INVITATION: The Prague Spring and the 1968 Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in an international context

We would like to cordially invite you to the conference on the topic of The 1968 Prague Spring and its meaning in an international context. The event will take place in Brussels' Prague House on 24th of September.

The event will take place in Brussels' Prague House on 24th of September. For more information check the Facebook page of the event or the PDF document attached on the right side of this page. 

Please note that registration is essential for your participation at the debate. You can register (by September 21, 12:00 CET) at bit.ly/PragueSpring1968 or contact us via brussels@europeum.org.

What do the events of the 1968 mean for the Czech Republic and Europe from today’s perspective? What impact have the events had on a regional cooperation after 1990? What is the use of 1968 in the current political and social discourse? And finally, what is the understanding of guilty from the perspective of 50 years?

The events of the year 1968 cannot be understood as a single event that ended up by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies lead by the Soviet Red Army. It was a result of an intellectual, political, and social uprising which was driven by the will of Czechoslovaks to be an example a transformation of communist regime driven from the inside. However it was the regional as well as European political and social development which created an environment that allowed the Czechoslovak society to believe that reformation of the communist regime was possible.

The intellectual and cultural movement, strongly supported by a political transformation, eventually ended very quickly. The invasion of the Warsaw Pact in August 1968 served as a warning for the other communist states of the Central and Eastern Europe. The same external strength that enabled the early 1968 transformation was used to show that such a reform aims were not welcomed.

Brussels Office
Avenue de Broqueville 40, 1200 Woluwe-Saint-Lambert

Zuzana Stuchlíková
Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: Central Europe, EU Institutions