The Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Although he seemed to be steering the Soviet Union in the right direction, his people and colleagues still viewed him critically. He had begun to realize that a state could not be run with a lot of "brain-washed helots". He shifted the economy as to raise the standard of living. This in turn began the development of individual thinkers, Soviets with a mind of their own. In order to allow this new wave

First, before the Second World War, the nation of Czechoslovakia had been a strong democracy in Central Europe, but beginning in the mid 1930s it faced challenges from both the West and the East. Until the Soviet’s invasion where they installed a whole new communist government in Prague. For the next twenty

Soldiers coming back from the war in the east and see that a corruption keep going. They are asking themselves what they fought for and what their mates died for. But they are manage to handle with weapons Daria Kaleniuk states to Afterposten reporter. - A new insurrection will not be peaceful. I sincerely hope that it won't happen. A present regime and a president must to grasp how dangerous to keep doing that they

On August 6, 1945 the first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing 66,000 people. The dropping of the bomb also had broader circumstances as it forced the surrender of Japan, officially ending World War II. However, the end of World War II marked the beginning of the political conflict and military tension between Russia and the United States known as the cold war. The “war” became global as it as it transformed from the U.S.S.R. vs. the United States to NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact. The Cold War ended in 1991, and now about twelve countries are confirmed or suspected to possess nuclear weapons. Globalization has advanced both the spread of nuclear weapons, and their disarmament. Non-proliferation efforts

Leonid Brezhnev, who took power after Khrushchev, attempted to reinstate Stalinism back into the Soviet Union. His reign created the neo-Stalinist period in Russia, albeit with a series of economic reforms that favored light industries and the production of consumer goods than heavy industry. Brezhnev also supported weakening animosities with the West in order to improve relations, attempting to improve the social and economic condition within the Soviet Union. However, due to health problems, much of the actual implementation was carried out by others within the CPSU leadership. Being on average older than the general population, the CPSU leadership was mostly conservative, which hindered the progress. Overall, through trying to combine the conservative and relatively outdated ideologies of Stalinism with failing economic reforms, Brezhnev was credited with the Era of Stagnation in the Soviet Union, being unable to deal with both internal and international affairs. Following Brezhnev was Yuri Andropov, a reformist who, during his short time as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, pushed for more freedom in media and appointed several other reformers into key positions in the CPSU. Konstantin Chernenko, who took power against Andropov’s wishes following his demise, attempted to shift back into the Brezhnev era policies, while also promoting reforms in education and the role of labor unions. However, poor health prevented him from properly implementing policies, and de facto power remained with reformer Mikhail Gorbachev. By this point, the constant fighting between reformists and Stalinists, together with conflicting and ineffective policies, had severely damaged the Soviet economy, as well as deteriorated international relations, escalating the Cold War, and slowly worsened socioeconomic and political tensions within

Unlike the Hungarians, the Prague Spring was not a nationalist movement within the country, but an attempt to reform communism within the country under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek. Dubcek was explicit about remaining loyal to the Soviets instead of creating an independent nation. Following of the death of Stalin, the leader Antonin Novotny did not follow the trend of the Soviet thaw, but continued to implement the policies of the Stalin Era. Novotny’s strict rule on the civilian lives of the Czechoslovak people caused much unrest within Czechoslovakia. Economic downturn caused starvation within Czechoslovakia and citizens felt that the Soviets were exploiting the country’s resources and impeding on the

The Czech crisis of 1968 also known as, the Warsaw Pact invasion, was the USSR led invasion of Czechoslovak. In January of 1968, the Czechoslovak Communist Party elected Alexander Dubcek. This was of no concern to the USSR until it became apparent that Dubcek was promoting liberal policies (Leffler 239). In the midst of economic turmoil in Czechoslovak, Dubeck “instituted economic reforms, permitted political liberalization,” replaced people of high standing positions in both the interior and the military (Leffler 239). The people of Czechoslovak responded positively to these changes. A revolution of liberation began in the country. Free speech was in full swing, “newspapers multiplied” and the people spoke freely of politics and concerns. This revolution became known as “Prague spring,” and amongst U.S. involvement in North Vietnam and the Dominican Republic as well as increasing Chinese hostilities, this revolution had the USSR fearing for socialist interests (Leffler 239).

Next, in order for the USSR to create a buffer zone in the Eastern European countries to protect the nation from the West, the Soviet Union organized the Warsaw Pact with Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The Warsaw Pact was established in order to eliminate any potential threats to the Soviet Union. In order to seal borders and prevent the escape of East German residents, Khrushchev, Stalin’s successor, decided to build the Berlin Wall, a concrete wall that was enforced with barbed wire, minefields, and machine gun towers that completely divided two sides, USSR with communism in the East, the United States holding power in the West (Glencoe 853). The USSR sent military forces to control the occupied

Malenkov’s post was then given to Bulganin who had little influence. Khrushchev had become the most important figure within the collective leadership. (A Country Study)

When conducting a comparative analysis there are several arguments that need to be developed in order to come up with a feasible conclusion. Therefore by using a three-fold approach I will be exploring the question of why the Warsaw Pact intervened in Czechoslovakia but not in Poland. One could begin by focusing on the origin of the reforms in both countries. Czechoslovakia adopted a “top down” approach headed from within the Communist Party by the liberal reformist Alexander Dubcek, the First secretary of the party. This is contrasted with the reforms in Poland as they spurred out of “Solidarity” that consisted of the working class and

In the year following the formation of the Warsaw Pact by the Soviet bloc, NATO military authorities began working on a series of new documents in order to create a consistent set of new strategies.

After he attained this position, he permitted himself to be known as the mortal who would succeed Antonin Novotnÿ. Novotnÿ could not solve the very difficult economic situation that Czechoslovakia was facing. Dubček succeeded Novotnÿ on January 5th, 1968. In early 1968, the people of Czechoslovakia were given more freedom. This arrived as a shock to most Communist leaders in Moscow, since earlier he had been known as a devoted communist.

The Invasion of Poland was a war between Germany, the Soviet Union and Poland. Germany invaded Poland and began with World War II. German took the victory in 1939. On September 1,1939, The Nazi Germans leader, Adolf Hitler, launched an invasion of Poland that triggered the start of World War II. The invasion lasted September until October 1939. Germany had a better military force than the Polish before the conflict.

The post of the first Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was given to a man named Alexander Dubcek. Dubcek was a dedicated Communist, but was wary of the Soviet policies. He had met many people who came from Stalin's

The events that eventually led to the successful revolution in 1989 got their start in the “Prague Spring” in 1968. There was a brief period of political reform in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when Alexander Dubcek was elected to be the First Secretary of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Many of Dubcek’s reforms were trying to give more rights to the citizens as well as relaxing government censorship.