Word: dubcek
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Dates: during 1968-1968
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...tempted Eastern bloc countries to look suddenly Westward. Rumania asserted its inde pendence from Moscow by trading ambassadors with Bonn; Hungary was toying with the idea of doing the same thing. Czechoslovakia accepted a West German trade mission, and it was to West Germany that Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek looked for the loans he needed to revitalize his country's economy and free it from Soviet domination...
CZECHOSLOVAKIA ranked second only to Russia in its strict border control until early this year. Then, in one of its most welcome reforms, the Dubcek regime relaxed restrictions on travel,' and Czechoslovaks began spilling joyously out of their country to explore the world. When Russian tanks moved on Prague on Aug. 21, thousands of Czechoslovaks-including Deputy Premier Ota Sik and Foreign Minister Jifi Hajek-were relaxing on their first vacation abroad in years. For them, and for ordinary citizens who fled the country in the first clutch of fear, Russia's continuing occupation poses an agonizing dilemma...
...arrived in Prague the week before as Moscow's viceroy for its captive land. A skilled diplomat, Kuznetsov outranks Ambassador Stepan Chervonenko. After assessing the situation, he reported to Moscow that things were not going as badly for the Kremlin as Chervonenko had made out. He said that Dubcek and President Ludvik Svoboda should be given a while longer to make good on the Moscow accord. As the Czechoslovaks did, in fact, fulfill the first part of the demands, the Soviets reciprocated by withdrawing the remainder of their 275,000 troops* from the cities into bivouac areas...
Kuznetsov also seemed to be 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...
Choosing Freedom. As part of the normalization program, Dubcek and his colleagues issued a proclamation appealing to Czechs abroad to come home. "Your place is here," it said. "Czechoslovakia needs your capabilities, knowledge and education." The Czechoslovak leaders even issued special assurances that there would be no reprisals against returnees. Throughout Western Europe, where there are now an estimated 60,000 Czechoslovak "tourists," Czechoslovak embassies are holding briefing sessions to try to convince those who fled to return home. Some Czechoslovaks, especially those who had been caught abroad by the invasion, were indeed returning. But others, notably scientists, professors...