Slovakia 1948-1968 Slovakia 1989-1992






Slovakia within Czechoslovakia, 1968-1989



This chapter will only deal with events, developments affecting Slovakia; for a description of the history of Czechoslovakia click here.

Slovakia Within the Czechoslovak People's Democracy . Alexander Dubcek, the politician associated with the policy of Socialism with a Human Face better known as the Spring of Prague, was a Slovak. When Warsaw Pact troops invaded, he was arrested (August 21st 1968); the Czechoslovak population, including the Czechoslovak Communist Party continued to put up non-violent resistance. On August 26th to 28th 1968 the Communist Party of Slovakia condemned the invasion and confirmed her support for Dubcek.
The resistance had been futile, and a new administration headed by concrete heads, at the helm Slovak Gustav Husak, imposed constitutional changes; the CSSR was transformed into the CSFR (Czecho-Slovak Federative Republic, Oct./Dec. 1968). Now, within the Czechoslovak Federation, a Slovak Socialist Republic was created (Jan. 1st 1969). The policy of undoing the reforms was referred to as 'Normalization'. State administration, institutions and the Communist Party were cleansed of reformers; in Slovakia over 50,000 were expelled from the Communist Party (1970). In January 1970 the SSR imposed legislation limiting the activities of the churches; many Slovak Catholic dioceses were vacant. A schism in the Slovak Catholic Church occurred; an official pro-regime Catholic Church in 1973 three new bishops were consecrated. Parallel to it functioned an underground Catholic church supported by the Vatican.
The years between 1968 and 1989 were, overall, a period of stagnation. The leading politicians were dubbed concrete heads because of their docility toward Moscow, their lack of willingness to reform. The vast majority of Czechs and Slovaks refrained from engaging in political activity.

The Slovak Economy . The Oil Crisis of 1973 did affect Czechoslovakia, as the country was among the more industrialized member countries of COMECON. In 1978 Czechoslovakia's first nuclear power plant was taken in operation, at Bohunice near Trnava (Slovakia). In 1980 the highway connecting Bratislava with Brno and Prague was opened. The Communist Party Congresses of 1976 and 1981 could look back on significant quantitative increases in the agricultural and industrial production of Slovakia.
Slovakia's industries were heavly focussed on arms production, serving the armies of the Warsaw Pact, as well as export, mainly into the Third World. Socialist economic policy, exposed to a capitalist world economy and restricted by the shortage of hard (foreign) currency, emphasized exports and tried to avoid domestic spending, such as investment in the modernization of industrial facilities or in filters etc. in order to protect the environment. As a consequence, pollution was a significant problem.

Slovak Culture . Slovak soccer team Slovan Bratislava won the UEFA Cup in the season 1968-1969, the only Czechoslovak team to ever lift the trophy.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Reaction and Stagnation, Chapter 11 of the History of Slovakia by Prof. Jozef Komornik, Univ. Bratislava (scroll down)
History, from Eastern Slovakia Genealogy
Jana Balaova, Slovaks and the Road to National Self-Determination, in : Tibor Pichler, Jana Gaparkova (ed.), Language, Values and the Slovak Nation, posted by CRVP
Article Slovakia, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia 1969-1997, Czechoslovakia 1987-1992, Communist Party of Slovakia, Economic History of Communist Czechoslovakia, from Wikipedia
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Julius Bartl et al., Slovak History, Chronology & Lexicon, Wauconda, Illinois : Bolchazy-Carducci 2002
Peter A. Toma, The Period of "Normalization" under Gustav Husak's Leadership, pp.215-228, in : Peter A. Toma, Dusan Kovac, Slovakia from Samo to Dzurinda, Stanford : Hoover Institution Press 2001 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on April 21st 2006

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