1960-1968 CSFR 1989-1992







Czechoslovakia 1969-1989


Administration . A new constitution was passed (1968) which introduced federalism. The party was purged of reformers, a number of institutions (which had contributed to the Prague Spring) replaced by new ones. Alexander Dubcek, the driving force of the Spring of Prague 1968, in 1970 was expelled from the party; as a forester, he lived quietly under the scrutiny of the secret service until 1989.
Concrete head Gustav Husak held the position of Secretary General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1969 to 1987, the presidency of Czechoslovakia from 1975 to 1989.

Foreign Policy . From the trauma of 1968 to the fall of communism in 1989, Czechoslovakia was a loyal satellite, without any political profile of its own (Concrete Head administration; the Concrete heads were docile politicians who had "invited" the Warsaw Pact forces in 1968 in order to "suppress the counterrevolution").
A treaty with the FRG was signed in 1973, normalizing the relations with the country's western neighbour (although the Sudeten German question remained unresolved). Czechoslovakia participated in the CSCE Conference in Helsinki 1973-1975 and in follow-up conferences.

Political History . A new constitution was passed (1968) which introduced federalism, a structure rather nominal, as president Husak remained in control. The party was purged of reformers, a number of institutions (which had contributed to the Prague Spring) replaced by new ones.
In 1977 a number of Czechoslovak intellectuals signed the Charter 77 a document demanding a number of reforms. The signatories were arrested or deprived of their citizenship, among the imprisoned was novelist Vaclav Havel who would continue to work toward a liberalization of the political climate.
As in East Germany, the Czechoslovak party leadership lost contact to the people. It failed to rejuvenate itself; the clique of concrete heads aged jointly. When Husak, as Secretary General, in 1987 was replaced by another concrete head, Jakisch, Czechs joked "Jakisch wie Husak" (= Jacke wie Hose, a German lnguage idiom expressing 'all the same').
In Czechoslovakia itself, most people had resigned, accepted Soviet-style communist rule, Vaclav Havel being the most visible exception. But there was a strong Czechoslovak exile, many of them refugees from 1968 or expatriated later (1977), who kept on focussing world attention on the situation in Prague, among them novelist Pavel Kohout.

The Economy . The Oil Crisis of 1973 affected Czechoslovakia, as the country was among the more industrialized COMECON nations. Cheap oil supplied by the USSR through the Druzhba pipeline covered only a fraction of the country's demand. In order to reduce oil imports to a minimum, Czechoslovakia utilized her lignite resources to a maximum, a policy which had negative consequences for the country's environment, as the lignite deposits contained sulphur. In 1968, Czechoslovakia produced 74.9 million metric tons of lignite (brown coal), production peaked in 1984 with 105 million and was at 99.9 million in 1988 (IHS p.422).
The arms industries in Slovakia supplied the Warsaw Pact nations with weaponry and thus was dependent on this market. Czech Skoda car factory mainly supplied customers in the COMECON region, but a few Skodas were seen on the streets of Western Europe.
The exchange rate of the Czechoslovak Koruna was fixed; yet foreign visitors were offered a considerably more favourable exchange rate (black market rate) on the streets of Prague (Praha).
Since 1973 Czechoslovakia attempted to raise her exports to western countries, in order to gain hard currency valuta. Prague became a major market for antiquarian books, supplying the FRG, Austria, Switzerland, fed by the libraries of Czechoslovakia.
Czechoslovakia produced 3.25 million meric tons of wheat in 1969, 6.54 million in 1988 (IHS pp.262-263).

Social History .

Cultural History . Czechoslovakia's novelists Vaclav Havel and Pavel Kohout, founded Charter 77 in order to begin a discussion about the necessity of political reform in a country where political opinions were suppressed and where political leaders operated following the philosophy "what does Moscow think/want ?". The system answered with suppression; artists such as Kohout, Havel and actor-screenwriter-movie director Milos Forman ("Amadeus", 1984), since 1968 in exile, gained recognition far beyond the borders of Czechoslovakia.
In 1969 football club Slovan Bratislava won the UEFA Cup. In 1976 the Czechoslovak national football team won the UEFA European Championship held in Yugoslavia by defeating the FRG in a penalty shoothout.
Czechoslovak athletes participated in the Summer Olympics of Munich 1972, Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980 and Seoul 1988. Czechoslovakia boycotted the Summer Olympics of Los Angeles 1984.
Czechoslovakia staged the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1972, 1978 and 1985; the Czechoslovak team won the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1972, 1976, 1977 and 1985 and took second place in 1971, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983. The Ice Hockey World Championships of 1969 held in Stockholm saw the Czechoslovak team meet, and defeat, the Soviet team twice, games which raised emotions in (Soviet-occupied) Czechoslovakia (Hockey Riots of 1969, the significance lies not in the (somewhat exaggerated) riots themselves, but in the fact that they openly displayed where the sympathies of the Czechs and Slovaks lay).






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Articles : Charter 77, Vaclav Havel, Pavel Kohout, Milos Forman, Ice Hockey World Championship, Czechoslovakia at the 1972 Summer Olympics, Czechoslovakia at the 1976 Summer Olympics, Czechoslovakia at the 1980 Summer Olympics, Czechoslovakia at the 1988 Summer Olympics, Alexander Dubcek, Czechoslovak Hockey Riots 1969, Gustav Husak, Treaty of Prague 1973, from Wikipedia
History of Czechoslovakia, from Library of Congress, Country Studies
CASCON Case CZE : Czechoslovak Revolution 1989-1990, by L.P. Bloomfield, L. Moulton
DOCUMENTS Manifesto of Charter 77, from CNN Cold War Site
November 24, 1989, Speech by Premier Ladislav Adamec at an extraordinary session of the CPCz CC, stating his preference for a political solution to the crisis (excerpts), from The Revolutions of 1989 new documents from Soviet/East Europe archives reveal why there was no crackdown, at GWU
Banknotes of Czechoslovakia, from Ron Wise's World Paper Money
Czechoslovak Constitution of Oct. 1968, posted by Verfassungen.de, in German
REFERENCE IHS : B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics. Europe 1750-1988, NY : Stockton Press 1992 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1970 pp.248-249, 1971 pp.238-239, 1972 pp.216-217, 1973 pp.208-209, 1974 pp.223-224, 1975 pp.206-208, 1976 pp.225-226, 1977 pp.225-226, 1978 pp.276-277, 1979 pp.276-278, 1980 pp.273-275, 1981 pp.273-275, 1982 pp.269-270, 1983 pp.268-270, 1984 pp.264-266, 1985 pp.548-549, 665, 1986 pp.542-544, 661, 1987 pp.513-514, 631, 1988 pp.469-470, 583, 1989 pp.469-470, 583, 1990 pp.486-487, 598 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1970-1971 pp.845-851, 1975-1976 pp.851-858, 1976-1977 pp.863-870, 1978-1979 pp.382-389, 1979-1980 pp.382-389, 1980-1981 pp.383-390, 1981-1982 pp.388-395, 1983-1984 pp.393-400, 1984-1985 pp.391-398, 1985-1986 pp.393-400, 1986-1987 pp.397-404, 1987-1988 pp.403-410, 1988-1989 pp.405-412, 1989-1990 pp.408-415 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : The World in Figures 1st ed. 1976 pp.215-217, 2nd ed. 1978 pp.215-217, 4th ed. 1984 pp.215-217 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Americana Annual 1970 pp.227-229, 1971 pp.231-232, 1972 pp.222-223, 1973 pp.215-216, 1974 pp.194-195, 1976 p.205, 1988 p.203, 1989 pp.201-202, 1990 pp.199-201 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia Yearbook 1983 p.128 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1980 pp.19-29 (Zdenek Suda) [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on July 7th 2007

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