Marek Mikuš

1968 in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia

Watching the 1984 Yugoslav film classic Varljivo leto ‘68 (Elusive Summer ‘68) made me realise how different the experience of 1968 events had been in Yugoslavia and, say, Czechoslovakia. The euphoria of Prague Spring, marked by a liberalisation drive in politics and public life supported by the highest echelons of the party, resulted in the traumatising occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw pact armies and subsequent ‘normalisation’ of the country, i.e. its return to a heavy-handed socialist authoritarianism. In Yugoslavia, the student protests in Belgrade and (to a lesser extent) other Yugoslav cities were initially being confronted by force, but the country’s leader Josip Broz Tito ultimately stopped the protests by acknowledging some of the students’ demands and declaring that they “are right” (u pravu) in a televised speech. The celebratory TV propaganda featured in Varljivo leto speaks of hundreds of letters and telegrams of gratitude and loyalty that Tito received from representatives of all social and interest groups, including students, in response to his compromising address. Although following years showed that not everything was so cosy between the regime and the society, the contrast with what many must have felt towards their state in Czechoslovakia after 1968 is striking.