Remembering 1948 and 1968: Reflections on Two Pivotal Years in Czech and Slovak History

• Published in: Europe-Asia studies Vol. 60; no. 10; pp. 1645 - 1658
• Main Author: Cashman, Laura
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01.12.2008; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Academic conferences; Area studies; Authoritarianism; Civil war; Communism; Communist Parties; Countries; Czechoslovakia; Freedom; Historical analysis; Historiography; History; Military alliances; Nationalist parties; Political Change; Political debate; Political Development; Political history; Political parties; Politics; Reform; Regression analysis; Revolution; Socialism; Socialist states; Stalinism; Czech Republic; Czechoslovakia; Slovakia
• ISSN: 0966-8136; 1465-3427
• DOI: 10.1080/09668130802434281

In the history of any country particular years tend to stand out as major turning points or critical junctures. The chain of events that took place in a particular year is seen as having profound consequences for subsequent trends in the state’s economic, social, political and cultural development. In the case of the former Czechoslovakia, 1948 and 1968 were two such years. Indeed, until the spell was broken by the momentous events of 1989, it seemed that, as Stefan Auer suggests in his contribution to this collection, there was something magical about the number ‘eight’ in the key dates of Czechoslovak history. As the following list of dates suggests, the number eight has featured in many milestone years of Czechoslovak, and particularly Czech, cultural and political history: 1348, Foundation of Charles University, Prague; 1618, Second Defenestration of Prague and the beginning of the Thirty Years War; 1848, Year of European Revolutions; 1918, Foundation of the independent state of Czechoslovakia; 1938, Munich Agreement cedes Sudeten territories to Nazi Germany and paves the way for German occupation of the state; 1948, communists gain full political control of Czechoslovakia; 1968, Prague Spring and Warsaw Pact invasion. It is apparent from the many anniversary conferences and events that were held during 2008 that the events of two particular years, 1948 and 1968, still have strong resonance in the politics, the popular imagination and the academic history of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as in East Central Europe more widely. These were two of the most significant dates in Czech and Slovak history: 1948, the year Stalinist communists took power in Czechoslovakia, and 1968 the year of the doomed attempt of Slovaks and Czechs to develop their own ‘Socialism with a Human Face’.