Dubcek

the long version

The brief tenure of Alexander Dubcek, the charismatic and courageous leader of Czechoslovakia during the heady "Prague Spring" of 1968, rocked the foundations of European communism. Dubcek, who believed in "Socialism with a Human Face," brought what Andrei Sakharov called "the breath of freedom" to the Iron Curtain countries. But the Soviet invasion of August 1968 and Dubcek's removal from power in 1969 led to savage repression in his country, and he disappeared completely from public life - until the autumn of 1989, when the astonishing events in Eastern Europe swept him back onto the world stage. First published in 1971 and now expanded and updated, this detailed and absorbing biography follows Dubcek's life and turbulent career, offering a fascinating view of his rise through the ranks of the communist Party, his unique abilities and inescapable weaknesses, and his triumphant comeback. William Shawcross experienced the joy of the "Prague Spring," and in 1969 he was among anxious crowds in Prague demonstrating against Russian tanks; that experience inspired this book. In 1989, he revisited Prague, to find jubilant crowds celebrating Dubcek's return, the event which forms the author's final dramatic chapter.