Editor’s Note: Daniel Kumermann is a former foreign affairs journalist, Czech Ambassador to Israel (1999-2003), Consul General in Los Angeles (2006-2011), and signatory of the Charter 77 human rights ...

In Prague, the year 1968 began with a bold attempt to reform and liberalize its creaking Soviet communist regime from within, 50 years later, authoritarianism is again on the rise in Eastern Europe.

David Newell-Smith documented the lives of ordinary Czechs in Prague as they embraced First secretary Dubček’s liberalising political reforms. Less than a month later, on 21 August 1968, Warsaw Pact ...

Alexander Dubcek's election in 1968 led to unprecedented reforms in communist Czechoslovakia. But his attempt at "socialism with a human face" failed. It did, however, plant a seed, reports Ian ...

When tanks rolled into Prague overnight on August 20-21, 1968, photographer Libor Hajsky was only 20 years old. He had just returned from a holiday abroad and the Soviet-led invasion took him by ...

In 1968, Soviet troops marched into Czechoslovakia, ending the brief, exuberant Prague Spring. The legacy of the invasion is evident in the modern-day Czech Republic — one need look no further than ...

Under the Moscow Protocol, Czech officials agreed to Soviet troops being stationed along the Czechoslovak border and reinstating censorship of the press Leading reformes Dubcek and premier Oldrich ...

On August 25, 1968, seven people went to Red Square to protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia: Larisa Bogoraz, Konstantin Babtsky, Vadim Delaunai, Vladimir Dremluga, Pavel Litvinov, ...

In the early hours of an August day in 1968, I was awakened by the continuous thunder of heavy planes flying low overhead – we lived relatively close to Prague’s largest airport. It was about 3:00 a.m ...

This year, NPR is looking at the events of 1968 that continue to shape our world. Fifty years ago today, Czechoslovakia's parliament under duress approved a treaty sanctioning the occupation of the ...