Exercises on the Prague Spring

The Prague Spring was the attempt by the population of a communist bloc nation to democratize the regime that had been implanted in the country and that followed the guidelines established by the Soviet Union. Select the alternative that brings the country in which this event occurred:

a) Yugoslavia

b) Chechnya

c) Czechoslovakia

d) Hungary

e) Poland

The reformism that spread across Czechoslovakia in 1968 started with the inauguration of a new general secretary in the local Communist Party. This new secretary initiated the reforms aimed at implanting a “socialism with a human face” in the country. We're talking about:

a) Leonid Brezhnev

b) Alexander Dubcek

c) Nikita Khrushchev

d) Mikhail Gorbachev

e) Nicolau Ceausescu

The events in Czechoslovakia in 1968 caught the attention of Moscow, which sought to hold meetings with the Czechoslovak leadership. In August 1968, Czechoslovakia was invaded by Soviet troops, and ongoing reforms in the country were halted. Which factor explains the Soviet action?

a) fear that the Czechoslovak example would contaminate other communist bloc nations and weaken the power of the Soviets.

b) the protests in Czechoslovakia had disrupted industrial production in the Sudetenland, which was hurting the Soviet economy.

c) the government of Moscow was a sworn enemy of Dubcek, as he was created in Kyrgyzstan, a rebel republic that formed the Soviet territory.

d) the Soviet government used the events in Czechoslovakia as a pretext to make use of its new weapons, produced in the 1965-1967 cycle.

e) overthrow Alexander Dubcek and establish Nicolaus Ceausescu in command of Czechoslovakia.

The Prague Spring saw massive participation by the Czechoslovak student movement. In addition to Prague, another European city experienced a strong mobilization of the student movement, which began with a group known as the March 22 Movement and which had a prominent role from May 1968:

a) Paris

b) Madrid

c) Bratislava

d) London

e) Moscow

LETTER C

The events of the Prague Spring took place in the extinct Czechoslovakia (currently Czechia and Slovakia). The Prague Spring manifested Czechoslovakia's dissatisfaction with the communist regime established in the country and mobilized the political, student, intellectual, etc. The desire was for the democratization of communism and the end of Soviet authoritarianism in Czechoslovakia.

LETER B

Alexander Dubcek assumed the general command of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union from January 5, 1968 and began the reforms in order to implant a "socialism with a human face", or that is, a socialism with democratic openness and greater individual freedom for citizens. An important step taken by Dubcek was the end of censorship in the country, and his ideas for Czechoslovakia were summarized in the Program of Action.

LETER A

Soviet intervention took place because the command of the Moscow government saw the events in Czechoslovakia as a major threat to the stability of Soviet power over the rest of the communist bloc. The great fear was that this reformism would spread and undermine Moscow's power.

LETER A

The events of the Prague Spring coincided with a number of other protest movements in different parts of the world. The civil rights movements of African-Americans in the United States can be highlighted, as well as the performance of the student movement in Brazil that fought against dictatorship. The question itself mentions an event that marked a generation and that began with the student mobilization in the city of Paris, France:May 1968.