 8 October 2007| url-status = dead}}</ref> and [[Karel Husa]]'s ''[[Music for Prague 1968]]''.<ref>{{Cite web| last = Duffie| first = Bruce| date = 1 December 2001| title = Karel Husa, The Composer in Conversation with Bruce Duffie| url = http://www.bruceduffie.com/husa.html| publisher = New Music Connoisseur Magazine| access-date = 23 January 2008| archive-date = 21 April 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210421033021/http://www.bruceduffie.com/husa.html| url-status = live}}</ref>
The Israeli song "Prague", written by [[Shalom Hanoch]] and performed by [[Arik Einstein]] at the Israel Song Festival of 1969, was a [[lamentation]] on the fate of the city after the Soviet invasion and mentions [[Jan Palach]]'s [[Self-immolation]].<ref>[http://mooma.mako.co.il/Biography.asp?ArtistId=1124&TextId=982 Biography of Arik Einstein – The Solo Years] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111154240/http://mooma.mako.co.il/Biography.asp?ArtistId=1124&TextId=982 |date=11 January 2012 }}, Mooma (in Hebrew). Retrieved 15 May 2010.</ref>
"[[They Can't Stop The Spring]]", a song by Irish journalist and songwriter [[John Waters (columnist)|John Waters]], represented Ireland in the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] in 2007. Waters has described it as "a kind of [[Celtis|Celtic]] celebration of the Eastern European revolutions and their eventual outcome", quoting Dubček's alleged comment: "They may crush the flowers, but they can't stop the Spring."<ref>{{Cite web| title = John Waters, The Events That Transpired it| url = http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1774358&issue_id=15243| work = Spring: The Events that Transpired it| date = 11 February 2007| access-date = 21 January 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193440/http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1774358&issue_id=15243| archive-date = 3 March 2016}}</ref>
"The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)", a song featured in the American-English singer-songwriter [[Scott Walker (singer)|Scott Walker]]'s fifth solo album [[Scott 4]] also refers to the invasion.

The Prague Spring is featured in several works of literature. [[Milan Kundera]] set his novel ''[[The Unbearable Lightness of Being]]'' during the Prague Spring. It follows the repercussions of increased Soviet presence and the dictatorial police control of the population.<ref>Kundera (1999), p. 1</ref> A [[The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)|film version]] was released in 1988. ''[[The Liberators (Suvorov)|The Liberators]]'', by [[Viktor Suvorov]], is an eyewitness description of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, from the point of view of a Soviet tank commander.<ref>Suvorov (1983), p. 1</ref> ''[[Rock 'n' Roll (play)|Rock 'n' Roll]]'', a play by award-winning Czech-born English playwright [[Tom Stoppard]], references the Prague Spring, as well as the 1989 [[Velvet Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Mastalir|first=Linda|date=28 June 2006|title=Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll"|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/80581|publisher=Radio Prague|access-date=23 January 2008}}</ref> [[Heda Margolius Kovály]] also ends her memoir ''Under a Cruel Star'' with a first hand account of the Prague Spring and the subsequent invasion, and her reflections upon these events.<ref>Margolius-Kovály (1986), pp. 178–92.</ref>

In film there has been an adaptation of [[The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)|''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'']], and also the movie ''[[Pelíšky]]'' from director [[Jan Hřebejk]] and screenwriter Petr Jarchovský, which depicts the events of the Prague Spring and ends with the invasion by the Soviet Union and their allies.<ref name="Film"/> The Czech musical film, ''[[Rebelové]]'' from [[Filip Renč]], also depicts the events, the invasion and subsequent wave of emigration.<ref name="Film">{{Cite web| last = Čulík| first = Jan| title = The Prague Spring as reflected in Czech postcommunist cinema| url = http://www.blisty.cz/2008/4/11/art40074.html| publisher = Britské Listy| date = 11 April 2008| access-date = 16 April 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080412132303/http://www.blisty.cz/2008/4/11/art40074.html| archive-date = 12 April 2008}}</ref>

The number ''68'' has become iconic in the former [[Czechoslovakia]]. [[Ice hockey]] player [[Jaromír Jágr]], whose grandfather died in prison during the rebellion, wears the number because of the importance of the year in Czechoslovak history.<ref>Morrison (2006), pp. 158–59</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title = Legends of Hockey, Jaromír Jágr| url = http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=10703| publisher = Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum| access-date = 23 January 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071112235512/http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=10703| archive-date = 12 November 2007}}</ref> A former publishing house based in [[Toronto]], [[68 Publishers]], that published books by exiled Czech and Slovak authors, took its name from the event.