The 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

(Karel Husa, music for Prague 1968, first performed in 1969) 

Thesis:

The Soviet invasion of Prague on august 20th-21st, 1968 was a reaction to the economic and political "Prague Spring" reforms. This in turn resulted in the Czechoslovak government falling back to their communist ways and the dictatorship of the Soviet Union. 

Introduction

In Czechoslovakia during the late 1960's, reforms were being discussed and the government was changing it's ways. Czechoslovak politics were becoming more democratic and changing from the Communist views of the Soviet Union. This caused an uproar within the Communist countries, and soon enough, a course of action was devised to take care of these new reforms and to ensure that other countries did not get any ideas. The Soviet Union enforced Communism, especially within their satellite States to maintain power. So to ensure that all of the citizens of Czechoslovakia did not stray away from Communist ideas, the Soviet Union launched an "attack", with the support of it's Satellite States. On August 20th, 1968 the Communist army, consisting of thousands of soldiers and countless airplanes and tanks. The invasion lasted for several days, with soldiers occupying all of Prague. The Czechoslovak people were told not to engage the soldiers in the case that they would provoke them to attack the citizens. During a time when Czechoslovakia was beginning to really develop as a country, this invasion dealt a harsh blow to the nation.