Czechoslovakian Revolt 1968 and Ucraine 2014
Masaryk, a diplomat and politician in newly independent Czechoslovakia, was named ambassador to Britain in 1925. Following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, he became foreign minister of the Czech government in exile in London. He supported cooperation with the Soviet Union and maintained his post after the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948. Two weeks later, Masaryk was found dead outside his window in the Foreign Ministry. What are the conflicting explanations for his death? More… Discuss
For a few months in 1968, Czechoslovakia briefly threw off some of the restrictions of hard-line communism. From March of that year, censorship disappeared, a free press flourished, and Czechs had a taste of change. But it all came to an abrupt end, when Soviet tanks invaded to bring the country back into line. In this edition of Europeans, how the Prague Spring paved the way for the Velvet Revolution 21 years later.