“We commemorate to learn”: President Pavel relates 1968 Soviet-led invasion to present day
On August 21st 1968, people woke to find that the hopeful era of the Prague Spring had ended, as tanks from Warsaw-Pact countries rolled into the Czechoslovak capital. At a solemn ceremony outside the Czech Radio building, political leaders, including President Pavel, laid wreaths in commemoration.
The period of reform and optimism known as the Prague Spring began in January 1968, with the election of reformist Alexander Dubček as First Secretary of the Communist Party. That era was cut short in full bloom, however, when the forces of the USSR and other allied countries invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21st, fifty-seven years ago.
Ordinary Czechs and Slovaks faced down tanks in their own streets. The invasion snuffed out the country’s moves towards liberalisation, even kidnapping the Czechoslovak leadership, and it returned the country to authoritarianism for another twenty years.
The Czechoslovak Radio building on Vinohradská Street, today Czech Radio, was a key target of the invaders, who sought to control the flow of information. Citizens clashed with soldiers in the ‘Battle for Czechoslovak Radio’, with seventeen killed.
On August 21st this year, a solemn ceremony was held at 11 AM by the entrance on Vinohradská Street. National and local leaders laid wreaths, accompanied by a guard of honour.
These somber acts of commemoration were followed by speeches. After words by the head of Czech Radio, René Zavoral, President Petr Pavel addressed the large crowd. Without notes, he spoke of the lessons that we can still learn from those dark days, and the importance of striving for objectivity when doing so:
“We commemorate historical events primarily to preserve the memory of those who fought for our freedom, for the way of life that we lead today. But we also commemorate them to learn from them, so as not to repeat previous mistakes. We can only learn from them if the description of history and the approach to it are as objective as possible.”
With allusions to global geopolitics today, the president also spoke about the personal complexity of the events of 1968:
“Not only historical events, but also all historical personalities are not one colour; they are not white or black, but all have shades of grey. I would perhaps mention here the film by Jiří Mádl, Waves, which came out last year. It relates very much to this building and the events that we are commemorating, because they show exactly how multi-faceted the approach to these events was at that time.
“There were people who demonstrated enormous heroism when they stood up to the tanks unarmed, not only here, but also in the streets of other Czech and Slovak cities. There were also people who did not know how to interpret the situation and were under the influence of the propaganda of the time, and perhaps thought that what was happening was basically right. The same is true today.”
Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda, Slovak ambassador Martin Muránsky also spoke, as did Miloš Vystrčil, President of the Senate. He acknowledged the role of the media during the invasion:
“What follows for us from that heroism is that we are a good and strong nation, and that we should be proud of it. It didn't happen by itself; those who took part in the resistance at that time had strong supporters. Those supporters were Czechoslovak Radio and Czechoslovak Television. That is a message for today; we need strong and responsible media.”
The ceremony outside Czech Radio therefore offered a means for the events of August 1968 to be made relevant for the challenges that face Czechia today.
