On 20-21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and three other Warsaw Pact states invaded Czechoslovakia to stop liberalisation and democratic reforms. Some 250,000 (later 500 000) Warsaw Pact troops, supported by thousands of tanks and hundreds of aircraft, took part in the occupation of Czechoslovakia.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1exj0vi
by Happy-Bumblebee-8809
41 comments
Fun fact: that’s where the word “tankie” comes from
The Soviet Union did not want to let people realize that communism was a lie
And these days the far-right parties are longing for Putin to be their daddy.
Funfact: the Soviets planned to occupy the country in 4 days, but the resistance held out for almost eight months.
Never forget.
How did it end?
Fun fact: the Czech Culture Center in Bucharest used this as advertisement once, “Thank you for not visiting in 1968, so visit now!”.
They did not change that much between then and now. Both “Soviet Union” and “Russian “federation”” are very evil entities.
Still using the same type of tanks in Ukraine due to attrition
That is what happens when opressive state takes control of other states. Back then Poland proudly accepted the request and supressed bad people. Though soviets put government thag would be loyal to them. This is today’s Belarus and Ukraine if does not win against Ruzzia.
ruske kurvy
They were trying to denazify those regions.
This is what russia has always done, and is still doing. There are still old dumbfucks who *literally remember* the soviet army grinding down their freedom with tanks, who will cry for Putin to save them from the evil EU. Every former Warsaw Pact country has a small percentage of these morons. Hungary the most, probably
As a Pole, I am sorry for what Poland was forced to do under the soviet occupation in those years. It was not the decision of the Polish government but of the soviet terrorists. My uncle was a tank driver at that time. One day they got an order from the east to enter Czechoslovakia. Everyone was shocked but the order was given and they had no right to object. It should never have happened.
The Warsaw Pact. The defensive alliance that invades its own members.
Time to donate 1968 czk for Ukraine
There is a really good and powerful photo missing from the montage. I got a poster of it from a museum a long time ago and it had to be sacrificed when I moved in with a girl because it wasn’t “cozy” enough. Love the defiance of it.
[https://theworldinbetween.com/2012/08/19/ladislav-bielik-and-the-iconic-photograph-of-1968-czechoslovakia/](https://theworldinbetween.com/2012/08/19/ladislav-bielik-and-the-iconic-photograph-of-1968-czechoslovakia/)
The correlation between this and Ukraine’s Maiden Revolution are striking. Putin acting like the Soviets whenever democracy gets too close to home
It is crazy how the US has done the same stuff
It makes me physically sick to know that so many East Germans will defend their „Russian friend“ even though Russia enslaved half of Europe. Russian propaganda is scary strong
parties are longing
Have we learned our lesson yet?
Russia cannot ever be trusted.
Traitors sold us and Dubček out. Also f*ck US president Johnson, he literally havent said a letter when he learned of this.
Warsaw Pact was the only defensive agreement pact that attacked its members.
A shameful part of our Polish history where because of Soviet politics we were forced to invade our loving neighbours.
May the Czechs and Slovaks find it in their hearts to forgive us and may nothing ever again stand between us.
This is a reminder of how Russia acts and why all of Europe should stand as one.
[Beatiful edit for this](https://youtu.be/g1vFha0ANBY?si=iJlvc4mBSaUSyCwI)
A friendly reminder of what Russia does to its neighbours.
Hungarians have forgotten.
My grandfather was during compulsory military service im that time. He was one of the tankers that drove to Prague. He wasn’t… proud of it. In the 80s he was in polish opposition movement and got taken by some sad people in long leather coats just to disappear completely for like 6 months. My mom said that he wasn’t the same after that “incident”.
Crazy that this happened during the same time the Vietnam War began to escalate.
For some reason I thought that this happened way earlier like the East German uprising of 1953 and Hungarian Revolution in 1956.
They did same to Hungary and Orban just doesn’t mind…
And how can Slovak be so pro Russian? Unimaginable
Never forget
Tragic fact that Polish tanks were invading with russian ones… We apologize for that Czech brothers.
Easily forgotten. Ask anyone in the UK under 50 and plenty above 50.. Wait for the blank face and cricket sounds.
It was tragedy. It was really bad times. I think there are many Slovaks, and especially Czechs (Polish army went to Czechia), who don’t trust Poles thanks to that (or Zaolzie in 1938, but that’s different story, yet somewhat “justifed” (revenge for 1920)).
Poland lost 10 soldiers… in accidents and suicides. Hungary lost 4 soldiers (accidents, diseases, suicides), Bulgaria 2 (1 suicide, 1 on duty – someone steal his weapon). USSR lost… who cares (hope there were only Russians). Many suicides, huh?
One Polish drunken soldier shot two Czechs and wounded 2 other Polish soldiers in Jičin, hometown of Loupežnik Rumcajs. He was senteced to death in Poland, two times. Later it was changed to life imprisonment, and finally to 25 years. He left prison in 1983, after 15 years. Of course none of Polish generals or politicians was punished for participation of Poland in “Operation Danube”. But Gomułka lost power nearly 3 years later, due to massacres in Poland in late 1970.
My uncle was conscripted into army then, on normal basis, due to his age. I remember my mother (then 10 yo) said that grandma nearly went insane, because she was afraid, that he would be send to Czechoslovakia, to war. She remembered WW2 of course, was forced labourer. And her two nephews died in WW2 in Monte Cassino… on German side, they were forcefully drafted.
In 1956 Hungary was invaded, in 1968 Czechoslovakia. So there was serious fear that the same can happen to Poland after another 12 or 13 years, during so called “Solidarity festival”. Some people in Polish government and military were afraid it could be worse than in Czechoslovakia and even Hungary. That some part of army, especially conscripts and NCOs may rise mutiny and join opposition, that it can lead to a civil war. And yet they were begging the Soviets for help… My father was one of NCOs in Polish Army. During martial law he met his army friend, who was totally drunken, on a street in civil clothes and with some other drunken guy. My father wanted to take him home and the fight erupted. You know drunken logic, a soldier wants to take innocent man, probably to jail. The other guy tried to take my father’s pistols. He failed, but my father then shot some bullets into the air. There was an ad hoc military trial later but I don’t remember senteces (my father was found innocent).
Cold War era in communist Europe had plenty of those kind of stories. Crazy stuff from todays perspective.
Some addtional interesting information from the events that took place:
* A few hours before the invasion started there was an anonymous call about the soon to come invasion. The call was not taken seriously because it was anonymous and was not given much attention.
* There was suposed to be a division invading from the NDR too, but was later taken back because they expected more unrest due to a similar invasion 1938 by Hitler.
* A few minutes after midnight Austria closed its boreders to Czechoslovakia and hungary. The borders remained closed till the end of the USSR.
* Twenty minutes after midnight, the Minister of Defense Dzúr given the order to the military and other factions to not resist the invading soldiers under any circumstances (not everyone obeyed).
* Communist colaborants are taking over all radio and tv stations
* Five minutes before 2 AM the State wide announcement is being broadcasted to the public.
* Meamwhile in Washington is an emergency meeting about the invasion. Any intervention by the USA was dissmissed and not possible. The risk of breaking the ongoing sensitive negotations about reducing the nuclear aresenals was to high. Earle Wheeler said *”There is nothing the USA can to at this time from the military standpoint”*
* 3:20 AM the first confrontations happened in Czechia where a man was shot by the Soviets. Thankfully he survived.
* 4:00 AM the first victim of the ocupation was a woman which was hit by a Soviet tank and the next day she died.
* 7:00 AM august 21. The soviets shot at the National museum in Prague thinking they are attacking the radio broadcaster building
* More deadly conflicts start to apear as people protest in the streets of Prague
* 9 AM 6 dead civilians after Soviet soldiers started shooting in a crowd without a reason
* Protests apear all over the country throwing stones and other things at the invading forces.
* 10:30 PM the president Svoboda asked the people to remain calm and go to work just like usual.
* At 11 PM the OSN emergency meeting takes place.
In the end over 500 000 soldiers and other personel crossed the borders and started the occupation from countries Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine and the NDR. Thousands of tanks, hundreds of planes and other military equipment. On the following Negotations the Soviet delegation with Breznev pressured the signing of the Moscow protocol which ended the Prague spring and started the “normalization period”
Gustáv Husák became the head of the state in 1969, under whose leadership extensive party purges took place. During them, roughly 350,000 people were fired from their jobs. Many young people were prevented from studying.
Tens of Thousands of people left the republic voluntarily or under pressure and returned only after the fall of communism in November 1989. Russian occupation troops remained on the territory of Czechoslovakia until 1991.
You should write all the countries that invade. Be accurate.
The Russians in ww2 liberated eastern Europe so much that they needed to be liberated again.
Just swapped German with the Soviet flag but the occupation still went on
And now its Ukraines turn to break free. Belarus next?
Ruzzians do ruzzian things… seems that some things never change.
Does that ring a bell?
“Simultaneously with the border crossing by ground forces, a Soviet spetsnaz task force of the GRU (Spetsnaz GRU) captured Ruzyne International Airport in the early hours of the invasion. It began with a flight from Moscow which carried more than 100 agents in plain clothes and requested an emergency landing at the airport due to “engine failure”. They quickly secured the airport and prepared the way for the huge forthcoming airlift, in which Antonov An-12 transport aircraft began arriving and unloading Soviet Airborne Forces equipped with artillery and light tanks.
As the operation at the airport continued, columns of tanks and motorized rifle troops headed toward Prague and other major centers, meeting almost no resistance. “