The Czechoslovak Republic at the beginning of 1968 experienced a period of liberalization associated with the name of Alexander Dubcek and his active reformist activities. It provoked a negative reaction from the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The events went down in history called the Prague Spring, the basis of which was to expand the rights and freedoms of the population, to decentralize power in the state, to weaken control over the media, to provide greater rights to freedom of movement.

Reforms by A. Dubcek

The official date of liberalization is January 4, 1968, when A. Novotny, who at that time was the president of Czechoslovakia, was removed from power. A. Dubcek headed the government and the party, who immediately took a course towards a market economy and the weakening of total control in the country. His supporters were elected to the presidium and secretariat of the Communist Party, which helped Dubcek implement his reforms.

The changes affected the following areas:
Censorship and freedom of speech;
Established control over the work of security agencies;
Creation of private enterprises;
Plants and factories received more choice in the organization of production. Bodies of workers' self-government were created;
The beginning was laid for the emergence of new political forces and informal associations.

Separately, it was planned to expand the rights of the republics, for which Dubcek wanted to carry out federalization. The Greek Catholic Church was restored in Slovakia.

Support for the reforms of the new leadership of the country was provided by all sectors of society - from villagers to the political elite.

Simultaneously with domestic politics, Dubcek and his supporters sought to distance themselves from the Soviet Union. This was also facilitated by the mood in society, in which protests against the total rule of the party were increasingly heard. This was also stated by representatives of the intelligentsia, who issued declarations against the dominance of Soviet power. In addition, the media launched an active propaganda campaign directed against the USSR and the method of management.

At the same time, Czechoslovakia was not going to leave the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO), but only wanted to gain more internal economic and political independence.

The reaction of the USSR

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union L. Brezhnev adopted a special doctrine providing for the limitation of the sovereignty of the socialist countries. Within its framework, an order was given to bring the ATS troops into Czechoslovakia, which happened on August 21, 1968. The operation was called the Danube, which began from Prague. In general, 300 thousand troops and several thousand tanks were brought into the country. Within a few days, the entire political leadership of the country was arrested, important strategic objects were taken. The Czechoslovak armed forces offered no resistance.

Protests in the country

A wave of public resistance was raised thanks to the active participation of the media. Activists scattered leaflets on the streets of the cities, in which they talked about the introduction of troops. Therefore, protests began, barricades were erected, attacks on Soviet military personnel, tanks, and armored vehicles took place. Basically, Molotov cocktails were used.

As a result of the riots, 11 soldiers of the Soviet army were killed, more than 80 were wounded and injured. Losses among the civilian population were much more significant. More than 100 people were killed, half a thousand people were injured.

Radio and television were put out of action, and city transport was stopped.

Such a policy of the USSR caused a wave of mass protests in other Soviet republics, as well as abroad and a number of international organizations. For the slightest dissent, they were fired from their jobs, and those who protested were arrested.

The Dubcek government was forced to sign the Anti-Crisis Program dictated by the party leaders of the Communist Party. All the achievements of liberalization were brought to naught. A wave of repressions swept across Czechoslovakia, a harsh regime of occupation and persecution of dissidents was established. Moscow's henchman, Gustav Husak, again became the head of the country.

At two o'clock in the morning on August 21, 1968, the Soviet An-24 passenger plane requested an emergency landing at Prague's Ruzyne airport. The controllers gave the go-ahead, the plane landed, servicemen of the 7th Guards Airborne Division stationed in Kaunas disembarked from it. The paratroopers, under the threat of using weapons, seized all the facilities of the airfield and began receiving An-12 transport aircraft with paratrooper units and military equipment. Transport An-12s landed on the runway every 30 seconds. Thus began the operation carefully designed by the USSR to occupy Czechoslovakia and ended with the so-called. The Prague Spring is a process of democratic reforms carried out by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek.

The operation to capture Czechoslovakia, which was called the "Danube", was attended by the armies of four socialist countries: the USSR, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. The GDR army was also supposed to enter the territory of Czechoslovakia, but at the last moment the Soviet leadership was afraid of the analogy with 1939 and the Germans did not cross the border. The Soviet Army became the main striking force of the group of troops of the Warsaw Pact countries - these were 18 motorized rifle, tank and airborne divisions, 22 aviation and helicopter regiments, with a total number, according to various sources, from 170 to 240 thousand people. About 5000 tanks alone were involved. Two fronts were created - the Carpathian and Central, and the number of the combined group of troops reached half a million military personnel. The invasion was, according to the usual Soviet habit, presented as help to the fraternal Czechoslovak people in the fight against counter-revolution.

No counter-revolution in Czechoslovakia, of course, and did not smell. The country fully supported the Communist Party, which began political and economic reforms in January 1968. In terms of the number of communists per 1,000 people, Czechoslovakia ranked first in the world. With the beginning of the reforms, censorship was significantly weakened, free discussions took place everywhere, and the creation of a multi-party system began. A desire was declared to ensure complete freedom of speech, assembly and movement, to establish strict control over the activities of security agencies, to facilitate the possibility of organizing private enterprises and to reduce state control over production. In addition, it was planned to federalize the state and expand the powers of the authorities of the subjects of Czechoslovakia - the Czech Republic and Slovakia. All this, of course, worried the leadership of the USSR, which pursued a policy of limited sovereignty in relation to its vassals in Europe (the so-called "Brezhnev doctrine"). The Dubcek team was repeatedly persuaded to stay on a short leash from Moscow and not strive to build socialism according to Western standards. Persuasions did not help. In addition, Czechoslovakia remained a country where the USSR was never able to deploy either its military bases or tactical nuclear weapons. And this moment was, perhaps, the main reason for such a military operation so disproportionate to the scale of the country - the Kremlin Politburo had to force the Czechoslovaks to obey themselves at any cost. The leadership of Czechoslovakia, in order to avoid bloodshed and the destruction of the country, took the army to the barracks and provided the Soviet troops with the opportunity to freely dispose of the fate of the Czechs and Slovaks. The only kind of resistance the occupiers faced was civil protest. This was especially evident in Prague, where unarmed residents of the city staged a real obstruction to the invaders.

At three o'clock in the morning on August 21 (it was also a Wednesday), Prime Minister Chernik was arrested by Soviet soldiers. At 4:50 a.m., a column of tanks and armored personnel carriers headed for the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, where a twenty-year-old resident of Prague was shot dead. In Dubcek's office, the Soviet military arrested him and seven members of the Central Committee. At seven in the morning, the tanks headed for Winohradska 12, where Radio Prague was located. Residents managed to build barricades there, tanks began to break through, and shooting at people was opened. That morning, seventeen people were killed outside the Radio building, and another 52 were injured and taken to the hospital. After 14:00, the arrested leadership of the HRC was put on a plane and taken to Ukraine with the assistance of the President of the country, Ludwig Svoboda, who, as best he could, fought against the puppet government of Bilyak and Indra (thanks to Svoboda, Dubcek was saved and then transported to Moscow). A curfew was introduced in the city; in the dark, soldiers opened fire on any moving object.

01. In the evening, European time, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York, at which it adopted a resolution condemning the invasion. The USSR vetoed it.

02. Trucks with students holding national flags began to drive around the city. All key objects of the city were taken under the control of the Soviet troops.

03. At the National Museum. The military equipment was immediately surrounded by the inhabitants of the city and entered into conversations with the soldiers, often very sharp, tense. In some areas of the city, shooting was heard, and the wounded were constantly being taken to hospitals.

06. In the morning, the youth began to build barricades, attack tanks, threw stones at them, bottles of combustible mixture, tried to set fire to military equipment.

08. The inscription on the bus: Soviet cultural center.

10. One of the soldiers wounded as a result of shooting at the crowd.

11. Mass sabotage actions began throughout Prague. In order to make it difficult for the military to navigate the city, the citizens of Prague began to destroy street signs, knock down signs with street names, house numbers.

13. Soviet soldiers broke into the Church of St. Martin in Bratislava. First they fired at the windows and the tower of the medieval church, then they broke the locks and got inside. The altar, the donation box were opened, the organ, church supplies were broken, paintings were destroyed, benches and the pulpit were broken. The soldiers climbed into the crypt with burials and broke several tombstones there. This church was robbed throughout the day, by different groups of military personnel.

14. Units of the Soviet troops enter the city of Liberec

15. The dead and wounded after the military assault on the Prague Radio.

16. Unauthorized entry is strictly prohibited

19. The walls of houses, shop windows, fences have become a platform for merciless criticism of the invaders.

20. “Run home, Ivan, Natasha is waiting for you”, “Not a drop of water or a loaf of bread to the invaders”, “Bravo, guys! Hitler", "USSR, go home", "Twice occupied, twice taught", "1945 - liberators, 1968 - occupiers", "We were afraid of the West, we were attacked from the East", "Not hands up, but head up!" , “You have conquered space, but not us”, “The elephant cannot swallow a hedgehog”, “Do not call it hatred, call it knowledge”, “Long live democracy. Without Moscow” are just a few examples of such wall-mounted agitation.

21. “I had a soldier, I loved him. I had a watch - the Red Army took it."

22. On the Old Town Square.

25. I remember a contemporary interview with a Prague woman who, on the 21st, went out to the city with her university friends to see the Soviet military. “We thought there were some terrible invaders there, but in fact, very young guys with peasant faces were sitting on armored personnel carriers, a little scared, constantly grabbing their weapons, not understanding what they were doing here and why the crowd reacted so aggressively to them. The commanders told them that they had to go and save the Czech people from the counter-revolution.”

39. A homemade leaflet from those that they tried to distribute to Soviet soldiers.

40. Today, at the building of the Prague Radio, where on August 21, 1968 people who defended the radio station died, a memorial ceremony was held, wreaths were laid, that morning broadcast from 68 was broadcast, when the radio announced the attack on the country. The announcer reads the text, and shooting in the street is heard in the background.

49. At the site of the National Museum, where a monument to self-immolated student Jan Palach is erected, candles are burning.

51. An exhibition has been arranged at the beginning of Wenceslas Square - a documentary film about the events of the Prague Spring and August 1968 is shown on a large screen, there is an infantry fighting vehicle with a characteristic white line, an ambulance of those years, there are stands with photographs and reproductions of Prague graffiti.

57. 1945: we kissed your fathers > 1968: you shed our blood and take away our freedom.

According to modern data, during the invasion, 108 citizens of Czechoslovakia were killed and more than 500 wounded, the vast majority of civilians. On the first day of the invasion alone, 58 people were killed or mortally wounded, including seven women and an eight-year-old child.

The result of the operation to remove the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the occupation of the country was the deployment of a Soviet military contingent in Czechoslovakia: five motorized rifle divisions, with a total number of up to 130 thousand people, 1412 tanks, 2563 armored personnel carriers and Temp-S tactical missile systems with nuclear warheads. A leadership loyal to Moscow was brought to power, and a purge was carried out in the party. The Prague Spring reforms were completed only after 1991.

Photos: Josef Koudelka, Libor Hajsky, CTK, Reuters, drugoi

On the night of August 21, 1968, the temporary entry of troops of the USSR, the People's Republic of Bulgaria (now the Republic of Bulgaria), the Hungarian People's Republic (now Hungary), the German Democratic Republic (GDR, now part of the Federal Republic of Germany) and the Polish People's Republic (now the Republic of Poland) to the territory of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (Czechoslovakia, now the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia) in accordance with the then understanding of the leadership of the Soviet Union and other participating countries of the essence of international assistance. It was carried out with the aim of "defending the cause of socialism" in Czechoslovakia, to prevent the loss of power by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CHR), the country's possible exit from the socialist community and the Warsaw Treaty Organization. (ATS).

By the end of the 1960s, Czechoslovak society faced a set of problems that could not be solved within the framework of the Soviet-style socialist system. The economy suffered from the disproportionate development of industries, the loss of traditional markets; democratic freedoms were virtually non-existent; national sovereignty was limited. In Czechoslovak society, demands were growing for a radical democratization of all aspects of life.

In January 1968, the President of Czechoslovakia and the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Antonin Novotny, was removed. Alexander Dubcek, a representative of the liberal wing of the Communist Party, was elected leader of the Communist Party, and Ludwik Svoboda became president of Czechoslovakia. In April, the program of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was published, which proclaimed a course for the democratic renewal of socialism, provided for limited economic reforms.

Initially, the leadership of the USSR did not interfere in the inner-party problems of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, but the main features of the proclaimed "new model" of socialist society (the synthesis of a planned and market economy; the relative independence of state power and public organizations from party control; the rehabilitation of victims of repression; the democratization of political life in the country, etc.) ) ran counter to the Soviet interpretation of the Marxist-Leninist ideology and caused alarm among the leadership of the USSR. The possibility of a "chain reaction" in the neighboring socialist countries led to hostility towards the Czechoslovak "experiment" not only of the Soviet, but also of the East German, Polish and Bulgarian leadership. A more restrained position was taken by the leadership of Hungary.

From a geopolitical point of view, a dangerous situation arose for the USSR in one of the key countries of Eastern Europe. The withdrawal of Czechoslovakia from the Warsaw Pact would inevitably undermine the Eastern European military security system.

The use of force was considered by the Soviet leadership as the last alternative, but nevertheless, in the spring of 1968, it decided that it was necessary to take measures to prepare its armed forces for operations on the territory of Czechoslovakia.

The introduction of troops was preceded by numerous attempts at political dialogue during inter-party meetings of the leadership of the CPSU and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, mutual visits of government delegations, multilateral meetings of the leaders of Czechoslovakia and the socialist countries. But political pressure did not produce the expected results. The final decision on the introduction of troops into Czechoslovakia was made at an expanded meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU on August 16, 1968 and approved at a meeting of the leaders of the Warsaw Pact member states in Moscow on August 18 on the basis of an appeal from a group of Czechoslovakian party and state leaders to the governments of the USSR and other countries of the Warsaw Pact with request for international assistance. The action was planned as short-term. The operation to bring in troops was codenamed "Danube", and its overall leadership was entrusted to General of the Army Ivan Pavlovsky.

Direct training of troops began on August 17-18. First of all, equipment was preparing for long marches, stocks of material resources were replenished, work cards were worked out, and other events were held. On the eve of the introduction of troops, Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrey Grechko informed the Minister of Defense of Czechoslovakia Martin Dzur about the upcoming action and warned against resistance from the Czechoslovak armed forces.

The operation to bring troops into Czechoslovakia began on August 20 at 23.00, when an alarm was announced in the involved military units.

On the night of August 21, the troops of the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria crossed the Czechoslovak border from four directions, ensuring surprise. The movement of troops was carried out in radio silence, which contributed to the secrecy of the military action. Simultaneously with the introduction of ground forces to the airfields of Czechoslovakia, contingents of airborne troops were transferred from the territory of the USSR. At two o'clock in the morning on August 21, units of the 7th Airborne Division landed at the airfield near Prague. They blocked the main objects of the airfield, where Soviet An-12 military transport aircraft with troops and military equipment began to land at short intervals. The paratroopers were supposed to take control of the most important state and party facilities, primarily in Prague and Brno.

The rapid and coordinated entry of troops into Czechoslovakia led to the fact that within 36 hours the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries established complete control over Czechoslovak territory. The introduced troops were deployed in all regions and major cities. Particular attention was paid to the protection of the western borders of Czechoslovakia. The total number of troops directly involved in the operation was about 300 thousand people.

The 200,000-strong Czechoslovak army (about ten divisions) offered practically no resistance. She remained in the barracks, following the orders of her Minister of Defense, and remained neutral until the end of the events in the country. The population, mainly in Prague, Bratislava and other large cities, showed discontent. The protest was expressed in the construction of symbolic barricades on the way of the advance of tank columns, the operation of underground radio stations, the distribution of leaflets and appeals to the Czechoslovak population and military personnel of the allied countries.

The leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was actually arrested and taken to Moscow. However, the political goals of the action were initially not achieved. The plan of the Soviet leadership to form a "revolutionary government" of Czechoslovak leaders loyal to the USSR failed. All segments of Czechoslovak society strongly opposed the presence of foreign troops on the territory of the country.

On August 21, a group of countries (USA, England, France, Canada, Denmark and Paraguay) spoke at the UN Security Council demanding that the "Czechoslovak question" be brought to the UN General Assembly meeting, seeking a decision on the immediate withdrawal of the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries. The representatives of Hungary and the USSR voted against. Later, the representative of Czechoslovakia also demanded that this issue be removed from consideration by the UN. The situation in Czechoslovakia was also discussed in the NATO Permanent Council. The military intervention of the five states was condemned by the governments of the countries of socialist orientation - Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania, and China. Under these conditions, the USSR and its allies were forced to look for a way out of the situation.

On August 23-26, 1968, negotiations were held in Moscow between the Soviet and Czechoslovak leadership. Their result was a joint communique, in which the timing of the withdrawal of Soviet troops was made dependent on the normalization of the situation in Czechoslovakia.

At the end of August, the Czechoslovak leaders returned to their homeland. At the beginning of September, the first signs of stabilization of the situation appeared. The result was the withdrawal of the troops of the countries participating in the action from many cities and towns of Czechoslovakia to specially designated places of deployment. Aviation was concentrated on dedicated airfields. The withdrawal of troops from the territory of Czechoslovakia was hampered by the continued internal political instability, as well as the increased activity of NATO near the Czechoslovak borders, which was expressed in the regrouping of the bloc's troops stationed on the territory of the FRG in close proximity to the borders of the GDR and Czechoslovakia, in conducting various exercises. On October 16, 1968, an agreement was signed between the governments of the USSR and Czechoslovakia on the conditions for the temporary presence of Soviet troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia "in order to ensure the security of the socialist community." In accordance with the document, the Central Group of Forces (TsGV) was created - an operational territorial association of the Armed Forces of the USSR, temporarily stationed on the territory of Czechoslovakia. The headquarters of the CGV was located in the town of Milovice near Prague. The combat strength included two tank and three motorized rifle divisions.

The signing of the treaty was one of the main military-political results of the introduction of troops of five states, which satisfied the leadership of the USSR and the Department of Internal Affairs. On October 17, 1968, a phased withdrawal of allied troops from the territory of Czechoslovakia began, which was completed by mid-November.

The action of the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries, despite the absence of hostilities, was accompanied by losses on both sides. From August 21 to October 20, 1968, as a result of hostile actions of citizens of Czechoslovakia, 11 Soviet military personnel were killed, 87 people were wounded and injured. In addition, they died in accidents, with careless handling of weapons, died of diseases, etc. another 85 people. According to the Czechoslovak government commission, in the period from August 21 to December 17, 1968, 94 Czechoslovak citizens were killed, 345 people were injured of varying severity.

As a result of the introduction of troops into Czechoslovakia, a radical change in the course of the Czechoslovak leadership took place. The process of political and economic reforms in the country was interrupted.

Since the second half of the 1980s, the process of rethinking the Czechoslovak events of 1968 began. In the "Declaration of the leaders of Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland and the Soviet Union" of December 4, 1989 and in the "Declaration of the Soviet government" of December 5, 1989, the decision on the entry of allied troops into Czechoslovakia was recognized as erroneous and condemned as unreasonable interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign states.

On February 26, 1990, an agreement was signed in Moscow on the complete withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia. By this time, the CGU was located in 67 settlements in the Czech Republic and in 16 in Slovakia. The combat strength included over 1.1 thousand tanks and 2.5 thousand infantry fighting vehicles, more than 1.2 thousand artillery pieces, 100 aircraft and 170 helicopters; the total number of military personnel was over 92 thousand people, civilian personnel - 44.7 thousand people. In July 1991, the TsGV was abolished in connection with the completion of the withdrawal of troops to the territory of the Russian Federation.

To the 50th anniversary of the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia

After the death in Afghanistan on August 5 as a result of a suicide attack of three Czech servicemen, the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, General Ales Opata, announced the intention of the Czech special services to find and punish the organizers of the attack: “The Czech army will avenge the death of its three servicemen ... We will not allow anyone to kill the Czech military with impunity ... » The general's anger is understandable, especially if we remember that during the time of the Czech Republic's participation in the Afghan war on the side of the US/NATO, 13 Czech soldiers have already died in Afghanistan. However, remember something else...

August 21 marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the military-strategic operation "Danube" - the entry into Czechoslovakia of the troops of five member states of the Warsaw Pact Organization (USSR, Poland, East Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria) to suppress riots and acts of violence against government officials .

As a result of this operation, it was possible to prevent a revision of the post-war structure of the world and maintain Czechoslovakia's membership in the Eastern European socialist bloc. An agreement was concluded on the conditions for the temporary stay of Soviet troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet group remained in Czechoslovakia until 1991. It was the largest military operation in Europe after the end of World War II, involving 500,000 troops, 6,300 tanks and 800 aircraft.

Operation Danube. 1968 Czechoslovakia

Against the backdrop of a change of faces in the Czechoslovak government, opposition forces within the political leadership of the country, under the pretext of creating "socialism with a human face", launched a campaign to discredit the first persons of Czechoslovakia and the socialist camp as a whole. From the lips of the supporters of the "Prague Spring" there were calls to improve relations with West Germany, to divide the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to restore the Slovak Greek Catholic Church, which broke with the union in 1950 and returned to Orthodoxy, etc.

So-called political clubs (propaganda cells) were created from anti-Soviet-minded elements. They found a place for both criminals and persons suspected of collaborating with NATO intelligence services. Later, prepared Western-made weapons and mines will be found in the headquarters of these clubs.

The ideologeme of the “Prague Spring” was, in fact, an ideological cover for an attempt to revise the post-war structure of the world, which began back in 1956 in Hungary. A participant in those events, Lieutenant Colonel Vladislav Pavlovich Suntsev, says: “It was tempting for ... NATO to wrest Czechoslovakia from the socialist community, get through its territory a corridor to the border of the USSR ... and split the countries of the Warsaw Pact into two separate regions ... Near the western borders of Czechoslovakia, under the guise of exercises, concentrated German troops. For the introduction of NATO troops into Czechoslovakia, it was enough for at least one radio station from the territory of Czechoslovakia to request help. In this situation, the cold war could at any moment turn into a hot one ... In 1968, we prevented the third world war.

A few months before the above exercises, the middle command staff of the 2nd Corps of the West German Army visited Czechoslovakia under the guise of tourists, studying the routes of the invasion. (The interest of the Germans in Czechoslovakia is traditional: as the former adviser to President E. Beneš Piotr Drtina noted back in 1947, Czechoslovakia lies “not between the West and the East, but between Germany and the Soviet Union”). Josef Pavel, Minister of the Interior of Czechoslovakia and a supporter of rapprochement with NATO, stopped cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB of the USSR, opened the border with Germany, removed border barriers, launched a persecution of Moscow’s supporters from among the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and security agencies (some of them committed suicide, unable to withstand pressure) and established the most lenient regime for Western intelligence agents. A military radio station broadcast from the territory of the FRG to Czechoslovakia, inciting the Czechoslovaks to riots. The underground radio stations established in advance in Czechoslovakia itself also broadcast. These radio stations were later found during searches in the apartments and at the place of work of the "peaceful demonstrators". Anti-Soviet speeches in Czechoslovakia were not a manifestation of spontaneous discontent.

On August 24, near the city of Teplice, “peaceful supporters of reforms” shot down a Soviet helicopter from a machine gun. The pilots were injured, two passengers were killed - Soviet journalists. On August 26, a Soviet An-12 with a cargo of food was shot down, killing five crew members. In Prague, Soviet soldiers were fired upon from passing cars.

An eloquent incident occurred in Kosice. Enraged "supporters of peaceful reforms" stripped 48-year-old Valentina Belas naked and drove her through the streets of the city. She was the Russian wife of an officer in the Czechoslovak secret services. I saw an anti-Soviet poster on the wall with the addresses of employees, including my own address, tore it off, fearing for the lives of two children. On emotions, she spoke to the young men who ran up in Russian, and that was enough.

There were other provocations in the course: to put empty baby carriages on the path of the tank column, to shoot at the patrol from the crowd in order to provoke return fire, to place civilians “wounded” by Soviet soldiers around the city, whose wounds were painted with red paint, and so on. And nearby were specially invited photographers who took the “correct” pictures, which were then published in Western newspapers.

Propaganda leaflet (Germany) calling for NATO unity against the backdrop of the situation in Czechoslovakia

The notorious "Prague Spring" was in fact an attempt to punch a hole in the defense of the Warsaw Pact countries for the rapid deployment of NATO troops, for the West to achieve a military superiority in the east and further expansion to the east. It was an attempt to provoke a geopolitical rift in Europe in order to radically revise the results of World War II.

The fact that the Soviet army had no plans to strangle the Czechoslovak people is also evidenced by the same number of losses among the opposition rebels and the military personnel of the Warsaw Pact countries - 108 people each. The USSR lost 95 servicemen, Poland - 10, East Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary - 1 person each.

And now the Czech Republic and Slovakia are NATO member countries. The Americans are hatching plans to deploy in the Czech Republic elements of the US missile defense system that threatens Russia, and Czech and Slovak soldiers are dying in Afghanistan for US interests.

Today, an understanding is gradually emerging that the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia on the night of August 20-21, 1968 "did not allow the West to carry out a right-liberal coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia using the technology of making" velvet "revolutions and saved life in peace and harmony for more than 20 years our Motherland and all the peoples of the countries of the Warsaw Pact”.

| The participation of the USSR in the conflicts of the Cold War. Events in Czechoslovakia (1968)

Events in Czechoslovakia
(1968)

The entry of troops into Czechoslovakia (1968), also known as Operation Danube or the Invasion of Czechoslovakia - in waters of the Warsaw Pact troops (except Romania) to Czechoslovakia, started August 21, 1968 and ending reforms of the Prague Spring.

The largest contingent of troops was allocated from the USSR. The united group (up to 500 thousand people and 5 thousand tanks and armored personnel carriers) was commanded by General of the Army I. G. Pavlovsky.

The Soviet leadership feared that if the Czechoslovak communists pursued an internal policy independent of Moscow, the USSR would lose control over Czechoslovakia. Such a turn of events threatened to split the Eastern European socialist bloc both politically and military-strategically. The policy of limited state sovereignty in the countries of the socialist bloc, which allowed, among other things, the use of military force, if necessary, was called the "Brezhnev doctrine" in the West.

At the end of March 1968 The Central Committee of the CPSU sent classified information about the situation in Czechoslovakia to party activists. This document stated: “... recently, events have been developing in a negative direction. In Czechoslovakia, actions by irresponsible elements are on the rise, demanding the creation of an "official opposition" and showing "tolerance" to various anti-socialist views and theories. The past experience of socialist construction is incorrectly covered, proposals are made for a special Czechoslovak path to socialism, which is opposed to the experience of other socialist countries, attempts are made to cast a shadow on the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia and the need for an "independent" foreign policy is emphasized. There are calls for the creation of private enterprises, the abandonment of the planned system, and the expansion of ties with the West. Moreover, in a number of newspapers, on radio and television, calls are being propagated for “complete separation of the party from the state”, for the return of Czechoslovakia to the bourgeois republic of Masaryk and Benes, for the transformation of Czechoslovakia into an “open society” and others ... "

March 23 in Dresden, a meeting was held between the leaders of the parties and governments of six socialist countries - the USSR, Poland, the GDR, Bulgaria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, at which the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia A. Dubcek was sharply criticized.

After the meeting in Dresden, the Soviet leadership began to develop options for action against Czechoslovakia, including military measures. The leaders of the GDR (W. Ulbricht), Bulgaria (T. Zhivkov) and Poland (W. Gomulka) took a hard line and to a certain extent influenced the Soviet leader L. Brezhnev.

The Soviet side did not rule out the option of NATO troops entering the territory of Czechoslovakia, which carried out maneuvers code-named "Black Lion" near the borders of Czechoslovakia.

Given the current military and political situation, spring 1968 The joint command of the Warsaw Pact, together with the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, developed an operation code-named "Danube".

April 8, 1968 the commander of the airborne troops, General V.F. Margelov, received a directive, according to which he began planning the use of airborne assault forces on the territory of Czechoslovakia. The directive stated: "The Soviet Union and other socialist countries, loyal to international duty and the Warsaw Pact, must send their troops to assist the Czechoslovak People's Army in defending the Motherland from the danger looming over it." The document also emphasized: “... if the troops of the Czechoslovak People's Army treat the appearance of Soviet troops with understanding, in this case it is necessary to organize interaction with them and jointly carry out the assigned tasks. If the ChNA troops are hostile to the paratroopers and support the conservative forces, then it is necessary to take measures to localize them, and if this is not possible, to disarm them.

During April - May Soviet leaders tried to "reason" Alexander Dubcek, to draw his attention to the danger of the actions of anti-socialist forces. At the end of April, Marshal I. Yakubovsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact, arrived in Prague to prepare exercises for the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries on the territory of Czechoslovakia.

May 4th Brezhnev met with Dubcek in Moscow, but it was not possible to reach mutual understanding.

May 8 in Moscow A closed meeting of the leaders of the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary took place, during which a frank exchange of views took place on measures to be taken in connection with the situation in Czechoslovakia. Even then there were proposals for a military solution. However, at the same time, the leader of Hungary, J. Kadar, referring to, stated that the Czechoslovak crisis cannot be resolved by military means and a political solution must be sought.

At the end of May the government of Czechoslovakia agreed to conduct exercises of the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries called "Shumava", which took place June 20 - 30 involving only the headquarters of units, formations and signal troops. WITH 20 to 30 June For the first time in the history of the military bloc of the socialist countries, 16,000 personnel were brought into the territory of Czechoslovakia. WITH July 23 to August 10, 1968 on the territory of the USSR, the GDR and Poland, the rear exercises "Neman" were held, during which troops were redeployed to invade Czechoslovakia. On August 11, 1968, a major exercise of the air defense forces "Heavenly Shield" was held. On the territory of Western Ukraine, Poland and the GDR, exercises of the signal troops were held.

July 29 - August 1 a meeting was held in Čierná nad Tisou, in which the entire Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, together with President L. Svoboda, took part. The Czechoslovak delegation at the talks basically acted as a united front, but V. Bilyak adhered to a special position. At the same time, a personal letter was received from a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia A. Kapek with a request to provide his country with “fraternal assistance” from the socialist countries.

IN late July preparations for a military operation in Czechoslovakia were completed, but a final decision on its conduct had not yet been made. August 3, 1968 A meeting of leaders of six communist parties took place in Bratislava. The statement adopted in Bratislava contained a phrase about collective responsibility in the defense of socialism. In Bratislava, L. Brezhnev was given a letter from five members of the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Indra, Kolder, Kapek, Shvestka and Bilyak with a request for "effective assistance and support" in order to wrest Czechoslovakia "from the imminent danger of counter-revolution."

In the middle of August L. Brezhnev called A. Dubcek twice and asked why the personnel changes promised in Bratislava were not taking place, to which Dubcek replied that personnel matters were resolved collectively, by a plenum of the Central Committee of the party.

August 16 In Moscow, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a discussion of the situation in Czechoslovakia was held and proposals for the introduction of troops were approved. At the same time, a letter was received from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. August 17 Soviet Ambassador S. Chervonenko met with the President of Czechoslovakia L. Svoboda and informed Moscow that at the decisive moment the president would be together with the CPSU and the Soviet Union. On the same day, the materials prepared in Moscow for the text of the Appeal to the Czechoslovak people were sent to the group of "healthy forces" in the HRC. It was planned that they would create a Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government. A draft appeal was also prepared by the governments of the USSR, the GDR, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary to the people of Czechoslovakia, as well as to the Czechoslovak army.

August 18 A meeting of the leaders of the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary took place in Moscow. Appropriate measures were agreed, including the appearance of the "healthy forces" of the HRC with a request for military assistance. In a message to the President of Czechoslovakia Svoboda on behalf of the participants in the meeting in Moscow, one of the main arguments was the receipt of a request for assistance by the armed forces to the Czechoslovak people from the “majority” of the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and many members of the government of Czechoslovakia.

Operation Danube

The political goal of the operation was to change the political leadership of the country and establish a regime loyal to the USSR in Czechoslovakia. The troops were to seize the most important objects in Prague, the KGB officers were to arrest the Czech reformers, and then the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the session of the National Assembly were planned, where the top leadership was to be replaced. At the same time, a large role was assigned to President Svoboda.

The political leadership of the operation in Prague was carried out by a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU K. Mazurov.

The military preparation of the operation was carried out by Marshal I. I. Yakubovsky, Commander-in-Chief of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact countries, but a few days before the start of the operation, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, General of the Army I. G. Pavlovsky was appointed its leader.

At the first stage, the main role was assigned to the airborne troops. The air defense troops, the navy and the strategic missile forces were put on high alert.

TO August 20 a grouping of troops was prepared, the first echelon of which numbered up to 250,000 people, and the total number - up to 500,000 people, about 5,000 tanks and armored personnel carriers. For the implementation of the operation, 26 divisions were involved, of which 18 were Soviet, not counting aviation. The troops of the Soviet 1st Guards Tank, 20th Guards Combined Arms, 16th Air Armies (Group of Soviet Forces in Germany), 11th Guards Army (Baltic Military District), 28th Combined Arms Army (Belarusian Military District) took part in the invasion. district), the 13th and 38th combined arms armies (Carpathian military district) and the 14th air army (Odessa military district).

The Carpathian and Central Fronts were formed:
☑ Carpathian Front was created on the basis of the administration and troops of the Carpathian military district and several Polish divisions. It included four armies: the 13th, 38th combined arms, 8th Guards Tank and 57th Air. At the same time, the 8th Guards Tank Army and part of the forces of the 13th Army began to move to the southern regions of Poland, where Polish divisions were additionally included in their composition. Commander Colonel General Bisyarin Vasily Zinovievich.
☑ central front was formed on the basis of the administration of the Baltic Military District with the inclusion of the troops of the Baltic Military District, the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and the Northern Group of Forces, as well as individual Polish and East German divisions. This front was deployed in the GDR and Poland. The Central Front included the 11th and 20th Guards Combined Arms and the 37th Air Armies.

Also, the Southern Front was deployed to cover the operating group in Hungary. In addition to this front, the operational group Balaton (two Soviet divisions, as well as Bulgarian and Hungarian units) was deployed on the territory of Hungary to enter Czechoslovakia.

In general, the number of troops introduced into Czechoslovakia was:
☑ USSR- 18 motorized rifle, tank and airborne divisions, 22 aviation and helicopter regiments, about 170,000 people;
☑ Poland- 5 infantry divisions, up to 40,000 people;
☑ GDR- motorized rifle and tank divisions, up to 15,000 people in total (according to publications in the press, it was decided at the last moment to refuse to send parts of the GDR to Czechoslovakia, they played the role of a reserve on the border;
☑ of Czechoslovakia there was an operational group of the NNA of the GDR of several dozen military personnel);
☑ Hungary- 8th motorized rifle division, separate units, a total of 12,500 people;
☑ Bulgaria- 12th and 22nd Bulgarian motorized rifle regiments, with a total number of 2164 people. and one Bulgarian tank battalion, armed with 26 T-34 vehicles.

The date for the entry of troops was set for the evening of August 20 when the meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was held. On the morning of August 20, 1968, a secret order was read to the officers on the formation of the Danube High Command.

Commander-in-Chief was appointed General of the Army I. G. Pavlovsky, whose headquarters was deployed in the southern part of Poland. Both fronts (Central and Carpathian) and the Balaton task force, as well as two guards airborne divisions, were subordinate to him. On the first day of the operation, to ensure the landing of airborne divisions, five divisions of military transport aviation were allocated at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief "Danube".

Chronology of events

At 10:15 p.m. August 20 the troops received a signal "Vltava-666" about the beginning of the operation. IN 23:00 August 20 in the troops intended for the invasion, a combat alert was announced. Through closed communication channels, all fronts, armies, divisions, brigades, regiments and battalions were given a signal to advance. At this signal, all commanders were to open one of the five secret packages they kept (the operation was developed in five versions), and burn the four remaining in the presence of the chiefs of staff without opening. The opened packages contained an order to start Operation Danube and to continue hostilities in accordance with the Danube-Canal and Danube-Canal-Globus plans.

In advance, "Orders for interaction on the Danube operation" were developed. The military equipment involved in the invasion was marked with white stripes. All military equipment of Soviet and Union production without white stripes was subject to "neutralization", preferably without firing. In the event of resistance, stripless tanks and other military equipment were to be destroyed without warning and without commands from above. When meeting with NATO troops, it was ordered to stop immediately and not to shoot without a command.

Troops were sent in 18 places from the territory of the GDR, Poland, the USSR and Hungary. Parts of the 20th Guards Army from the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (Lieutenant General Ivan Leontyevich Velichko) entered Prague, which established control over the main objects of the capital of Czechoslovakia. At the same time, two Soviet airborne divisions were landed in Prague and Brno.

IN 2 am August 21 At the airfield "Ruzyne" in Prague, advanced units of the 7th Airborne Division landed. They blocked the main objects of the airfield, where Soviet An-12s with troops and military equipment began to land. The capture of the airfield was carried out using a deceptive maneuver: a Soviet passenger plane flying up to the airfield requested an emergency landing due to alleged damage on board. After permission and landing, paratroopers from the aircraft captured the airport control tower and ensured the landing of landing aircraft.

At the news of the invasion, the Presidium of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia immediately gathered in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in Dubcek's office. The majority - 7 to 4 - voted in favor of the Presidium's statement condemning the invasion. Only members of the Presidium Kolder, Bilyak, Svestka and Rigaud spoke according to the original plan. Barbirek and Piller supported Dubcek and O. Chernik. The calculation of the Soviet leadership was on the preponderance of "healthy forces" at the decisive moment - 6 against 5. The statement also contained a call for an urgent convocation of a party congress. Dubcek himself, in his radio appeal to the inhabitants of the country, urged citizens to remain calm and prevent bloodshed and the actual repetition of the Hungarian events of 1956.

TO 4:30 am August 21 the building of the Central Committee was surrounded by Soviet troops and armored vehicles, Soviet paratroopers broke into the building and arrested those present. Dubcek and other members of the Central Committee spent several hours under the control of paratroopers.

IN 5:10 am August 21 a reconnaissance company of the 350th Guards Airborne Regiment and a separate reconnaissance company of the 103rd Airborne Division landed. Within 10 minutes, they captured the airfields of Turzhany and Namesht, after which a hasty landing of the main forces began. According to eyewitnesses, transport planes landed at the airfields one after another. The landing party jumped off without waiting for a complete stop. By the end of the runway, the plane was already empty and immediately picked up speed for a new takeoff. With a minimum interval, other planes with troops and military equipment began to arrive here. Then the paratroopers on their military equipment and captured civilian vehicles went deep into the country.

TO 9:00 am August 21 in Brno, paratroopers blocked all roads, bridges, exits from the city, radio and television buildings, telegraph, main post office, administrative buildings of the city and region, printing house, railway stations, as well as headquarters of military units and military industry enterprises. ChNA commanders were asked to remain calm and maintain order. Four hours after the landing of the first groups of paratroopers, the most important objects of Prague and Brno were under the control of the allied forces. The main efforts of the paratroopers were aimed at seizing the buildings of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the government, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, as well as the buildings of the radio station and television. According to a predetermined plan, columns of troops were sent to the main administrative and industrial centers of Czechoslovakia. Formations and units of the allied forces were stationed in all major cities. Particular attention was paid to the protection of the western borders of Czechoslovakia.

At 10 a.m. Dubcek, Prime Minister Oldřich Czernik, Speaker of Parliament Josef Smrkowski (English) Russian, members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Josef Spacek and Bohumil Szymon, and head of the National Front Frantisek Kriegel (English) Russian. KGB officers and employees of the StB who collaborated with them were taken out of the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and then they were taken to the airfield in Soviet armored personnel carriers and taken to Moscow.

By the end of the day on August 21 24 divisions of the Warsaw Pact countries occupied the main objects on the territory of Czechoslovakia. The troops of the USSR and its allies occupied all points without the use of weapons, since the Czechoslovak army was ordered not to resist.

Actions of the HRC and the population of the country

In Prague, protesting citizens tried to block the movement of troops and equipment; all signs and street signs were knocked down, all the maps of Prague were hidden in the shops, while the Soviet military only had outdated wartime maps. In this regard, control over radio, television and newspapers was belatedly established. "Healthy forces" took refuge in the Soviet embassy. But they could not be persuaded to form a new government and hold a Central Committee Plenum. The media has already managed to declare them traitors.

At the call of the President of the country and the Czech Radio, the citizens of Czechoslovakia did not provide an armed rebuff to the invading troops. However, everywhere the troops met the passive resistance of the local population. Czechs and Slovaks refused to provide Soviet troops with drink, food and fuel, changed road signs to impede the advance of troops, took to the streets, tried to explain to the soldiers the essence of the events taking place in Czechoslovakia, appealed to the Russian-Czechoslovak brotherhood. Citizens demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops and the return of party and government leaders who had been taken to the USSR.

At the initiative of the Prague City Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, clandestine meetings of the XIV Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia began ahead of schedule, on the territory of the plant in Vysochany (a district of Prague), however, without delegates from Slovakia who did not have time to arrive.

Representatives of the conservative-minded group of delegates at the congress were not elected to any of the leadership positions in the HRC.

Side losses

There was practically no fighting. There were isolated cases of attacks on the military, but the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia did not resist.

According to modern data, during the invasion, 108 citizens of Czechoslovakia were killed and more than 500 wounded, the vast majority of civilians. On the first day of the invasion alone, 58 people were killed or mortally wounded, including seven women and an eight-year-old child.

The largest number of civilian casualties was in Prague near the building of the Czech Radio. Perhaps some of the victims were undocumented. Thus, witnesses report that Soviet soldiers fired on a crowd of Prague residents on Wenceslas Square, as a result of which several people were killed and injured, although data on this incident were not included in the reports of the Czechoslovak security service. There are numerous testimonies of the death of civilians, including among minors and the elderly, in Prague, Liberec, Brno, Kosice, Poprad and other cities of Czechoslovakia as a result of the unmotivated use of weapons by Soviet soldiers.

Total from August 21 to September 20, 1968 the combat losses of the Soviet troops amounted to 12 dead and 25 wounded and injured. Non-combat losses for the same period - 84 dead and dead, 62 wounded and injured. Also, as a result of a helicopter crash near the city of Teplice, 2 Soviet correspondents were killed. It should be noted that the surviving helicopter pilot, fearing that he would have to bear responsibility for the accident, fired several bullets at the helicopter from a pistol, and then claimed that the helicopter had been shot down by the Czechoslovaks; this version was official for some time, and correspondents K. Nepomniachtchi and A. Zworykin appeared, including in internal KGB materials, as victims of "counter-revolutionaries".

August 26, 1968 near the city of Zvolen (Czechoslovakia), an An-12 crashed from the Tula 374 VTAP (c / c captain N. Nabok). According to the pilots, the plane with a load (9 tons of butter) during landing approach was fired from the ground from a machine gun at an altitude of 300 meters and, as a result of damage to the 4th engine, fell, not reaching the runway for several kilometers. 5 people died (burned alive in the resulting fire), the gunner-radio operator survived. However, according to Czech archivist historians, the plane crashed into a mountain.

Near the village of Zhandov near the city of Ceska Lipa, a group of citizens, blocking the road to the bridge, impeded the movement of the Soviet T-55 tank foreman Yu. I. Andreev, who was catching up with the column that had gone ahead at high speed. The foreman decided to turn off the road so as not to crush people and the tank collapsed from the bridge along with the crew. Three soldiers were killed.

The losses of the USSR in technology are not exactly known. In parts of the 38th Army alone, in the first three days, 7 tanks and armored personnel carriers were burned on the territory of Slovakia and North Moravia.

Known data on the losses of the armed forces of other countries participating in the operation. So, the Hungarian army lost 4 soldiers dead (all non-combat losses: accident, illness, suicide). The Bulgarian army lost 2 people - one sentry was killed at the post by unknown persons (while a machine gun was stolen), 1 soldier shot himself.

Further developments and international assessment of the invasion

IN early September troops were withdrawn from many cities and towns of Czechoslovakia to specially designated locations. Soviet tanks left Prague on September 11, 1968. On October 16, 1968, an agreement was signed between the governments of the USSR and Czechoslovakia on the conditions for the temporary stay of Soviet troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia, according to which part of the Soviet troops remained on the territory of Czechoslovakia "in order to ensure the security of the socialist community." October 17, 1968 a phased withdrawal of part of the troops from the territory of Czechoslovakia began, which was completed by mid-November.

IN 1969 in Prague, students Jan Palach and Jan Zajic set themselves on fire a month apart in protest against the Soviet occupation.

As a result of the introduction of troops into Czechoslovakia, the process of political and economic reforms was interrupted. At the April (1969) plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, G. Husak was elected the first secretary. The reformers were removed from their posts, repressions began. Several tens of thousands of people left the country, including many representatives of the country's cultural elite.

On the territory of Czechoslovakia, the Soviet military presence remained until 1991.

August 21 representatives of a group of countries(USA, Great Britain, France, Canada, Denmark and Paraguay) spoke in the UN Security Council demanding that the "Czechoslovak question" be brought to the session of the UN General Assembly.

The representatives of Hungary and the USSR voted against. Then the representative of Czechoslovakia also demanded that this issue be removed from consideration by the UN. The military intervention of the five states was condemned by the governments of four socialist countries - Yugoslavia, Romania, Albania (which withdrew from the Warsaw Pact in September), the PRC, as well as a number of communist parties in Western countries.

Possible motivations for the deployment of troops and consequences

By the official version of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the countries of the Warsaw Pact(except Romania): The government of Czechoslovakia asked the allies in the military bloc to provide armed assistance in the fight against counter-revolutionary groups that, with the support of hostile imperialist countries, were preparing a coup d'état to overthrow socialism.

Geopolitical aspect: The USSR prevented the satellite countries from reviewing the unequal interstate relations that ensured its hegemony in Eastern Europe.

Military-strategic aspect: Czechoslovakia's voluntarism in foreign policy during the Cold War threatened the security of the border with NATO countries; before 1968 Czechoslovakia remained the only ATS country where there were no military bases of the USSR.

Ideological aspect: the ideas of socialism "with a human face" undermined the idea of ​​the truth of Marxism-Leninism, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the leading role of the communist party, which, in turn, affected the power interests of the party elite.

Political aspect: the brutal crackdown on democratic voluntarism in Czechoslovakia gave the members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU the opportunity, on the one hand, to crack down on internal opposition, on the other hand, to increase their authority, and thirdly, to prevent the disloyalty of the allies and demonstrate military power to potential opponents.

As a result of Operation Danube, Czechoslovakia remained a member of the Eastern European socialist bloc. The Soviet grouping of troops (up to 130 thousand people) remained in Czechoslovakia until 1991. The agreement on the conditions for the stay of Soviet troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia became one of the main military-political results of the introduction of troops of five states that satisfied the leadership of the USSR and the Department of Internal Affairs. However, Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact as a result of the invasion.

The suppression of the Prague Spring increased the disillusionment of many on the Western Left with Marxist-Leninist theory and contributed to the growth of "Eurocommunism" ideas among the leadership and members of Western Communist parties - subsequently leading to a split in many of them. The communist parties of Western Europe lost mass support, as the impossibility of "socialism with a human face" was practically shown.

Milos Zeman was expelled from the Communist Party in 1970 for disagreeing with the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into the country.

The opinion is expressed that the operation "Danube" strengthened the position of the United States in Europe.

Paradoxically, a forceful action in Czechoslovakia in 1968 accelerated the arrival in relations between East and West of the period of the so-called. "detente" based on the recognition of the territorial status quo that existed in Europe and the holding by Germany under Chancellor Willy Brandt of the so-called. "New Ostpolitik".

Operation Danube hindered possible reforms in the USSR: “For the Soviet Union, the strangulation of the Prague Spring turned out to be associated with many grave consequences. The imperial “victory” in 1968 cut off the oxygen to reforms, strengthening the position of dogmatic forces, strengthening the great-power traits in Soviet foreign policy, and contributing to the strengthening of stagnation in all areas.”

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