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Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (Operation Danube)
Part of the Prague Spring and the Cold War
10 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia - Flickr - The Central Intelligence Agency.jpg
Czechoslovakians carry their national flag past a burning Soviet tank in Prague.
Date 20 August 1968 – 21 August 1968 (or 17 April 1969)
Location Czechoslovakia
Result
Belligerents
Warsaw Pact countries:
 Soviet Union
Bulgaria
Poland
Hungary

Mobilised but participation cancelled at the last moment:
 East Germany
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia
Diplomatically supported by Warsaw Pact countries:
Albania
Romania
and by
 Yugoslavia
Commanders and leaders
Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev
Soviet Union Nikolai Podgorny
Soviet Union Andrei Grechko
Soviet Union Alexei Kosygin
Bulgaria Todor Zhivkov
Poland Florian Siwicki
Hungary Lajos Czinege
Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubček
Czechoslovakia Ludvík Svoboda
Diplomatic support:
People's Socialist Republic of Albania Enver Hoxha
Socialist Republic of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito
Strength
Initial invasion:
250,000 (20 divisions)
2,000 tanks
800 aircraft

Peak strength:
500,000
6,300 tanks
235,000 (18 divisions)
2,500–3,000 tanks
250 aircraft
Casualties and losses
Soviet Union 96 killed (84 in accidents)
87 wounded
Poland 10 killed (in accidents and suicides)
Hungary 4 killed (in accidents)
Bulgaria 2 killed
108 civilians killed,
500 wounded
5 soldiers committed suicide
70,000 Czechoslovak citizens fled to the West immediately after the invasion. Total number of emigrants before Velvet revolution reached 300,000.

The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, officially known as Operation Danube, was a joint invasion of Czechoslovakia by four Warsaw Pact nations – the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland – on the night of 20–21 August 1968. Approximately 250,000 Warsaw pact troops attacked Czechoslovakia that night, with Romania and Albania refusing to participate. Although East German forces were prepared to participate in the invasion as well, they were ordered from Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion. 108 Czechoslovakian civilians were killed and around 500 wounded in the invasion.

The invasion successfully stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authority of the authoritarian wing within the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). The foreign policy of the Soviet Union during this era was known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.

The process of de-Stalinization in Czechoslovakia had begun under Antonín Novotný in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but had progressed more slowly than in most other states of the Eastern Bloc. Following the lead of Nikita Khrushchev, Novotný proclaimed the completion of socialism, and the new constitution, accordingly, adopted the name Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. The pace of change, however, was sluggish; the rehabilitation of Stalinist-era victims, such as those convicted in the Slánský trials, may have been considered as early as 1963, but did not take place until 1967.


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