Word: ek
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After he engineered the ouster of longtime President and Party Boss Antonin Novotny in early 1968, Dubček launched a series of reforms that evoked the cheers not only of Czechoslovaks but of people throughout the rest of the East Bloc as well. Among other things, he ended press censorship, encouraged artistic freedom in films and literature, drew up plans to make the National Assembly a truly representative body, and allowed criticism within the party. He also started to liberalize the country's calcified economy. "Since the party cannot change the people," Dubček declared, "it must...
...Eyed and Aged. The East Bloc's orthodox leaders, notably East Germany's Walter Ulbricht, felt otherwise. Fearful that Dubček's reforms would ignite a liberal movement throughout the bloc, the Kremlin sent tanks to crush Prague's experiment. Because of his strong popular backing in Czechoslovakia, the Soviets for a time allowed Dubček to continue as party first secretary while compelling him to dismantle the very reforms that he had enacted...
Then in April 1969, Dubček was shunted aside in favor of Gustav Husak, who publicly thanked the Soviets for rescuing Czechoslovakia from the danger of Dubček's liberalism. Nonetheless, Husak, who in Czechoslovak terms is a moderate, refused to accede to demands of ultraconservatives who wanted Dubček punished for his sins. Instead, Husak managed to send Dubček and his wife Anna into the relative safety of political exile as ambassador to Turkey. Sad-eyed and aged far beyond his 48 years, Dubček kept mostly to himself in Ankara, brushed...
Last month Dubček suddenly left Ankara for Prague, ostensibly to visit his 80-year-old mother, who is hospitalized with a serious heart ailment. There was another reason for his recall. Dubček was spotted as he slipped into the party's massive brownstone quarters overlooking the Vltava River in Prague. He was reportedly subjected to grilling by a purge commission, and asked to recant his role in the 1968 reforms. He refused. Then he was asked to resign from the party. Again he refused. For Dubček, who remains a loyal Communist, the ordeal...
...Prague's ornate Hradcany castle, the eleven-man Party Presidium, which is now dominated by the ultras, last week fired Dubček as ambassador. The news of his ouster reached Ankara through the Soviet communications network. The Czechoslovak charge d'affaires was summoned to the Russian embassy to learn of Dubček's dismissal. Late last week a far heavier blow fell on Dubček. The Central Committee expelled him from his 32-year membership in the Communist Party, an act that relegated him to the limbo status of an unperson...