1967

June, 1967 The Czechoslovakian Authors Congress formulates harsh critique against the official cultural politics, particularly censorship.
September, 1967 The Cultural Ministry takes control over Litrarni Noviny, the journal of the authors’ union. Though about 400,000 copies in September, 1967, this number decreases rapidly after the takeover. The authors resume control over the journal in March 1968 and change its name. Later on the Cultural Ministry also take control over Kult­ur­ny Zivot, the journal of the authors in Slovakia.
18.10.1967 - 24.10.1967 Meeting of the party steering committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. Preparations for Central Committee meeting in late November.
30.10.1967 - 01.11.1967 Plenum meeting of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party includes discussions regarding the Party’s role in the political system. Criticism of accumulation of power – an indirect critique of Antonin Novotny
31.10.1967 Violent clashes between police and students at Charles University in Prague. Struggle between reform supporters and conservatives during the session of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party.
01.11.1967 - 10.11.1967 First Secretary Antonin Novotny is present in Moscow during the fiftieth  anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The stay is prolonged for several days – officially due to “sickness.”
08.12.1967 - 09.12.1967 The Soviet First Secretary Brezhnev goes to Prague to mediate between the struggling factions in the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. He avoids giving direct support to Novotny.
19.12.1967 - 20.12.1967 Meetings in the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party.There is a crisis in leadership in the Party. The Central Committee’s opposition exerts pressure on Novotny.

1968

01.01.1968 Novotny concedes to the intellectuals and the Slovaks, but it comes too late.
02.01.1968 Meeting of the steering committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party.

Prelude to the Prage Spring
05.01.1968 Meeting of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. This meeting is continued from December 19 – 20. Alexander Dubcek is elected First Secretary of the Communist Party and Antonin Novotny is forced to resign. The result is a triumph for the Slovaks and the reform supporters. The meeting is a prelude to the period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia – the Prague Spring. The steering committee is expanded with four new members.
07.01.1968 Rumors circulate about an expected change of Prime Minister in Czechoslovakia. The economist Oldrich Cernik is a favorite possible candidate.
09.01.1968 Indirect critique of Novotny appears in the Czechoslovakian Press, which states “The same person should not have all that political power.”
10.01.1968 New liberal tones from Czechoslovakia. The Party organ Rude Pravo called off the class struggle. 
15.01.1968 Dubcek appoints a commission to prepare proposals for an Action Program for the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party.
18.01.1968 The political development in Czechoslovakia is for the first time on the agenda of the Soviet Politburo. From now on, the new leadership in Czechoslovakia is closely monitored by the Soviets.
20.01.1968 Dubcek travels to Hungary to meet with Hungarian Communist Party leader Janos Kadar. Dubcek signals no change in Czechoslovakian Foreign Policy.
24.01.1968 Meeting of the Czechoslovakian Authors Union. They work out a compromise between moderate authors sensitive to the new Communist Party leadership in the and more critical members who desire regime change.
25.01.1968 Decision to make public all information about the meetings at the highest levels of the Party.
29.01.1968 - 30.01.1968 Dubcek travels to Moscow to meet with Brezhnev.
30.01.1968 Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia develop a bilateral agreement concerning economic and social reforms in Czechoslovakia. Proposals circulate in Czechoslovakia to permit import of Western Newspapers.
04.02.1968 Dubcek and Janos Kadar meet in Hungary.
07.02.1968 Dubcek meets with Gomulka, the leader of the Polish Communist Party.
09.02.1968 Czechoslovakia demands introduction of democracy, stating that the Parliament should be able to control the Government.
13.02.1968 Rude Pravo warns the Ministry of Culture against sensurship.
16.02.1968 President Novotny visits several factories in the Prague area and attacks the new leadership.
21.02.1968 Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Communist Party, participates in the opening ceremony celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Communist takeover in 1948.
23.02.1968 President Novotny gives a speech during a celebration on the market square in the old part of Prague. Novotny admits some political errors in the past, but defends the main political course in the Communist state during the last twenty years. The East German Party leader, Walter Ulbricht, harshly criticizes the economic reform plans during his visit. Dubcek gives prospects of rehabilitations. ”We must put right the earlier unjustice,” he claims. The workers’ militia stages a big parade in Prague during the celebration.
25.02.1968 General Jan Sejna defects to the United States via Hungary and Italy. At the time of his flight he is under investigation for fraud and embezzlement, together with the son of president Novotny.
28.02.1968 Lighter censorship in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakian journalist demands abolishment of censorship. Rude Pravo attacks Novotny.
01.03.1968 The Communist Party steering committee lifts the censorship that was introduced in 1966. Czechoslovakian authors propose free elections.
05.03.1968 Professors attacks Novotny in a Prague newspaper. The president is accused of demagogy on his visits to workplaces. Jiri Hendrych is dismissed. J.Spacek is named new chief ideologist in the Central Committee of the Communist Party.  Czechoslovakian newspapers are washing the country’s dirty laundry in public in the aftermath of the Sejna scandal. The scandal is getting bigger each day.
06.03.1968 - 07.03.1968 Warsaw Pact meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria. Czechoslovakia is not on the agenda.
08.03.1968 Professor Ota Sik accuses ”certain people” that visit workplaces and give speeches to workers of demagogy. The Communist Chief of Staff of the Czechoslovakian Army demands president Novotny’s resignation.
10.03.1968 The youth newspaper Smena in Bratislava publishes an open letter to “the communist Antonin Novotny” urging him to resign as president. Students lay down a garland on Jan Masaryk’s grave on the twentieth anniversary of his death. Mass meetings in Prague and other places in Czechoslovakia in support of Dubcek.
11.03.1968 The Sejna scandal is good news in Prague newspapers, and the defected general is condemned. Harsh confrontations with “the new class.” Prominent radio commentator claims that the workers have been exploited. Ladislav Mnacko returns to Czechoslovakia. Police officers in Prague face disciplinary actions for brutality during the student demonstration in October/November 1967. The memory of Jan Masaryk is acclaimed by the students.
12.03.1968 Czechoslovakia's leading literary weekly, Literarni Listy, publishes a comment on the latest trial of Soviet writers and a Prague newspaper, Svobodne Slovo, reports on the tension between students and the authorities in Poland.
13.03.1968 Smrkovsky is elected as leader of the Czech Parliament. The Communist Party makes the Action Program public. The Program promises fundamental reforms: rehabilitation of political prisoners, freedom of press, freedom to congregate and freedom of religion. Former chief of police Mamuta is arrested.
14.03.1968 Meeting of the Communist Party steering committee. The Action Program is passed unanimously. Rehabilitation of political prisoners and lifting of the censorship are among the important issues on the agenda. The president of the National Parliament resigns. Youths gather in Prague to hear the latest attacks on Novotny. “Non-Communists must engage in political life,” states a journal in Prague as introduction to the thought of a legal, non-Communist political opposition.
15.03.1968 The Slovakian Parliament demands a new constitution for a Socialist federation. Minister of Interior Josef Kudrna and Attorney General Jan Bratsk are fired.
15.03.1968 Czechoslovakian journalists are expelled from Poland.
16.03.1968 - 17.03.1968 Local Party conferences pass resolutions that demand president Novotny’s resignation. Full accounts of the resolutions are printed in Rude Pravo.
16.03.1968 Students demonstrate in Prague.
18.03.1968 The Newspaper Prace reprimands Minister in Prague.
21.03.1968 The Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee asks Novotny to resign as president. The students back Dubcek. New public demands for Novotny’s resignation. Sharp accusations against the president at a mass meeting in Prague. 
22.03.1968 Memorial ceremonies at the twentieth anniversary of Jan Masaryk’s death. Svodboda replaces Novotny as president. Students arrange “teach-in” in Prague.
23.03.1968 Dubcek accomplishes liberalization of the press, all literature and academic productions.
23.03.1968 Meeting of “the Five” (Soviet Union, GDR, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria) and Czechoslovakia in Dresden, East Germany. Dubcek is deceived into believing that the only agenda for the meeting is economic issues, but Czechoslovakia is the only question on the agenda. Dubcek is openly criticized by the Soviets, Polish and the East Germans. The situation in Czechoslovakia is characterized as a “counterrevolution.”
26.03.1968 Strikes in Czechoslovakia for the first time since 1948. The numbers of printed copies of newspapers in Prague doubled several times since January.
28.03.1968 - 05.04.1968 Meeting in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The Committee passes the decisions from the steering committee meeting of March 14. Six new members are appointed to the steering committee while supporters of Novotny are removed.
29.03.1968 Demonstrations in Prague in support of Cisar as presidential candidate.
30.03.1968 General Svoboda is elected new president.
31.03.1968 Three thousand victims of earlier political purges meet in Prague to demand justice.
01.04.1968 Alexander Dubcek confirms his intentions of making the Czechoslovakian Communism more democratic without giving up the Party’s leading and controlling role in society.
02.04.1968 Demands of public investigation into Jan Masaryk’s death in 1948. The Attorney General announces that the death of Masaryk will be investigated together with forty-eight others that were killed during the 1948 takeover.
03.04.1968 Minister of Defense, general Bohumir Lomsky, announces his resignation during a meeting in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Lomsky was considered one of Novotny’s closest allies.
04.04.1968 The Central Committee of the Communist Party appoints the economist Oldrich Cernik as new Prime Minister.
05.04.1968 The Central Committee decides to rehabilitate victims of the purge and the court processes of 1950 – 1954. The Central Committee also reverses the exclusion verdicts of authors from 1967.
06.04.1968 The government of Josef Lenart resigns and Cernik is asked by president Svoboda to form a new government. Several union leaders are replaced, among them the leader of the national journalist union.
08.04.1968 The Cernik’s new government takes office. Young intellectuals concerned about democratic and economic reforms hold key positions in the new government.
10.04.1968 The Action Program is passed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party despite criticism that the program is not far-reaching enough.
12.04.1968 Demands of a dialogue between the authorities and the Czechoslovakian Church.
15.04.1968 - 30.04.1968 Regional Party Conferences passes resolutions demanding a special Party Congress that can elect new members to the Central Committee. The special Party Congress is scheduled for early September instead of an ordinary Congress in 1969.
15.04.1968 People formerly suppressed by the Communist Party start to surface in the mass media, including accusations in print in Rude Pravo involving allegations about the Soviet secret police and their responsibility for the purge in 1952.
16.04.1968 Meeting of the Communist Party steering committee. On the agenda is the Soviet invitation to come to a meeting in Moscow in May.
16.04.1968 Representatives of the Vatican come to Prague for discussion with Czechoslovakian authorities.
16.04.1968 Rude Pravo implies for the first time that Soviet agents played a role in Jan Masaryk’s death.
17.04.1968 After having been allied to remove Novotny, liberals and the center in the Czechoslovakian Communist Party begin to struggle for control and influence.
21.04.1968 Czechoslovakian economists warns that the economic reforms were implemented too slowly.
23.04.1968 The Bulgarian Party leadership travels to Prague to renew the bilateral alliance between Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.
24.04.1968 Prime minister Cernik presents the government’s program to the Parliament. He gives a grim picture of the nation’s economic situation.
28.04.1968 Apolitical clubs and groups are established nationwide. Meetings are held at lecture halls at Charles University in Prague. The students protest against government-controlled anti-Americanism.
28.04.1968 Assertions made that Stalin ordered the Slanky process in 1952.
29.04.1968 Soviets stop corn exports to Czechoslovakia.
30.04.1968 Victims of the Stalin era are honored in Prague.
30.04.1968 Soviet Union offers Czechoslovakia economic aid equivalent to 400 million dollars.
May, 1968 Demonstration by Czechoslovakian students outside the Polish Embassy in protest against Polish anti-Semitism and political oppression.
01.05.1968 Ovation and declarations of support to Dubcek and Svoboda during the First of May demonstration in Prague. For the first time since 1948, participation in the demonstration is voluntary.
03.05.1968 Student demonstration in the old city of Prague in support of rapid reforms. The demonstration develops an anti-Communist atmosphere.
04.05.1968 Warsaw Pact meeting in Moscow without the Czechoslovakian leadership. Soviet criticism of the Czechoslovakian press policy and of the economic reforms. Brezhnev claims that the economic reforms will pave the way for re-establishing capitalism in Czechoslovakia.
04.05.1968 Polish press attacks liberalization in Czechoslovakia for the first time.
04.05.1968 - 05.05.1968 Dubcek and Czechoslovakian reform leaders meet Soviet leaders in Moscow.
04.05.1968 Three Czechoslovakian authors attack Polish Communist leaders for the treatment of Polish Jews.
05.05.1968 A radio station in Bratislava attacks Dubcek for not openly disclosing the purpose of the meeting in Moscow. Czechoslovakian mass media push the reforms.
05.05.1968 The Jewish Museum in Prague opens an exhibition about the role of the Jews in Prague and in European cultural life.
06.05.1968 The Czechoslovakian author, Vaclav Havel, puts on the political satire The Memorandum at the Shakespeare Festival's Public Theater. The play is considered a symbol of the new freedom in Czechoslovakian cultural life.
06.05.1968 Dubcek assures the Czechoslovakian people that at the meeting in Moscow the Soviet leaders accepted the process of the democratic development in Czechoslovakia.
06.05.1968 Polish authorities protest to the Czechoslovakian Communist Party about the Czechoslovakian media coverage of the Polish crises in March and April.
06.05.1968 The Soviet president Podgorny gives cautious support to the reform process in Czechoslovakia.
07.05.1968 New disclosures in Czechoslovakian media of the Soviet role in the purges early in the 1950s.
07.05.1968 Soviet authorities condemn reports in Western and Czechoslovakian media about Soviet participation in the Czechoslovakian purges and deny involvement in the death of Jan Masaryk.
08.05.1968 ”The Five” meet in Moscow – once again without the Czechoslovakian leadership present. Plans for an invasion of Czechoslovakia are discussed. Information about the existence of the meeting is given to the media on May 11 to increase the political pressure on Czechoslovakia.
09.05.1968 A radio station in Prague warns the Soviets against an intervention similar to Hungary in 1956. The radio channel declares that the future of Czechoslovakia is in Czech hands.
09.05.1968 The Warsaw Pact starts military maneuvers along Czechoslovakian borders with Poland and East Germany. President Svoboda declares that the Czechoslovakian Communist Party is determined to implement democratization according to the Action Program.
10.05.1968 A leading Soviet ideologist condemns democratization and liberalization in Czechoslovakia and Romania and claims that it is supported by an American undermining doctrine. Letter from Kosygin to Prime Minister Cernik includes harsh criticism of the liberalization of travel regulations.
10.05.1968 Czechoslovakian authorities attempt to reduce the political impact of the military activities by claiming that they knew about Soviet troops movements in Poland and East Germany in advance.
13.05.1968 The Polish Communist leaders criticize development in Czechoslovakia. They claim that the counter-revolutionary development constitutes an unacceptable threat to the whole Communist world.
13.05.1968 The Prague Radio accuses three Eastern Bloc newspapers of spreading slander about the Czechoslovakian reform process.
13.05.1968 Dubcek meets with the Hungarian party leader Janos Kadar.
14.05.1968 Prime Minister Cernik announces extensive political and economic reforms during a press conference. Cernik welcomes foreign investments in Czechoslovakian industry.
14.05.1968 Soviet newspaper issues sharp attacks against Thomas Masaryk, the first Czechoslovakian president, claiming that he was behind a plot to kill Lenin.
15.05.1968 Czechoslovakian newspapers react with rage against the Masaryk accusations in Soviet media.
15.05.1968 The Yugoslavian Foreign Minister gives positive assessments of the Czechoslovakian reform policy and supports development leading away from Soviet orthodoxy.
15.05.1968 The Warsaw Pact announces military maneuvers in Czechoslovakia in June.
16.05.1968 Prague radio accuses Soviet newspapers of starting a deliberate campaign against Czechoslovakia.
17.05.1968 The Soviet Prime minister, Aleksei Kosygin, visits Prague to hold discussions with Czechoslovakian leaders.
17.05.1968 Czechoslovakians increase the pace towards two federal states – one Czech and on Slovakian. The authorities announce that the process should be completed within ten months.
17.05.1968 President Tito declares his support of the liberalization process in Czechoslovakia.
19.05.1968 The Soviet newspaper Pravda claims Czechoslovakia has embarked on a process leading back to “bourgeois democracy,” which would constitute a threat against the leading role of the Communist Party.
22.05.1968 Three Catholic bishops expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1948 are allowed to re-enter the country.
23.05.1968 The Communist Party steering committee warns against all attempts to re-establish alternative parties and the critic in Czechoslovakian newspapers, radio and television.
25.05.1968 The Czechoslovakian Communist Party announces that it will no longer directly supervise foreign policy, but leave this to the Czechoslovakian State Department and the government.
26.05.1968 The Czechoslovakian Communist Party takes the first steps towards a rehabilitation of 40,000 individuals who served time in prison or stayed in special camps following political purges.
29.05.1968 Antonin Novotny is excluded from the Central Committee of the Communist Party together with six top officials from his regime. They are all under investigation for their role in earlier purges.
31.05.1968 Increasing unrest in Czechoslovakia due to troops’ movement in neighboring nations.
01.06.1968 - 15.06.1968 Delegates to a new Party Congress are elected during the first two weeks of June. The Party Congress appoints the Central Committee and it creates the premises for the appointment of the Party steering committee.
03.06.1968 Dubcek accuses Novotny of lying about his role during the purges in the early 1950s.
04.06.1968 Soviet tanks enter Czechoslovakia to take part in a Warsaw Pact maneuver in Moravia.
05.06.1968 A column of ninety Soviet army vehicles enters Czechoslovakia headed for a military base outside Prague as a part of a Warsaw Pact maneuver.
10.06.1968 Czechoslovakian high officials meet in Moscow to discuss important bilateral economic issues between Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union.
11.06.1968 Soviets complain to Prague because of a newspaper article. A diplomat from the Czechoslovakian embassy is summoned to the Soviet State department. The Czechoslovakian Foreign minister, Jiri Hajek, points out that their Communist allies should get used to the free press in Czechoslovakia and stop protesting.
13.06.1968 Dubcek in charge of a Czechoslovakian delegation to Hungary. Janos Kadar gives the impression that he understands the aims of the Czechoslovakian liberalization. Both Dubcek and Kadar emphasize their common solidarity with the Soviet Union.
15.06.1968 Harsh attacks against the leadership of Czechoslovakian Communist Party in Pravda, especially against the party secretary Cestmir Cisar and against the Czechoslovakian press.
15.06.1968 The Soviet attacks provoke anger and irritation in the Czechoslovakian Communist Party and in the media.
20.06.1968 The Warsaw Pact starts their military maneuvers in Czechoslovakia.
25.06.1968 The democratization process continues. The national Parliament passes laws to rehabilitate victims of political court trials since 1948 and give them economic reparations. The authorities warn against extensive liberalization. They refuse “bourgeois pluralism” and insist on maintaining the leadership role of the Communist Party.
27.06.1968 Parliament passes a new law ending censorship in media and literature. The law confirms the lifting of censorship that already has been passed in the Communist Party.
27.06.1968 Rude Pravo publishes poll results showing that ninety percent of the non-Communist readers are supporters of a multiple party system.
27.06.1968 The manifesto The Two Thousand Words surfaces in Prague with demands for a democratic socialism. Seventy artists, scientists and outstanding athletes sign the manifesto, which also has the support of Dubcek and the government. Among those who sign are Emil Zatopek, Jiri Raska, and Vera Caslavska.
05.07.1968 The article  The One Thousand Words written by Smrkovsky counters claims suggesting that the democratization process has come to an end.
12.07.1968 The Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee discusses the invitation to take part in a meeting in Warsaw on July 15. They decide not to participate unless Romania and Yugoslavia also take part.
14.07.1968 - 17.07.1968 Warsaw Pact meeting in Warsaw without Czechoslovakian participation. The Soviet Block condemns the Czechoslovakian revisionism and warns that the development is a mutual issue for all members of the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact countries formulate a letter containing a series of demands to the Czechoslovakian authorities. A military intervention is an increasingly possible solution to the conflict. In secret meetings Polish leaders pressure the Soviets for an invasion.
16.07.1968 - 17.07.1968 The Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee discusses the ”Warsaw letter” and decide to bring the answer up in the Central Committee.
18.07.1968 Dubcek confirms his intentions to continue the reform process in Czechoslovakia.
19.07.1968 The Central Committee discusses the answer to the ”Warsaw letter”. The Committee supports Dubcek unanimously.
28.07.1968 Czechoslovakian people gather in the streets and discuss Dubcek’s television speech. A poplar campaign in support of Dubcek collects signatures.
29.07.1968 - 01.08.1968 Czechoslovakian and Soviet leaders meet in the Slovakian city Cierna for bilateral discussions. They make a pseudo- compromise and agree on a Warsaw Pact meeting in Bratislava.
30.07.1968 Dubcek tells the Central Committee about the meeting with Brezhnev.
01.08.1968 Negotiations with Brezhnev end. Dubcek makes statements on national television about the negotiations.
02.08.1968 Demonstration in Prague in support of Dubcek.
03.08.1968 Warsaw Pact meeting in Bratislava. The meeting between the leaders of the Soviet bloc ends possibilities of Czechoslovakian choosing their own policy. The “Brezhnev doctrine” on the shared duty to defend Socialism is formulated. The ”traitor letter” from the Czechoslovakian opponents to the reform policy is handed over to the Soviet leaders.
07.08.1968 Kadar claims at a Central Committee meeting of the Hungarian Communist Party that the Bratislava meeting was a turning point – political measures are becoming the most important. Dubcek urges the Czechoslovakian Press to exercise caution.
08.08.1968 The Soviet Polit Buereau comes together and articulates skepticism that the agreements of Cierna and Bratislava will be met. The military preparations for the invasion continue.
09.08.1968 President Tito arrives on official state visit to Prague and declares his support to Dubcek.
11.08.1968 Moscow declares that military exercises will be held in East Germany, Poland and Ukraine. Forces from Soviet, Poland and East Germany will participate.  Tito leaves Czechoslovakia.
12.08.1968 Dubcek meets the East German Communist leader Walter Ulbricht in the border town of Karlovy Vary. Ulbricht comes to the meeting together with Erich Honecker and Willy Stoph.
13.08.1968 - 15.08.1968 The final decisions are made in the Soviet Politburo. Harsh attacks on Czechoslovakia in the Soviet Press.
13.08.1968 Meeting of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee. On the agenda is the federation question.
13.08.1968 Brezhnev declares in a phone call with Dubcek that he is not satisfied with the Czechoslovakian fulfillment of their obligations in the ”Bratislava agreement”.
15.08.1968 - 17.08.1968 The Romanian President Ceausescu makes a state visit to Prague. The visit is planned a long time in advance. Bilateral agreements are signed. President Ceausescu declares his support of Dubcek.
17.08.1968 Dubcek meets the Hungarian Communist leader Janos Kadar in Slovakia. No signals are given about what is going to happen.
19.08.1968 Minister of Interior Josef Pavel makes the administrative framework for the general rehabilitation in the courts for victims of the Stalinist purge.

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia - August 21. 1968
20.08.1968 - 21.08.1968 The Warsaw Pact invades Czechoslovakia. Dubcek and his men are arrested. The Soviets fail to establish a new government, but enact secret Moscow agreements that put an end to the liberalization. The invasion force is composed by about 300 – 600,000 soldiers from Soviet, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. During the invasion about ninety-two Czechoslovakians are killed and more than 300 are injured. A Czechoslovakian television reporter is able to broadcast appeals for help to abroad from Brno.
20.08.1968 Meeting of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee. On the agenda is the federation question. The meeting also deals with the agenda for the planned Party Congress in September. Three of the members of the steering committee put forward proposals to accept the critique of the “Warsaw Letter”. The proposal is defeated by three votes. The proposal is put forward to legitimize the invasion. Dubcek is in middle of the meeting when he is informed of the Soviet invasion. The steering committee decides to summon the Parliament and the Plenum meeting of the Central Committee to discuss the situation. Despite a nominal majority of pro-Soviet conservatives in the steering committee the attempt of a political coup in the party leaderships fails.
21.08.1968 Tass claims that the invasion happens after a Czechoslovakian invitation and calls for help to stop a counterevolution in Czechoslovakia. The steering committee states that the invasion was conducted without the knowledge of the Czechoslovakian  government.
21.08.1968 Overnight, Dubcek decides to summon the Party Congress to a secret meeting. The Prague City Committee makes the calls.
21.08.1968 The Central Committee building is surrounded at 4:00 AM. Soviet troops clash with civilians outside the building and one civilian is killed. Soviet soldiers arrest Dubcek and his closest allies at 9:00 AM in his office. Dubcek is taken by plane out of the country as a prisoner to Soviet Union. The correspondent for the New York Times is expelled from Czechoslovakia.
22.08.1968 - 30.08.1968 Widespread demonstrations against the Soviet invasion. Various forms of protest actions including posters, passive resistance, and removing road signs.
22.08.1968 Both the Czechoslovakian Parliament and the special Party Congress of the Communist Party condemn the occupation as an illegal act.
22.08.1968 The special Party Congress meets at a secret location in an industrial area in Prague. The workers’ militia guards the meeting. The Congress appoints a new Central Committee with only reform supporters and a newsteering committee is elected. Literarny Listy calls for international support. A curfew is declared in Prague.
23.08.1968 - 26.08.1968 President Svoboda flies to Moscow. Dubcek is also brought to Moscow to join the other Czechoslovakian leaders for “negotiation” with Soviet leaders. Dubcek is allowed to return to Czechoslovakia to administrate the “Prague Autumn.” The Soviet leaders demand that all the resolutions of the special Congress are declared invalid. The Czechoslovakian leaders reject the demands. The Soviets also demand that the Prague invasion be removed from the agenda of the UN Security Council.
24.08.1968 The famous athlete Emil Zatopek gives speech on one of the secret free television channels in Czechoslovakia. General strike in Prague. Soviet armored train with equipment to locate radio transmitters ”gets lost” in Czechoslovakia.
26.08.1968 The negotiations come to an end and the Czechoslovakian leaders are brought home to Prague. They are forced to sign a secret protocol similar to a political dictation  before leaving Moscow. In Prague there are street demonstrations, lines for food, Russian tanks etc. The leaders of the Czechoslovakian labor union call for a global boycott. Prague citizens take part in demonstrations as a proud and efficient protest against the invasion. Civilians are shot by the Soviet soldiers. The Czechoslovakian information system still works in spite of the occupation forces. Humor and contempt are efficient weapons against the occupation forces in the streets of Prague. In spite of strict Soviet measures to stop broadcasting, the illegal press and radio are able to operate and play an important role. The Slovakian leader Bilak plays the Soviet game and demands an independent Slovakia.
27.08.1968 Dubcek gives a television speech and informs the Czechoslovakian people about the situation.
28.08.1968 Dubcek meets the new Central Committee elected by the special Party Congress. The Central Committee has been meeting constantly since August 22. Dubcek informs about obligations forced upon them by the Soviets in Moscow. A crying Dubcek meets his people. Svoboda appeals to discipline and trust.
29.08.1968 Some leaders in Bratislava grumble against Czech majority in the new Party Congress and Central Committee. Gustav Husak encourages Dubcek not to take assignments from the newly elected Central Committee appointed by the special Party Congress because no Slovakian delegates were present.
29.08.1968 The Czechoslovakian Parliament unanimously condemns the Soviet invasion and demands the troops withdrawn. Slovakians demand that the special Party Congress be declared invalid.
30.08.1968 The free broadcasts are silenced. Czech and Slovakian leaders agree to summon a new Party Congress.

Normalization – The Prague “ Winter”
31.08.1968 Meeting in the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. Dubcek reports on the results of the negotiation in Moscow. Dubcek informs the Central Committee about the nature of the negotiation and that it was not a voluntary but forced agreement. Leadership replacements demanded by Soviets are made. The free broadcasts are reduced to harmless local transmitters.
01.09.1968 Censorship is “temporarily” reimposed in Czechoslovakian press, radio and television. Czechoslovakians are in line outside the West German and Austrian embassies to obtain visas to leave the country.
02.09.1968 The Central Committee meets to appoint a new steering committee. Dubcek’s allies hold the line despite mounting Soviet pressure.
02.09.1968 The schools in Prague reopen.
09.09.1968 Original date for the special 14th Party Congress.
10.09.1968 Czechoslovakian delegation headed by Cernik meets Soviet leaders in Moscow.
10.09.1968 Air traffic in Prague back to normal.
12.09.1968 The Soviets withdraw tanks and troops from the Czechoslovakian cities like Prague, Brno and Bratislava. The First Secretary of the Slovakian Communist Party, Gustav Husak, gives his support to extensive measures against “anti-Socialist forces”.
12.09.1968 President Svoboda meets with workers at the Skoda factory in Pilsen.
13.09.1968 - 17.09.1968 Session in the Czechoslovakian Parliament.
21.09.1968 Dubcek and Svoboda in Ostrava.
03.10.1968 Dubcek, Cernik and Husak are ordered to a meeting in Moscow with Brezhnev, Kosygin and Podgornij. The Soviets attempt to force the Czechoslovakian leadership to accept an agreement that legitimizes the presence of Soviet soldiers in Czechoslovakia. Dubcek refuses the proposals. Sessions in the Czech and the Slovakian National Council in Brno.
10.10.1968 The Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee discusses the “meeting” in Moscow.
14.10.1968 Kosygin orders Prime Minister Cernik back to Moscow where he is presented with an ultimatum. He must sign an “agreement” regarding the presence of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia within two days. Dubcek and the Communist Party are kept out of the negotiations, since the Soviets now make it look like a bilateral question between two states.
18.10.1968 Marshal Gretschko/Greèko and Kosygin travel to Prague where they force Svoboda, Dubcek and the leaders in the Czechoslovakian Parliament to accept the ”agreement;” otherwise the Soviet troops with return to the Czechoslovakian cities again.
27.10.1968 President Svoboda signs the new Federal Law that establishes Slovak and Czech Republic and gives the them equal status within the Czechoslovakian federation. Meeting in the Parliament between Smrkovsky and Cernik.
28.10.1968 The fiftieth anniversary of Czechoslovakian independence. Thousands of workers and students demonstrate against the Soviet occupation of Prague. Meetings in the Central Committee. Dubcek and Svoboda give speeches. Kuznetsov leaves the National Theater in protest when youth shout anti-Soviet slogans during the performance.
29.10.1968 Demonstrations in connections with the 50 years’ anniversary.
30.10.1968 The Czechoslovakian Parliament adopts a federal form of government. Signing of official documents in Bratislava. Dubcek and Svoboda are in Bratislava.
06.11.1968 Several thousands participate in demonstrations in Prague to protest the Soviet occupation. The protest starts outside the National Theater. The protestors tear down Soviet flags and burn them. The Czechoslovakian police are present, but take no action. Fear of riots during the jubilee of the revolution. The leadership appeals through radio to Czechoslovakian youths to stay calm.
06.11.1968 Students call for a strike and to mark the Russian Revolution day by wearing sables. The Dean at the Faculty of Law at Charles University threatens to expel all students that participate in demonstrations.
07.11.1968 Protests and burning of Russian flags at the statue of St. Wencels in Prague. Several thousand demonstrators participate in extensive anti-Soviet protests. The police use batons against the protestors.
10.11.1968 Czechoslovakian-Soviet friendship breakfast arrangement in Prague is met by demonstrators shouting ”Shame on you, fascist!”. The crowd insults the participators in the arrangement. 
11.11.1968 Cernik gives a speech on national television. Tightening measures against the Czechoslovakian Press and the weekly newspaper Politika are stopped. Seven Western news reporters are expelled from Czechoslovakia due to their coverage of the demonstrations on November 7.
14.11.1968 - 18.11.1968 Meeting in the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. Reform supporters are excluded from Committee. Students go on strike for three days in support of national liberty. The student strike spreads from Prague to the universities in the rest of the country.
18.11.1968 Student demonstration in Prague. Meeting of Czechoslovakian journalists in Prague. New tones from the Communist Party: the Central Committee makes the press a scapegoat. The workers support students in Prague.
20.11.1968 The students in Prague arrange “sit-ins.” and prolong their strike. The leaders in the Czechoslovakian Communist Party urge the students to stop protesting.
27.11.1968 Czech intellectuals in protest.
02.12.1968 The Czechs protest propaganda newspaper Zpravy controlled by the Soviets.
06.12.1968 Dubcek speaks to mine workers in North Böhmen.
07.12.1968 Dubcek is called to a meeting with Brezhnev in Kiev – he meets with Svoboda, Cernik, Strougal and Husak. Proposals are put forward concerning purge in districts and on local level in the Communist Party and in the administration. Treason in the Czechoslovakian leadership by Husak. Dubcek becomes further isolated. Mounting pressure against the Czechoslovakian mass media to stop open criticism.
12.12.1968 Plenum meeting in the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party.
17.12.1968 - 19.12.1968 Foreign correspondents in Prague are forced to leave the country. The reporters from New York Times and Newsweek are expelled.
22.12.1968 Dubcek warns against unrest.

1969

16.01.1969 Jan Palach sets himself on fire in downtown Prague and dies two days later. In the following days several other young student set themselves on fire in Brno, Pilsen and in Prague to protest Soviet occupation. 
16.01.1969 Meeting in the Central Committee of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. Proposals to alter the declaration from August 21, 1968, which condemns the Soviet invasion, are turned down.
17.01.1969 Mass demonstrations in connection to Jan Palach’s funeral. Demonstrations in support of the Action Program and in protest against the Soviet occupation.
20.01.1969 Student unrest in Czechoslovakia.
21.03.1969 The Czechoslovakian National Team defeats Soviet in the World Championship in ice hockey.
31.03.1969 The Czechoslovakian National Team in ice hockey returns to Prague from the World Championship. Their victory provokes an anti-Soviet demonstration at the Wenceslas Square in Prague as 150,000 people celebrate. The demonstrations are used as an excuse for a new Soviet ultimatum. Dubcek refuses to use Czechoslovakian soldiers against the demonstrators. Soviets threaten reoccupation of Czechoslovakian cities. Eight thousand new Soviet troops are flown in. The Soviet Marshal Gretschko/Greèko and Vice Secretary of State Sem­jonov travel to Prague.
07.04.1969 People gather at the grave of Jan Palach in Prague.
12.04.1969 Dubcek informs the Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee that he will resign his position as First Secretary. He proposes Cernik as his successor, but he is not able to prevent Gustav Husak from being a favorite due to Russian support.
16.04.1969 The Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee decides to elect Gustav Husak as First Secretary.
17.04.1969 Meetings in the Central Committee in the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. Gustav Husak replaces Alexander Dubcek as First Secretary. Press censorship is reimposed and the rehabilitation process stopped.
22.04.1969 Students in Prague on strike.
01.05.1969 The police clash with 700 youths demonstrating in the streets of Prague.
20.08.1969 Demonstrations on Wenceslaus Square in Prague.
21.08.1969 Largest .protest demonstrations since 1948 take place in several cities on the first anniversary of the Soviet invasion. The Husak government imposes the so-called “clubbing order”, which Dubcek also still signs. Police and militia confront the demonstrators. The purge in government and Communist Party continues. Riots on Wenceslas Square in Prague.
29.09.1969 Alexander Dubcek is excluded from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party steering committee.