Socialism with a human face

• 1. A Slogan for Change

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  Radovan Richta, a philosopher, gave Alexander Dubček's reform programme its name in 1968: "Socialism with a human face." Dubček had become chairman of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in January of that year. He inherited a country whose people had grown deeply disillusioned with two decades of party governance. The ideals of socialism had not delivered the society they promised. The party had intervened too often, and too heavily, in matters that barely warranted attention.

  Dubček believed the remedy was not to abandon socialism but to transform it. He wanted a country that valued democratic tradition while keeping the Communist Party in its leading role. His vision included trade with both Western nations and Soviet partners. The world came to call what followed the Prague Spring.

  But the spring did not last. What did Dubček's programme actually propose? How far did it go before the moment of reckoning arrived? And what does it mean that, nearly twenty years later, it was still being cited as a comparison point for another attempt at socialist reform?

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• 2. The Action Programme

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  At the 20th anniversary of Czechoslovakia's "Victorious February," Dubček laid out why reform was necessary. He emphasized the need to "enforce the leading role of the party more effectively." He also acknowledged that, despite Klement Gottwald's own calls for better relations with society, the party had repeatedly made heavy-handed rulings on trivial matters. Dubček stated the party's mission simply. It was "to build an advanced socialist society on sound economic foundations... a socialism that corresponds to the historical democratic traditions of Czechoslovakia."

  The formal statement came in April 1968, when Dubček announced the Action Programme. It guaranteed freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of movement. It placed economic emphasis on consumer goods. It raised the possibility of a multiparty government. It would limit the powers of the secret police. And it proposed federalizing the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic into two equal nations.

  "Centralist and directive-administrative methods," the programme argued, had been appropriate in the post-war years. They were designed to counter what it called the "remnants of the bourgeoisie." Once the "antagonistic classes" were said to have been defeated, those methods were no longer justified. Workers could now be rewarded for their qualifications and technical skills. Important positions, it added, should be "filled by capable, educated socialist expert cadres," rather than by political loyalists.

  Ota Šik, the economist behind the reforms, described his approach as a third way. He saw planned and market economies mixing. Czechoslovak exports were declining in competitiveness, and the economy had relied too long on Stalinist-era heavy industry, labour power, and raw materials. Joining the "scientific-technical revolution in the world" required a new foundation. In May, Dubček announced that the Fourteenth Party Congress would convene in an early session on the 9th of September. The congress would incorporate the Action Programme into party statutes and elect a new Central Committee.

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• 3. A Free Press

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  On the 4th of March 1968, censorship was abolished in Czechoslovakia. It was the first time in the country's history that such a step had been taken. The previously hard-line communist weekly Literární noviny was renamed Literární listy. Media that had served as instruments of party propaganda became, almost at once, platforms for criticism of the government.

  Goldstücker appeared on television to present doctored photographs of former communist leaders alongside the undoctored originals. These were people who had been purged, imprisoned, or executed, then erased from official history. In April 1968, the Writers' Union formed a committee headed by the poet Jaroslav Seifert. The committee investigated the persecution of writers following the Communist takeover in February 1948. Its goal was to restore those writers to bookstores, libraries, and the broader literary world.

  Pavel Kohout and Jan Prochazka were among the writers who appeared in the new public forums, hosted by radio, television, and the press. Political victims such as Josef Smrkovský, Zdenek Hejzlar, and Gustáv Husák appeared alongside them. Non-party publications began to emerge; the trade union daily Prace was among the first. By March 1968, the Journalists' Union had already persuaded the Central Publication Board to give editors uncensored access to foreign newspapers. Television also broadcast something new. Former political prisoners faced, on screen, the communist officials from the prisons and secret police agencies where they had once been held.

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• 4. The Two Thousand Words

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  On the 26th of June 1968, anti-Soviet polemics appeared in the Czechoslovak press. Popular pressure to speed up the reforms had been building throughout the spring. The Social Democrats began forming a separate party. New unaffiliated political clubs came into being. Party conservatives urged Dubček to respond with repressive measures. Dubček refused, counseling moderation and re-emphasizing Communist Party leadership.

  On the 27th of June, the author and journalist Ludvík Vaculík published a manifesto titled "The Two Thousand Words." It expressed concern about conservative elements within the KSČ and what Vaculík called "foreign" forces threatening the reform. Vaculík called directly on ordinary people to take the initiative in implementing the programme themselves. The response was immediate and unified: Dubček, the party Presidium, the National Front, and the cabinet all denounced the manifesto. The answer would come from outside Czechoslovakia entirely.

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• 5. The End of Spring

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  On the 21st of August 1968, Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia. The reforms were rolled back. The experiment that had tried to combine socialist governance with democratic freedoms had lasted only months in its fullest expression.

  During Gorbachev's visit to Prague in 1987, a journalist addressed a question to his spokesman, Gennady Gerasimov. The question was: what was the difference between the Prague Spring and perestroika? Gerasimov's reply was two words: "Nineteen years." By Gerasimov's calculation, Gorbachev's reform effort was nineteen years behind Dubček's attempt.

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