Word: czechoslovakia
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...last week rumbled a long cavalcade of black Tatra limousines. From them stepped Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek, the ministers of his regime and 277 members of the National Assembly. Only a few months ago, these men had gathered in the historic castle to enact the reforms that started Czechoslovakia on its brief but exhilarating attempt to reconcile Communism with human freedoms. Now, under the threat of Soviet invaders, they came to dismantle their own democracy...
...drafted a series of bills that fulfilled many of the demands of the Moscow accord. In that accord, the Soviet leaders had promised to ease their grip on the country as it returned to what the Soviets consider "normal." In quick succession, the National Assembly reimposed censorship on Czechoslovakia's press, revoked the right of assembly and association, abolished the small non-Communist political groupings that had grown up during Czechoslovakia's springtime of freedom, and reaffirmed the total and irrevocable supremacy of the Communist Party. By afternoon, it was all over. Only two Deputies had dared abstain...
Another important shackle was riveted onto Czechoslovakia in Moscow...
Journeying to the Soviet capital, Czechoslovak Premier Oldřich Cernick put his signature on a new seven-year economic agreement that abolishes any hope that Czechoslovakia might be able to seek funds and know-how in the West to revitalize its disastrously outmoded industry. The agreement was another barter deal, similar to earlier ones that ruinously shortchanged the Czechoslovaks; they must deliver trucks, heavy pipe and other manufactured goods to the Russians in return for raw materials. In addition, both countries will cooperate in the construction of a long pipeline to carry natural gas from the Soviet fields...
...doing what Chervonenko had dismally failed to do: lining up an alternative leader to Dubcek. On a one-day flying visit, Kuznetsov went to the Slovak capital of Bratislava for a chat with Gustav Husak, the Slovak party secretary whose recent public criticism of Dubcek's handling of Czechoslovakia's short-lived reform program won favorable mention in the Soviet press. Kuznetsov's visit encouraged speculation in Czechoslovakia that the Soviets hoped ultimately to replace Dubcek with Husak when the switch could be made without needlessly inflaming the country's turbulent political atmosphere...