The Prague Spring

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Key points

• January 1968 - Dubček took over as leader of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia.
• His government reduced state control of industry and allowed freedom of speech. This revolution was called the Prague Spring.
• Brezhnev, the soviet leader, saw this as a threat. On the 20th August 1968, 500,000 Warsaw pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia. Dubček was arrested and sent to Moscow.
• The Soviet Union announced it would not allow any Eastern European country to reject communism even if it meant a third world war. This became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.

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