Alexandr Dubček – Humpolec

Fact of the Czech figure „Prague Spring – 1968″

Part of the „Dreaming about the democracy” topic

On the D1 motorway near Humpolec, in a section of frequent traffic accidents, there is a memorial to Alexander Dubček. The native of Uhrovec, Slovakia, is an important figure of Czech and Slovak politics in the second half of the 20th century.

In his youth, he actively participated in the Slovak National Uprising against the fascist regime during World War II, during which he was also wounded. After the war he studied political science in Moscow and very soon served in a number of political positions.

In January 1968, he was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s Central Committee (ÚV KSČ) and became a popular face of social reform. The aim of the reforms was to democratise and ease the communist regime. This process, called the Prague Spring, was violently interrupted by the invasion of the occupying Warsaw Pact troops on the night of 20-21 August. Dubček was taken, along with other government and party officials, to Moscow, where they were forced to sign the Moscow Protocol, which meant the denial of all previous reforms and the return of the old dictatorship. Dubček, a symbol of reforms, was expelled from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and replaced by Gustáv Husák, an opportunist politician who became a symbol of the post-occupation communist ‘normalisation’ of Czechoslovakia.

During the 1989 revolution, Dubček returned to politics and became chairman of the Federal Assembly but was unable to continue in his popularity of 1968. In 1992, he died tragically in a car accident on the motorway near Humpolec.