Ludvik Svoboda was born
near Bratislava in 1895. A soldier, he escaped from Czechoslovakia
in 1939 and became the commanding
general of the Czechoslovak Army Corps attached to the Red
Army during the Second World War. Svoboda's
troops helped to liberate Kosice, Brno and Prague in 1944 and 1945.
Eduard
Benes
became president of Czechoslovakia but in the 1946 general election
the Communist Party won the largest number of parliamentary seats
with 38 per cent of the votes. Klement Gottwald
set up a National Front government but caused great controversy when
under the orders of Joseph Stalin, he
rejected Marshall Aid.
In 1948 Svoboda joined
the Communist Party and served in Gottwald's government as Minister
of Defence. Although disliked by the Stalinists he remained an important
political figure in Czechoslovakia.
He was helped by the support he received from Nikita
Khrushchev.
In
the early 1960s the country suffered an economic recession. Antonin
Novotny, the president of Czechoslovakia,
was forced to make liberal concessions and in 1965 he introduced a
programme of decentralization. The main feature of the new system
was that individual companies would have more freedom to decide on
prices and wages.
These
reforms were slow to make an impact on the Czech economy and in September
1967, Alexander Dubcek, secretary of
the Slovak Communist Party, presented a long list of grievances against
the government. The following month there were large demonstrations
against Novotny.
In
January 1968 the Czechoslovak Party Central Committee passed a vote
of no confidence in Antonin Novotny
and he was replaced by Alexander Dubcek
as party secretary. Soon afterwards Dubcek made a speech where he
stated: "We shall have to remove everything that strangles artistic
and scientific creativeness."
During
what became known as the Prague Spring,
Dubcek announced a series of reforms. This included the abolition
of censorship and the right of citizens to criticize the government.
Newspapers began publishing revelations about corruption in high places.
This included stories about Novotny and his son. On 22nd March 1968,
Novotny resigned as president of Czechoslovakia.
He was now replaced by Svoboda, who was a strong supporter of Dubcek.
In
April 1968 the Communist Party Central Committee published a detailed
attack on Novotny's government. This included its poor record concerning
housing, living standards and transport. It also announced a complete
change in the role of the party member. It criticized the traditional
view of members being forced to provide unconditional obedience to
party policy. Instead it declared that each member "has not only
the right, but the duty to act according to his conscience."
The
new reform programme included the creation of works councils in industry,
increased rights for trade unions to bargain on behalf of its members
and the right of farmers to form independent co-operatives.
Aware
of what happened during the Hungarian
Uprising the
government announced
that Czechoslovakia had no intention of changing its foreign policy.
On several occasions he made speeches where he stated that Czechoslovakia
would not leave the Warsaw Pact or
end its alliance with the Soviet Union.
In
July 1968 the Soviet leadership announced that it had evidence that
the Federal Republic of Germany was
planning an invasion of the Sudetenland
and
asked permission to send in the Red Army
to protect Czechoslovakia. Alexander Dubcek,
aware that the Soviet forces could be used to bring an end to Prague
Spring, declined the offer.
On
21st August, 1968, Czechoslovakia was invaded by members of the Warsaw
Pact countries. In order to avoid bloodshed, the Czech government
ordered its armed forces not to resist the invasion. Svoboda and Alexander
Dubcek were taken to Moscow and soon afterwards they announced
that after "free comradely discussion" that Czechoslovakia
would be abandoning its reform programme.
In
April 1969 Dubcek was replaced as party secretary by Gustav
Husak. The following year he was expelled from the party and for
the next 18 years worked as a clerk in a lumber yard in Slovakia.
However,
Svoboda remained in office until ill-heath forced him to resign in
1975. Ludvik Svoboda
died
in 1979.
(1)
Statement issued by Alexander Dubcek's government on 21st August,
1968.
Yesterday, August 20,
1968, around 11:00 p.m., the armies of the Soviet Union, of the Polish
People's Republic, of the German Democratic Republic, the Hungarian
Peoples Republic, and the Bulgarian Peoples Republic crossed the borders
of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It happened without the knowledge
of the President of the Republic, of the Chairman of the National
Assembly, of the Prime Minister and of the First Secretary of the
Central Committee of CPCz, and of all these organs.
The Presidium of the Central
Committee of the CPCz was meeting in these hours and was discussing
the preparations for the Fourteenth Party Congress. The Presidium
appeals to all citizens of our Republic to keep calm and not to resist
the armed forces moving in. Therefore neither our army, security forces
or the People's Militias have been ordered to defend the country.
The Presidium believes
that this act contradicts not only all principles of relations between
socialist countries but also the basic norms of international law.
All leading officials
of the state, of the CPCz and of the National Front remain in their
functions, to which they were elected as representatives of the people
and of the members of their organizations, according to the laws and
other statutes valid in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Constitutional officials
convene for immediate session the National Assembly and the government
of the Republic, and the Presidium of the CPCz convenes a plenary
meeting of the Central Committee of the CPCz to deal with the situation.
(2)
Alexander
Dubcek,
Hope Dies Last (1992)
I did not know then that
President Svoboda and other high-ranking Czechoslovak officials had
arrived in Moscow in the early afternoon and were in the Kremlin.
Nor did I know that the Soviets had already talked with them at length.
In fact, Svoboda and his group had arrived voluntarily: to come to
Moscow was Svoboda's idea. According to reliable witnesses, it had
occurred to him a day after the invasion, when he was under severe
pressure from Ambassador Chervonenko to legitimize the "Workers'
and Peasants' Revolutionary Government."
Some historians and political
analysts have viewed the presidents decision as tactically wrong and
damaging to the cause of national resistance, but I don't look at
it that way. Seventy-three-year-old Svoboda was not a politician but
an old soldier through and through. His main concern was to avoid
bloodshed between an unarmed populace and the army of occupation.
He felt that something had to be done fast. Whether he considered
options besides going to Moscow I do not know. Later he told me that
he had said to Chervonenko that he would rather shoot himself than
legitimize the junta led by Alois Indra.
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