THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS

The Politics of Eastern Europe

HOW SIGNIFICANT WAS ALEXANDER DUBCEK

IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF REFORMIST COMMUNISM?

By:
Jonas Daniliauskas

Tutor:
T.P. McNeill

March 17, 1995

The Introduction.

The aim of this essay is to answer the question: “How significant was
Alexander Dubcek in the development of reformist communism?” This question raises the other questions. Was Dubcek the inspirer of all the reforms which took place in Czechoslovakia in 1967-1969? How much did he himself influence all the reformist processes? How much he had achieved in implementing his ideas?

Dubcek became famous only in 1967. Before that he was almost unknown in the international politics. He was known only in the Czechoslovak
Communist Party (CPCS), where he had almost no influence on the major decisions (until 1967, of course). His promotion after the returning from the Moscow where he was studying for three years in the advanced Party school attached to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union (CPSU), was quite rapid. In 1960 he was elected to the
Secretariat of the CPCS; in 1962 to the Presidium of the CPCS; in 1963 he became the First Secretary of the Slovak Communist Party; finally, on
January 5, 1968 he replaced Antonin Novotny as the First Secretary of the
CPCS. He was the youngest leader of ruling Communist Party (after Fidel
Castro), and the first Slovak in such a high position. Though he stayed in this post relatively short - until April 17, 1969, when he was replaced by
Gustav Husak, his name became known world-wide.

Why did the reforms begin?

The Czechoslovak crisis deepened in 1967, and showed itself in four spheres:[1]

1. Slovakia;

2. The economy;

3. The legal system;

4. Party and ideology.

Since the 1962 the Czechoslovak economy suddenly began to show signs of a critical decline. That happened inevitably, because in the Stalin years the expansion of heavy industry was pushed at the expense of development of all other productive sectors of the economy. The result of this was growing inefficiency of production, failure to modernise production technology, a decline in the quality of exports, a loss of markets, and a drop in the effectiveness of foreign trade.[2] In August
1962 the Third-Five-Year Plan had to be abandoned before completion.[3] In this situation the Slovaks began to act. Many of them realised that specific Slovak interests might best be served by destalinization and even liberalisation.[4] The problem also was the rehabilitation of the victims of the purge trials of 1949-1954. Novotny himself and other leading members of his regime had personally participated in the preparation and conduct of the purge trials. So, the rehabilitation was perceived as the direct threat to the security and the survival of the regime.[5] All these factors only decreased the level of CPCS’s legitimacy.

The Development of Reforms.

The startpoint of the reforms was the session of the Central
Committee of the CPCS on October 30-31, 1967. Dubcek raised an objection against Novotny and produced statistics suggesting that Slovakia was being continuously cheated in economic matters.[6] This speech inspired discussion what was the unprecedented thing in the Central Committee.

The next session of the Central Committee started on December 19.
Josef Smrkovsky proposed the separation of the posts of President and First
Secretary: “It is unsatisfactory that an excessive number of duties should be piled upon one pair of shoulders.”[7]

In both sessions the three issues were at stake. First, the implementation of the economic reforms, secondly, freedom of expression and, finally, effective autonomy for Slovakia.

Finally, at the Central Committee Plenum on January 5, 1968, Novotny was replaced at the post of the First Secretary by Dubcek. Also four new
Presidium members were elected to strengthen Dubcek’s position - J.Spacek,
J.Boruvka, E.Rigo, and J.Piller.

So, the Prague Spring started at the top levels of the CPCS. But soon, as we would see, the Party will loose its ability to control the developments. At the same time, the hot political debate started in the press, on radio and television. The main issues were the Communist Party, democracy, the autonomy of Slovakia, the collapsing economy, and the problem of justice and legality.[8] On February 14, the first public political discussion took place in Prague.

The next changes in the leadership were Novotny’s resignation from the Presidency on March 22 and General Ludvik Svoboda’s election on this post on March 30, Oldrich Ciernik’s appointment on the post of Prime
Minister and the formation of the new cabinet on April 8, the election of the new Presidium of the CPCS, and the election of Josef Smrkovsky on the post of the Chairman of the National Assembly.