Word: sovietizing
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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During Czechoslovakia's "springtime of freedom," First Party Secretary Alexander Dubcek was the symbol of the country's new liberal spirit. Now, in the winter of its agony, Dubcek has increasingly become the symbol of compromise and collaboration. Bending to the will of his Soviet overlords, how ever reluctantly, Dubcek has moved into the forefront of those who are shaping the country's return to stern Communist orthodoxy...
Last week the Communist Party Presidium issued a warning to the Czechoslovak people admonishing them to refrain from all forms of dissent against the regime or the Soviet occupiers. Otherwise, as Dubček declared, "The party will impose inevitable measures. They might seem undemocratic, but they will ensure that this republic is not driven by anarchistic tendencies." Not surprisingly, Dubček's popularity has declined sharply in Czechoslovakia. In fact, only 41 months after their tanks crashed into Czechoslovakia, the Soviets have, in effect, succeeded in destroying not only the liberal reforms but the reformer as well...
...Czech. Historically, the more bucolic Slovaks have felt oppressed by the urbanized and sophisticated Czechs, who outnumber them by nearly 3 to 1. Hoping to enhance his support at home, Dubček proposed self-rule as a means of alleviating the old Slovak grievances. At first, the Soviets, who earlier had threatened to break off Slovakia and incorporate it into the Soviet Union, opposed the federal system. They changed their minds when they realized that the reorganization would provide an opportunity to plant in the new posts men who are more likely to do their bidding than the officials...
Behind the scenes, the Soviets were doing some hoisting of their own, as they elevated their men to power. They are prudently not promoting for the new posts outright Stalinists from the Novotný regime; instead, they prefer respectable, obedient bureaucrats. In Prague's current political argot, these men are called "the realists." The new federal Premier, for example, is Oldřich Černík, who was also Premier during the Dubček period but has since shown his willingness to cooperate with the Soviet occupiers...
Scientific Booty. As the first men to circumnavigate the moon, the three will never again be able to return completely to their former lives. When they reached Houston, they had already been hailed in almost every nook and cranny of their native planet, including a somewhat envious Soviet Union. As scientific booty from their journey, they brought back photographs, both moving and still, so marvelous as to beggar the imagination of even the most dreamful of their fellow earthlings. Now they faced a schedule that, to them, might be even more wearying than their historic voyage: weeks of press conferences...