Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubček tried to reform communism from inside and was crushed by tanks. Born in 1921 in Slovakia, he spent his childhood in the Soviet Union, where his father had gone with a co-operative of idealists, and returned in 1938. He fought in the Slovak National Uprising against the Germans in 1944 and was wounded twice; his brother was killed. He rose through the Slovak party apparatus and studied at the political college in Moscow, which made him a wholly conventional figure. He became First Secretary in January 1968, replacing Antonín Novotný, largely because the economy was failing and Slovak grievances needed answering. What followed surprised everyone including him. The Action Programme of April 1968 promised freedom of the press, assembly and travel, rehabilitation of purge victims, economic decentralisation and a federal structure — socialism with a human face, in the phrase attached to him. Censorship simply stopped functioning and public debate opened within weeks. He insisted throughout that the country would remain in the Warsaw Pact and that the party would lead. Moscow did not believe that the party could lead anything it did not censor. After months of pressure and meetings, five Warsaw Pact armies invaded on the night of 20 August 1968. There was no armed resistance. Dubček was seized, flown to Moscow and made to sign a protocol accepting the occupation. He was removed in April 1969, expelled from the party, and worked in the Slovak forestry service for twenty years. He reappeared in 1989 and became speaker of parliament. He died in a car crash in 1992.
- Lived: 1921 CE – 1992 CE
- Nationality: Slovak
- Roles: politician, reformer, head_of_state
