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The Two Thousand Words
"The Two Thousand Words" (full title: 2000 Words to Workers, Farmers, Officials, Scientists, Artists, and Everyone; ) is a manifesto written by Czech reformist writer Ludvík Vaculík. It was signed by intellectuals and artists on June 17, 1968, in the midst of the Prague Spring, a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia that began in January 1968 with the election of Alexander Dubček and ended with the Soviet invasion in August, followed by the Czechoslovak Normalization. Content In essence, the "Two Thousand Words" was a call for the people of Czechoslovakia to hold their party accountable to standards of openness—not open revolution. Vaculik began with an assessment of how the nation had declined under the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), painting a picture of moral and economic decay in which workers made no decisions for themselves. "Most people, therefore, lost interest in public affairs; they worried only about themselves and about their money ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludvík Vaculík, 2010, Cut
Ludvík or Ludvik is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Ludvík Aškenazy (1921–1986), Czech writer and journalist *Ludvik Buland (1893–1945), Norwegian trade unionist *Ludvík Čelanský (1870–1931), Czech conductor and composer *Ludvík Daněk (1937–1998), Czechoslovak discus thrower, who won gold in Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics *Ludvík Klíma (1912–1973), Czechoslovak sprint canoeist who competed in the late 1930s and late 1940s *Ludvík Kuba (1863–1956), Czech landscape painter, musician, writer, professor in the Academy of Fine Arts *Ludvík Kundera (1920–2010), Czech writer, translator, poet, playwright, editor and literary historian *Johan Ludvik Løvald (born 1943), Norwegian diplomat *Ludvík Podéšť (1921–1968), Czech composer, conductor, music journalist and editor *Ludvík Ráža (1929–2000), Czech film director *Ludvík Souček (1926–1978), probably the best-known author of science fiction in Czechoslovakia *Ludvík Svob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludvík Vaculík
Ludvík Vaculík (23 July 1926 – 6 June 2015) was a Czech writer and journalist. He was born in Brumov, Moravian Wallachia. A prominent samizdat writer, he was best known as the author of the " Two Thousand Words" manifesto of June 1968. Pre-1968 President of Czechoslovakia and Communist Party leader Antonín Novotný and his fellow conservatives had begun taking a more repressive approach toward intellectuals and writers after the Six-Day War of June 1967. The following month, Vaculík, then still a member of the Communist Party, attended the Fourth Congress of the Union of Writers. Others in attendance included communist party members Pavel Kohout, Ivan Klíma, and Milan Kundera, as well as non-Party member Václav Havel. Vaculík made an inflammatory speech in which he rejected the leading role of the party as unnecessary and criticized it for its restrictive cultural policies and failure to address social issues.Crampton, ''Eastern Europe'', 323. Havel recalle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and continued until 21 August 1968, when the Soviet Union and three other Warsaw Pact members (People's Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Hungarian People's Republic, Hungary and Polish People's Republic, Poland) Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, invaded the country to suppress the reforms. The Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the freedom of the press, media, freedom of speech, speech and freedom of movement, travel. After national discussion of dividing the country into a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Nazi Germany, while the country lost further territories to First Vienna Award, Hungary and Trans-Olza, Poland (the territories of southern Slovakia with a predominantly Hungarian population to Hungary and Zaolzie with a predominantly Polish population to Poland). Between 1939 and 1945, the state ceased to exist, as Slovak state, Slovakia proclaimed its independence and Carpathian Ruthenia became part of Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946), Hungary, while the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed in the remainder of the Czech Lands. In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš formed Czechoslovak government-in-exile, a government-in-exile and sought recognition from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Dubček
Alexander Dubček (; 27 November 1921 – 7 November 1992) was a Slovaks, Slovak statesman who served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) (''de facto'' leader of Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czechoslovakia) from January 1968 to April 1969 and as Chairman of the Federal Assembly from 1989 to 1992 following the Velvet Revolution. He oversaw significant reforms to the Politics of Communist Czechoslovakia, communist system during a period that became known as the Prague Spring, but his reforms were reversed and he was eventually sidelined following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968. Best known by the slogan, "Socialism with a human face", Dubček led a process that accelerated cultural and economic liberalization in Czechoslovakia. Reforms were opposed by conservatives inside the party who benefited from the Stalinist economy, as well as interests in the nei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Invasion Of Czechoslovakia
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). About 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops (afterwards rising to about 500,000), supported by thousands of tanks and hundreds of aircraft, participated in the overnight operation, which was code-named Operation Danube. The Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania refused to participate. East German forces, except for a small number of specialists, were ordered by Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion, because of fears of greater resistance if German troops were involved, due to public perception of the previous German occupatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normalization (Czechoslovakia)
In the history of Czechoslovakia, normalization (, ) is a name commonly given to the period following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and up to the ''glasnost'' era of liberalization that began in the Soviet Union and its neighboring nations in 1987. It was characterized by the restoration of the conditions prevailing before the Prague Spring reform period led by the First Secretary Alexander Dubček of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) earlier in 1968 and the subsequent preservation of the new ''status quo''. Some historians date the period from the signing of the Moscow Protocol by Dubček and the other jailed Czechoslovak leaders on 26 August 1968, while others date it from the replacement of Dubček by Gustáv Husák on 17 April 1969, followed by the official normalization policies referred to as Husakism. The policy ended either with Husák's removal as leader of the Party on 17 December 1987, or with the beginning of the Velv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communist Party Of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Comintern. Between 1929 and 1953, it was led by Klement Gottwald. The KSČ was the sole governing party in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic though it was a leading party along with the Slovak branch and four other legally permitted non-communist parties. After its election victory in 1946, it seized power in the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état and established a one-party state allied with the Soviet Union. Nationalization of virtually all private enterprises followed, and a command economy was implemented. The KSČ was committed to the pursuit of communism, and after Joseph Stalin's rise to power Marxism–Leninism became formalized as the party's guiding ideology and would remain so throughout the rest of its existence. Consequen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the country with a newspaper circulation, circulation of 11 million. The newspaper began publication on 5 May 1912 in the Russian Empire but was already extant abroad in January 1911. It emerged as the leading government newspaper of the Soviet Union after the October Revolution. The newspaper was an organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU between 1912 and 1991. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ''Pravda'' was sold by the then Russian president Boris Yeltsin to a Greek business family in 1992, and the paper came under the control of their private company Pravda International. In 1996, there was an internal dispute between the owners of Pravda International and some of the ''Pravda'' journalists that led to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czechoslovak Communist Party
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Comintern. Between 1929 and 1953, it was led by Klement Gottwald. The KSČ was the sole governing party in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic though it was a leading party along with the Slovak branch and four other legally permitted non-communist parties. After its election victory in 1946, it seized power in the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état and established a one-party state allied with the Soviet Union. Nationalization of virtually all private enterprises followed, and a command economy was implemented. The KSČ was committed to the pursuit of communism, and after Joseph Stalin's rise to power Marxism–Leninism became formalized as the party's guiding ideology and would remain so throughout the rest of its existence. Consequently, pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josef Smrkovský
Josef Smrkovský (26 February 1911 – 15 January 1974) was a Czechoslovak politician and a member of the Communist Party reform wing during the 1968 Prague Spring. Early life Josef Smrkovský was born into a farmer's family in Velenka, in the Kingdom of Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic). As an adult, he began working as a baker and soon became a secretary of the Red Trade Union (1930–1932) and was involved in the communist movement. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) in 1933 and went to study at a political school in the Soviet Union.Czech Who's WhoJosef Smrkovský When he returned, Smrkovský began to work as a secretary of the KSČ regional committee in Brno (1937–1938). World War II During the Second World War, Smrkovský worked for the illegal communist resistance to Nazi occupation and eventually became a member of the central committee.Biographical Timelin In May 1945, as a member of the Czech National Council, he negotiated an agreement ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prague Writers' Festival
The Prague Writers' Festival (PWF) () is an annual literary festival in Prague, Czech Republic, taking place every spring since 1991. In 2005, the festival was also held in Vienna. Many of the events are broadcast via the internet. International literary figures to have appeared at the festival include John Banville, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Salman Rushdie, Irvine Welsh, William Styron and Nadine Gordimer. History The festival's origins are in London in the late 1970s, when PWF president Michael March began organising poetry readings at Keats House. As permitted by the Helsinki Accords, writers from the Eastern Bloc were invited to participate. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the readings relocated to Prague, due to its reputation as "a natural host and meeting place for writers". Writers from various countries were invited to Prague as a crossroads between East and West to present their work and their culture to an international audience in the form of discussions and readings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
