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Czechoslovakia The Reform Movement
De-Stalinization had a late start in Czechoslovakia. The KSC
leadership virtually ignored the Soviet thaw announced by Nikita
Khrushchev in 1956 at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. In Czechoslovakia that April, at the
Second Writers' Congress, several authors criticized acts of
political repression and attempted to gain control of the
writers' congress. The writers' rebellion was suppressed,
however, and the conservatives retained control. Students in
Prague and Bratislava demonstrated on May Day of 1956, demanding
freedom of speech and access to the Western press. The Novotny
regime condemned these activities and introduced a policy of
neo-Stalinism. The 1958 KSC Party congress formalized the
continuation of Stalinism.
In the early 1960s, the Czechoslovak economy became severely
stagnated. The industrial growth rate was the lowest in Eastern
Europe. Food imports strained the balance of payments. Pressures
both from Moscow and from within the party precipitated a reform
movement. In 1963 reform-minded Communist intellectuals produced
a proliferation of critical articles. Criticism of economic
planning merged with more generalized protests against KSC
bureaucratic control and ideological conformity. The KSC
leadership responded. The purge trials of 1949-54 were reviewed,
for example, and some of those purged were rehabilitated. Some
hardliners were removed from top levels of government and
replaced by younger, more liberal communists. Jozef Lenart
replaced Prime Minister Vilam Siroky. The KSC organized
committees to review economic policy.
In 1965 the party approved the New Economic Model, which had
been drafted under the direction of economist and theoretician
Ota Sik. The program called for a second, intensive stage of
economic development, emphasizing technological and managerial
improvements. Central planning would be limited to overall
production and investment indexes as well as price and wage
guidelines. Management personnel would be involved in decision
making. Production would be market oriented and geared toward
profitability. Prices would respond to supply and demand. Wage
differentials would be introduced.
The KSC "Theses" of December 1965 presented the party
response to the call for political reform. Democratic centralism
was redefined, placing a stronger emphasis on democracy. The
leading role of the KSC was reaffirmed but limited. In
consequence, the National Assembly was promised increased
legislative responsibility. The Slovak executive (Board of
Commissioners) and legislature (Slovak National Council) were
assured that they could assist the central government in program
planning and assume responsibility for program implementation in
Slovakia. The regional, district, and local national committees
were to be permitted a degree of autonomy. The KSC agreed to
refrain from superseding the authority of economic and social
organizations. Party control in cultural policy, however, was
reaffirmed.
January 1967 was the date for full implementation of the
reform program. Novotny and his supporters hesitated, introducing
amendments to reinforce central control. Pressure from the
reformists was stepped up. Slovaks pressed for federalization.
Economists called for complete enterprise autonomy and economic
responsiveness to the market mechanism. The Fourth Writers'
Congress adopted a resolution calling for rehabilitation of the
Czechoslovak literary tradition and the establishment of free
contact with Western culture. The Novotny regime responded with
repressive measures.
At the October 30-31 meeting of the KSC Central Committee,
Alexander Dubcek, a moderate reformer, challenged Novotny. As
university students in Prague demonstrated in support of the
liberals, Novotny appealed to Moscow for assistance. On December
8, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev arrived in Prague but did not
support Novotny. On January 5, 1968, the Central Committee
elected Dubcek to replace Novotny as first secretary of the KSC.
Novotny's fall from KSC leadership precipitated initiatives to
oust Stalinists from all levels of government, from mass
associations, e.g., the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement and
the Czechoslovak Union Youth, and from local party organs. On
March 22, 1968, Novotny resigned from the presidency and was
succeeded by General Ludvik Svoboda.
Data as of August 1987
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