'Capitulation','Resistance' and the Framework of 'Normali-zation': The August 1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Czechoslovak Response

Abstract

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the Czechoslovak response to it resulted in a political stalemate. Although the invasion was a military success, it was a political failure. A nearly unanimous response of Czechoslovakia's population, rulers, and institutions quickly took shape, rejecting the intervention and freezing authority along the lines of legitimacy prevailing before the invasion. This article shows how the outlines of a stalemated political situation sharpened as both the occupation and the Czechoslovak response to it became consolidated. The political framework codified in the Moscow Protocol and at the Central Committee Plenum of 31 August 1968 are seen as formalizing a frame work already established by the end of the first two days of the occupation. This frame work constituted the basic context within which Czechoslovak politics and Czechoslovak- Soviet relations were conducted over the ensuing months. And the constraints and pos sibilities it presented to both sides help explain many aspects of the post-invasion political situation, even to the present day. Despite the apparently complete success of 'normalization' in the Soviet sense, the fundamental political dilemma created by the intervention and the Czechoslovak response to it is unresolved and remains even now a central problem of Czechoslovak politics.