Task 1

Source A.

From a speech by Leonid Brezhnev to the Communist Party at the Lenin Centenary
Celebrations in the Kremlin, 21 April 1970.

The anti-socialist conspiracy in Czechoslovakia was a long-premeditated attempt by the remnants of

the former exploiting classes, in alliance with the right-wing opportunists and with the support of
world imperialism, to destroy the foundations of the socialist system of Czechoslovakia. This
conspiracy aimed to isolate Czechoslovakia from her allies, and thereby to strike a heavy blow against
the position of socialism in Europe. But the Marxist-Leninist core of the Czechoslovak Communist
Party, and the determined action by those loyal to the principles of socialist internationalism,
frustrated the dangerous enemy plans directed against the common interests of socialism and, in the
long run, against peace on the continent of Europe.
The Soviet Union takes a firm stand in favour of socialist internationalism and the restoration of good
relations between socialist countries wherever they have been broken. The Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Soviet government will continue to work
actively and consistently in this direction.

1. What, according to this speech, were the causes of the Prague Spring?
2. With reference to origin, purpose and content, what is the value of this source to a historian
studying the Prague Spring?

Task 2
Source B
Pravda, 26 September, 1968 explaining the Brezhnev Doctrine.

There is no doubt that the peoples of the socialist countries and the Communist parties have
and must have freedom to determine their country's path to development. However, any
decision of theirs must damage neither socialism in their own country nor the fundamental
interests of other socialist countries... This means that every Communist Party is responsible
not only to its own people but also to all the socialist countries and the entire Communist
movement. Whoever forgets this is placing sole emphasis on the autonomy and independence
of Communist Parties, lapses into one-sidedness, shirking his internationalist obligations. Just
as, in V.I. Lenin's words, someone living in a system of other states constituting a socialist
commonwealth cannot be free of the common interests of that commonwealth.

1. What, according to this article, is the justification of the Brezhnev Doctrine?

Task 3
Source C
Judt, Postwar, pg 447

The illusion that Communism was reformable, that Stalinism had been a wrong turning, a mistake that
could be corrected, that the core ideals of democratic pluralism might somehow still be compatible
with the structures of Marxist collectivism; that illusion was crushed under the tanks on August 21st
1968 and it never recovered. Alexander Dubček and his Action Program were not a beginning but an
end. Never again would radicals or reformers look to the ruling Party to carry their aspirations or
adopt their projects. Communism in Eastern Europe staggered on, sustained by an unlikely alliance of
foreign loans and Russian bayonets; the rotting carcass was finally carried away only in 1989. But the
soul of Communism had died twenty years before: in Prague, in August in 1968'
Source D
Matthew Ouitmet The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign
Policy (University of North Carolina Press, 2003)

Moscow’s goals in Czechoslovakia led most observers on both sides of the Iron Curtain to regard the
intervention as a decisive Soviet victory. Relations with the West experienced some setbacks …
Ultimately, however, the need to involve Moscow in negotiations with North Vietnam overcame
American indignation …The invasion … created instant tensions with the East European nations that
had not taken part in the operation. As for the nations remaining in the Soviet-led alliance, the
invasion confirmed that autonomous political reforms would no longer be tolerated … [also] the
invasion seriously damaged Moscow’s ability to build a united front against the Chinese.

1. Using the information above and the sources by historians below, create a mind-map to show
the impact of the Prague Spring.
2. To what extent do you agree that the Soviet actions in Czechoslovakia had more impact on
their relations with other Communist countries than with the West?