Prague Spring anniversary

Today's the 40th anniversary of the end of the Prague Spring. Last week I went poking around the Internet trying to find the video of Alexander Dubcek addressing the Czechoslovak people on TV after he was summoned away by the Kremlin. The way I was told "When we saw him crying, we knew it was over."

The tanks rolled in the night of August 20, 1968 -- and everyone's favorite story is about how the Russians were so confused they shot up the regal-looking National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square, instead of the ugly modern Parliament building across the street. Of course the rest of the story was rather bleak.

At right, that's tank tread at the Museum of Communism in Prague. (And in case you're wondering, the museum is on no way nostalgic about their former overlords.)

Labels: prague

- posted by Amy @ 8/20/2008 07:58:00 AM