Czechoslovakia 1968: Year of Trial

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Description: Soviet documentary about the invasion of Prague in 1968, following the so-called Prague Spring. The film is in Russian but the metadata includes translated selections from the commentary.
Duration: 68 mins 04 secs
Director: A Koloshin
Credits: Scenario: A. Koloshina, I. Medvedeva Photography: O. Artseyulov, A. Istomin, V. Kovnat Consultant: A. Nedorezov Musical Selection: G. Mironova Assistant Director: N. Fedenistova Text read by: A. Khlebnikov Editor: N. Igonina Cinema Chronicle Editor: N. Vertinskaya Sound: E. Umansky Producer: R. Saleyeva
Year: 1969
Subjects: Political conflicts, Political history, Occupied territories, Communism, Resistance to oppression, USSR, Czechoslovakia, Conservatism, Protest movements, Cultural conflicts
Segment 1: Reporters running through the street. Title: 'Czechoslovakia, Year of Trial'. Crowd of reporters. Politicians including Alexander Dubcek coming out of a building. Meeting. Crowd of people singing. Commentator: ' The year 1968 was difficult and troubling year for Czechoslovakia. Enemies of socialism thought their time had come. Using the political situation which had arisen after Communist Party's General Meeting in January and the Party's criticism of the past mistakes they went on the offensive. NATO and Bonn with the slogan "West must get Czechoslovakia back" made the 'Czechoslovakia question' their own. Anti-socialist movement in the country with the support of the West and its propaganda wanted the return of bourgeois ruling. The alliance of the socialist countries prevented war actions of Western Imperialism in this region. Instead they opted for new strategy - "quiet counter-revolution", attacking the socialist system, the governing role of the Communist Party and its close friendship with the Soviet Union. The discussions started across the country.' Shots of people speaking against the anti-Communist movement, for the purity of the Party members, and against broken promises of the past. Commentator: 'Inside the Party there were anti-Communist sympathizers. They focused on the country's youth using its political immaturity'. Shots of young people demonstrating.
Segment 2: Shots of students with books, people relaxing in cafes. Commentator: ' Who would believe that here, in Czechoslovakia, in the middle of Europe, was the front of anti-communism. In Berlin - yes. [Shots of tanks and soldiers in Berlin]. There the provocation of the Americans and Bonn's politicians held the world at the edge of war'. Shots of peaceful life in Czech towns. An orchestra plays 'Moldau' by Smetana. Shots of Prague rooftops, the Cathedral, Charles Bridge etc. Commentator explains how, under the cover of the fight for pure democracy, the enemy began their fight against revolutionary Marxism. The writer Jan Prohatsky speaks from the podium about the disappearance of the censorship and a hope for the return to old Europe. The crowd applauds. Shots of speaking Otto Schik, who advocates Czechoslovakia's economic return to Europe to establish close links with capitalism and West Germany. Shots of newspapers including 'Literalny Listy' [Literary Pages] and a group of writers supporting no-class pure democracy and freedom to all political views. Commentator: 'Does this also mean freedom for the right-wing and counter-revolution?'. Interview with deputy editor Ludwig Veselyi. Commentator: 'L Veselyi speaks of his program to mobilize people and create a basis for the beginning. Let's remember- "for the beginning"! The foreign editor says that since 18th century culture has been always political in Czechoslovakia. Shots of writers laying a wreath. Commentator: 'They are laying wreath but not to Julius Fucik, neither to the soldiers of the War, but to Masaryk! While they are grieving let's see some archive films'. Title: '28 October, 1918. Prague'. Shots of celebrating crowds, marching military bands. Commentator: 'The new republic was born on the wreck of the old monarchy. The first president was T. G. Masaryk'. Newsreels of Masaryk.
Segment 3: Newsreels of Tomas Masaryk and his government. Commentator: 'The first steps of the young republic were offenses against Soviet Russia, Soviet Slovenia, Red Hungary in 1919, workers socialist movement in 1920, mass unemployment and migration.' Shots of war action, dead bodies, grieving peasants, contemporary shots of writers at the Masaryk's grave, his gravestone. Despite this, the writers still adhered to Masaryk's ideology. Their manifesto, "2000 Words", proclaimed the liquidation of the Communist Party and the socialist system in Czechoslovakia, encouraging local committees to declare strikes and if necessary defend the new government with arms. Shots of writers speaking at conferences. Shot of the Writers Union President (considered to be the ideological author of the Manifesto). The Communist Party's Central Committee criticized the Manifesto, but was silenced by the press and media which were in the hands of the anti-socialists. Shots of people buying and reading newspapers. The German newspaper Der Spiegl considered Czechoslovakia's press to be an opposition party. "Quiet counter-revolution" acted through network of clubs. The illegal club "231" had over 100,000 members. One of the founders of the club was an American spy. Shots of printed articles. Many its members supported fascist Germany during the occupation. Shots of civilians under arrest. The club claimed that it was a right moment to change the socialist system and had "deaths squads" who had lists of communists to be killed. Shots of printed texts. Ivan Svitak, the director of the Club has not excluded civil war. Svitak claimed that 6 million voters could be manipulated by the intelligentsia and students. Shots of students, writers Pavel Kagol, Josef Smirkovsky speaking in public. Smirkovsky said that the Party and its apparatus should not participate in the governing of the country. The Literalnyi Listy (Literary Pages) supported these views. Shots of people buying newspapers. 'Attempts were made to create a Social-Democratic Party'. Shots of newspapers. Commentator: 'In the French newspaper L'Express and in Mlada Fronta [Young Front] we read that it is a time to stop the power, to outlaw the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia and burn all Marxist books. This was the style of Hitler and Goebbels but where in Socialist countries? In the middle of June, the Warsaw summit expressed its concerns to the Czechoslovakia's Communist Party who ignored it, and the press and TV got out of their way to reassure peace and quiet in the country.
Segment 4: The Czech newsreel Tudenik, No 31, 1968. Interviews with people sitting in the cafe. The tourist from the socialist countries whose governments expressed their concern were asked on the streets of Prague "is it true that there is here gangrenous political situation?" But what can newly arrived tourists know? Shots of border control. Western tourists would know nothing as they were treated very nicely. So 368,000 tourists from West Germany visited Czechoslovakia in only six months. Shots of car moving along motorway. Commentator says that according to Der Spiegl [shots of the text and cover] West German border control took details of all their citizens who visited Czechoslovakia with the purpose of recruiting them as spies in Czechoslovakia. Shots of Czechoslovakia border control soldiers taking down fences at the borders, people at a meeting Commentator talks about funds been collected for the democratization of the socialist regime in Czechoslovakia. Der Spiegl [illustrated] writes that if the experiment of democratization of the socialist regime in Czechoslovakia succeeded that can change Europe. Commentator: 'The November issue of the American journal Fortune [illustrated] outlined the timescale of the experiment: acceptance of Bonn, credits, trade, strong cultural influence, abandoning "democratic-centralism", emergence of a government superior to the Communist Party's authority, atrophy of the influence of the Communist Party, creation of opposition parties, creation of the economic miracle, social-democracy with the capitalist tendencies.
Segment 5: Shots of a train and people. Commentator:' in Tissa at the end of July there was a meeting between Soviet and Czechoslovakia Communist Parties. Leonid Brezhnev, Andrei Kosygin and other party members meeting Dubcek, and of newspapers texts signed by workers. Nationalism and the anti-Soviet mood grew. Shots of central square with, people signing petitions. The reactionaries doubted the right of the Communist Party to negotiate with Soviets, demanded for Czechoslovakia to leave Warsaw Treaty. Graffiti demands Czech neutrality. The summit of all Warsaw Treaty counties in Bratislava on 3 August [shots of the delegates] Commentator describes events of the past of defending socialism: Czechoslovakia of February 1948, Hungary 1956. Footage of these events. A map with Czechoslovakia highlighted. Commentator describes how the West planned to use Czechoslovakia as a corridor To Soviet Union and to split the eastern European socialist bloc. Fortune magazine [illustrated] says that the final development of these events will be an attack on USSR and that the West has underestimated Soviet's determination to look after its own interests.
Segment 6: Shots of tanks moving along the streets of Prague including Wenceslas Square. People running to see them. Commentator: 'The proclamations were dangerous at that moment, and so on 21 August the friends of Czechoslovakia struck the world reactionaries. Shots of crowds demonstrating against, shots of Russian soldiers on vehicles, of wounded soldiers, burning vehicles, demonstrators and people distributing posters. Commentator blames the opposition leaders who were mentioned at the start of the film, who used young people. He describes one event when Soviet soldiers had to blow up a vehicle ito stop protesters getting the weapons that were inside. The blast ruined the nearby building. We see the aftermath. The ruins were later shown as an example of the Soviet vandalism [shots of the ruins] Commentator: 'Who does stand behind all this? Shots of people protesting and arguing, talking to Soviet soldiers.
Segment 7: At a press conference West German foreign minister Willi Brandt denounces the events and reassures the audience of their commitment to peace. Commentator doubts these commitments. Footage of West German military 'Black Lion' manoeuvres near the Czech border. Anti-Vietnam protests at the US embassy in London and protests against neo-Nazis in West Germany. They are violently dispersed by the police. However in front of USSR embassies, they are left to demonstrate freely. Shots of local people showing posters with the slogan in Russian 'Soldiers go home!' A young woman who says that it is an occupation. Commentator draws parallels with a concentration camp where 26,000 of prisoners were burned in November 1944. A street demonstration. In 1938 people were warning against the Brown terror and in Parliament communist faction demanded a pact with USSR. But the government refused, relying on Western support. In Munich, England and France betrayed Czechoslovakia. Shots treaties being signed. Six months later Hitler wiped Czechoslovakia off of the map. Hitler and his army being welcomed by crowds in Prague. A local man shows his hands saying to a Soviet soldier 'you want to enslave us'. Commentator: 'He should remember Lipitsa and think who wanted to enslave you. Shots of the burning village, Nazi officers, Second World War fighting in Prague.
Segment 8: Commentator talks about T23 tank (shots of the memorial) which was the first to enter Prague to liberate Czechoslovakia in May 1945. The commanding officer of T23 died for the liberation of Prague on Victory Day, the 9th of May 1945. Shots of Prague during the war including burning buildings, a shop window with 'death to invaders' written on it and a wounded young Russian soldier who had to divert his tank and crashed it to save children on the road. His three friends did not survive. Commentator talks about an aeroplane which crashed and how 120 brave Russian soldiers saved wounded passengers from the flames but this was not at all mentioned in the press. A 19 year-old Russian soldier describes the event. The wreckage of the plane.
Segment 9: Prague Cathedral clock, people in pubs enjoying beer, wine, peaceful life night, a singer performs a pop song, a saxophonist, ballet. Commentator talks about difficult situation during the 50th year celebration of the Republic on 28 October. He describes a blast in the village hall and in Prague people are split. People peacefully visit the National Museum while at the same time 100 meters away youths protest in front of the President's residence. The official celebration meeting on 28 October. President Sloboda speaks about his belief in the country's happiness. Shots of the officials and children planting trees. Then shots of the youths protesting. The commentator asks which are of these groups are more patriotic?
Segment 10: The Olshansky cemetery in Prague made on the celebration of Republic Day 28 October. People pay their respects at the grave of a Red Army Officer. On November 5 a crowd gathers in front of the USSR Embassy in Prague. They chant 'With the Soviet Union forever!', and sing the Internationale. In Le figaro newspaper Czech writers say that now we must choose between prison or emigration. Otto Schick is interviewed by a western TV station about his ideas for the Czerch economy. He says: 'We did not want to privatise industry. Big businesses would become cooperative or collective ownership out of the Government control'. Q: 'Would it be private businesses in ownership of a group?'. Schick: 'Yes'. Commentator: 'Where is the socialism in this?' Schick says they wanted to reform the Communist Party and establish a different political system. Shots of Ludwig Vesely and of German newspaper. Commentator: 'Vesely does not understand why Prague demands Munich agreement to be pronounced not valid from the beginning'. Shots of Western Germany officials, the Bundestag, Nazi Germany, Hitler described by the the commentator as 'Author of the Munich agreement'. Commentator says that Vesely would be welcomed by those people for such statements. A photograph of the philosopher Svitok. Commentator: ' ...who emigrated to USA and works in Russian Institute, the famous anti-Communist centre
Segment 11: 20th Century Fox, German newsreel tonende Wochenschau. It say that the German invasion 'strengthens the Czech border', border control soldiers with dogs. This was the demand of the Soviet Union.' Kosygin and a Czech official sign an agreement to remove most ofWarsaw Pact military presence. Trains take tanks away. Shots of 25th anniversary celebration of the Soviet and Czech armies' joint liberatation of Kiev. An anti-Soviet banner. A pro-Soviet meeting: 'We regret anti-Soviet actions'.
Segment 12: Prague's liberator General Martirosyan at the meeting, and shots of him in 1945. Shots of Czech Army liberating Prague together with Soviets in 1945. A speech by Klement Gottwald. Outside of the Meeting the youth demonstrates. 10 November. Shots of the member of the meeting saying that he was threatened by the protesters. Shots of the youths and November's meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Commentator: '.. which stated that the anti-socialist right forces are the main threat and outlined methods of dealing with it'. Shots of the town just before New Year. Commentator: 'The peaceful town life is misleading. The anti-socialist forces are still active. They turn patriotism into nationalism'. Shots of people mourning the death of the young protester Jan Palach in January 1969. Commentator: 'Here there was a new crisis. US military manoeuvres in West Germany moved close to the Czech border to show the support to the protesters. Shots of ice hockey games in Stockholm made in a arena for anti-Soviet protests. Police officers in Prague give interviews about the street fights on 28-29 March. Shots of devastation. 51 policemen injured.
Segment 13: Aeroflot and Intourist offices are vandalized. The Czechoslovakia's Communist Party newspaper Pravda [illustrated] called the events terrorism. In April, the Home Affairs Minister informed Parliament that there are the underground military units in the south of the country. Commentator: 'The situation was gangrenous. In April Gustav Husak was appointed as the First Secretary of Communist Party's Central Committee'. Shots of Husak and his speech intercut with aerial views of Prague. 'We won't allow the destabilisation of the country'.
Segment 14: The Lenin jubilee. The house in center of Prague where the Prague Conference of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party took place 57 years earlier. Commentator: 'Lenin rejected the fraction of Mensheviks, writing to Gorky 'at last, despite of those scoundrels, we managed to resurrect the Party and its Central Committee''. Bust of Lenin. A Party meeting, speech about Lenin. Crowd applauds enthusiastically. Army officers applaud. The Party top officials visit Soviet military bases on Victory Day, 9 May. Official says that they share the aims and enemies with the Soviet Union, and only the joint forces with the Warsaw Pact will stop the hand of the aggressor. The war monument. Commentator: 'Dukla is a symbol of friendship of our two nations, and was as important in liberation of Czechoslovakia as the spring of 1969'. Shots of landscape and war monuments, shots of peaceful life, children, a concert. Commentator: ' Since the decisions and changes made in April the process of the reinforcement of the Socialism began. In May, at the Central Party Committee's meeting Gusak said 'We will achieve consolidation and will lead the Party and the nation to the aims of socialism'. Shots of rebuilding streets, factory work, etc. Commentator: ' The year of trial is going in the past. The doubts are disappearing. Pure values of socialism are replacing illusions. The counterrevolution has gone underground, but the fight against it for the souls of cheated youth, for socialism and its ideals has not finished. The fight continues!'. 'The End'.
Persistent URL: http://edina.ac.uk/purl/isan/0002-0000-0047-0000-0-0000-0000-0
Written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Subject classification by University of Edinburgh Library © 2006