Word Watch

Then a deafening noise from his window woke him abruptly. "At first I thought it was the university bus trying to find the right gear. But I realised it was way too loud. I jumped up thinking, 'they've come'."

Russian tanks were rolling through the ancient city. In total, SovietRelating to the Soviet Union, a powerful group of communist republics, the biggest being Russia, that existed from 1922 to 1991. leader Leonid BrezhnevBrezhnev was leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 until 1982. His time as leader was marked by increasing influence abroad but also economic stagnation at home. sent 650,000 troops to keep the satellite state under MoscowThe capital city of Russia. 's control.

In January 1968, Alexander Dubcek had taken over as leader of the CommunistAn economic system entailing collective ownership of all means of production in contrast with capitalism, which holds that industry and businesses are controlled and run for profit by private owners rather than by the government. Party of CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.. His government announced a plan for what it called "socialismA kind of economy in which industry is owned in common, not by individuals. with a human face". It removed state controls over industry and allowed freedom of speech.

The free press thrived. Artists and writers were free to speak their minds. Dubcek proclaimed that he wanted "a free, modern and profoundly humane society".

As the events of May 1968 in France signalled huge social changes in the West, something equally important was happening in the East. Until the invasion.

A spirited, non-violent resistance was mounted throughout the country. Citizens painted over street signs and defied curfews. When student Jan Palach burned himself to death in protest, thousands attended the funeral.

The Soviet military predicted it would take four days to bring the country under control. But the resistance held out for eight months. Hundreds died in the sporadic violence. Hundreds of thousands fled.

The invasion laid bare the totalitarianWhen a political system or leader requires complete subservience to the state. In a totalitarian system, people are not allowed to express their own opinions. nature of the Soviet regime. The photographs of unarmed citizens pleading "Ivan, go home" as they were confronted by heavily armed soldiers, made it clear that communism was an ideologySet of beliefs. that needed to be enforced by violent intimidation.

Unlike England or America, Czech history is a tale of heroism amid defeat. The start of the Thirty Years' WarA primarily religious conflict in Europe that killed an estimated eight million people. The NaziA German political party of the twentieth century, led by Adolf Hitler. The Nazis controlled Germany from the early 1930s until the end of World War II. occupation and the devastating reprisals following then killing of Reinhard HeydrichIn 1942, two Czech partisans assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking Nazi general and the architect of the Holocaust, in Prague. As retaliation, the Germans murdered the entire population of two villages, Lidice and Lezaky.. The two decades of frozen silence that followed the Prague Spring.

Q & A

Do defeats teach us more than victories?

Defeats show us how vulnerable we are, say some. The Czechs and their Central European neighbours understand that everything you cherish can be cruelly snatched away. But defeat also tells us about human bravery. The resistance had no military assistance. They knew they were doomed to fail. But they inspired the world.

Victories change history, reply others. Despite the bravery of the resistance movement, the Prague Spring ended up achieving very little. And in any case, in 1989 the Czechs finally did overthrow communism, ushering in a new chapter for the country. Those moments are far more important.

Artists and writers: One of these was Vaclav Havel, who became the first president of post-communist Czechoslovakia.

May 1968 in France: In May 1968, France was gripped by public demonstrations and strikes that originated at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

What do we know? Yesterday marks exactly 50 years since Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to put an end to the Prague Spring - a short period of liberalisation in the first half of 1968. After it was crushed, Czechoslovakia entered a period of so-called "normalisation" and the movement's main figures were barred from public life. Censorship returned and the state took back control of large parts of the economy.

What do we not know? How much effect it really had. Although the movement was crushed, there is little doubt that the Velvet Revolution of 1989 - when the communists were finally overthrown - drew a lot from the experience of the Prague Spring. It has also been speculated that the Prague Spring encouraged the anti-communist movement in Poland.