On the night of August 20, 1968 the armies from five Warsaw Pact countries crossed the border into the former Czechoslovakia. During the invasion, Soviet tanks occupied the streets. 72 Czechs and Slovaks were killed (19 of those in Slovakia) and hundreds wounded.
The invasion was triggered by the so called Prague Spring, which was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia, starting when Alexander Dubček came to power. Millions of Czechoslovaks supported the efforts of Alexander Dubček and his party leadership within the Communist Party to create „socialism with a human face“.
Dubcek Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
On 21st August 1968, the Warsaw Pact Troops invasion of Czechoslovakia caught many people by surprise. It was unexpected and violent, and brought on a very oppressive regime which ruled in the country for the next 21 years. Millions of Czechs and Slovaks have their own unique story from this very day. Listen to how a clueless man who wanted to help out a friend ended up in the heart of the 1968 occupation.
1 Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
Ladislav Bielik was out in the streets of Bratislava, in the midst of the invasion, doing his job – taking pictures. The photographs documenting the horror were lethal to him and his family in the years to come, so he had to “loose” them. These lost and found photographs thanks to which we all know what the “August events” looked like.
2 Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
In maybe the most famous photo of those days, an angry and fearless man bears his chest to a tank. Who is he and what was his story from 21st August 1968?
3 Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
It wasn’t only Czechs and Slovaks who were caught off guard by the 1968 invasion. Katarina Richterova has this fascinating story of an American who escaped the country on 21st August 1968 by pulling a move like something straight from a spy movie.
4 Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
In early 1990 after long and complicated rounds of negotiations the Czechoslovak government managed to persuade the Soviet army to go home. At that time it had here 91,500 soldiers and officers, 1,120 tanks, almost 300 planes and helicopters and more than 100 tons of ammunition. The agreement was that the Russians are going to leave the bases and all other facilities in good state. They promised to do so but they did not really keep their promise. The Czechs and Slovaks were left facing an ecological disaster. 19 localities were affected; a few them have remained so until today. The most affected has been the area Vlkanova-Sliač in Central Slovakia. Sliač has a military airport were Russians held about 164 helicopters and a few planes. In Vlkanova the Russians had a huge fuel deposit built underground. In time due to poor maintenance some chemicals leaked to the ground and phreatic water. The Russians did not inform the Slovak side about such leaks. In fact Russians did not give accurate information to the Slovak side even when it came to the technical details related to the deposit; they declared for example fewer pipes then they existed in reality. The cleaning work has not finished yet and so far a total of about €40 million from the state budget has been spent on them with an extra €11.3 million from EU funds earmarked for Rimavská Sobota, Ivachnová, Nemšová, Sliač and Lešti in an operation that started this week.
