CNN Cold War Set 2_02of14_Red Spring The Sixties
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00:00Prague 1964 Nikita Khrushchev visits Antonin Navotny, the loyal communist ruler of Czechoslovakia.
00:16Khrushchev boasted that the Soviet system was dynamic and healthy.
00:22Communists were brothers, members of the same family, sharing resources, sharing a joke.
00:30But only four years later, the Soviet Union returned to Prague with tanks.
01:00PRAGUE
01:08PRAGUE
01:29Khrushchev brimmed with confidence.
01:31He hated formality. He acted on impulse. He loved a fight.
01:43He wanted to make the Soviet Union happy as well as glorious.
01:47He believed that socialism had to be liberated from the debris of Stalin's rule and from bureaucracy.
01:58It should be made more democratic.
02:01The gates should be opened, but gradually, step by step.
02:06Because for him, socialism was like paradise on earth.
02:10PRAGUE
02:13To show his confidence, Khrushchev allowed an American exhibition into Moscow in 1959.
02:19For the first time, Russians could touch and taste the American achievement.
02:31Some of the women complained sometimes that it smelled like benzine.
02:35And men wanted to know if it would make them drunk.
02:41But Khrushchev knew that the Soviet Union was beating America in the space race.
02:50For Khrushchev, here was evidence that communism meant not just power, but technical progress.
02:57The first generation of Soviet cosmonauts, Gagarin, Titov,
03:02and the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, became instant national heroes.
03:17They personified Khrushchev's vision, a modernized, vigorous Soviet Union,
03:22which would lead the world into the future.
03:33The Soviet Union's natural resources seemed limitless.
03:40Khrushchev believed that the Soviet people would work even harder
03:44if they were freed from fear and poverty.
03:52The Soviet Union was a powerful, powerful country.
03:59Communists live no worse, no better than many other countries.
04:03And in the future, we will live like no other country does.
04:10I'm telling you this.
04:14But the Cold War's pressure to rearm kept the old priority for heavy industry alive.
04:22Especially in the expanding defense sector.
04:28They would shout, come on, come on, speed up.
04:33But sometimes we used to get irritated,
04:36because we knew even without their orders that we had to hurry up.
04:42We knew that there was a threat that bombs and missiles could reach us,
04:46so we had to defend ourselves.
04:49There was no feeling that we were on equal terms with the West,
04:53or that we could come to any agreement.
04:58The Cold War also kept huge armed forces in the field.
05:05Khrushchev tried to cut them back, but the generals resisted.
05:13It was very prestigious to join the military.
05:16First, because you earned a higher wage.
05:21When I graduated, I was paid 240 rubles,
05:24and an engineer only got 120 rubles.
05:30Also, I received five uniforms, and that mattered.
05:35And in the military, you got an apartment.
05:41Cities like Sverdlovsk, 900 miles east of Moscow,
05:45were dominated by giant armaments plants.
05:50Production was a matter of fulfilling or outstripping
05:53targets set by the planners in Moscow.
05:57Patriotic propaganda kept the workers straining
06:00to produce more and faster.
06:05We believed that it was our duty to the motherland,
06:08and we worked very hard.
06:16A lot of young people worked at our factory,
06:20about 3,000 young communists, Komsomol members.
06:30We had our own committee, and we created youth brigades,
06:33which competed against each other.
06:40The best brigades were awarded pennants and trophies.
06:46Khrushchev and the party still relied on propaganda
06:49and patriotism to keep the economy going.
06:52People forgave us a lot because of the Cold War.
06:57The West didn't only harm us, it also helped us.
07:02We were able to provide for our families.
07:13We were able to provide for our brothers,
07:16and we were able to provide for our families.
07:21Khrushchev helped us because by frightening us,
07:24it played into our hands.
07:29We could say to the people,
07:32tighten up your belts, be patient.
07:35We have to wait for a better life and be prepared for the worst.
07:38And we used that.
07:44We had such a huge country with vast resources.
07:47All the people worked.
07:49We dressed so badly in whatever we should lay our hands on
07:52and ate whatever there was and not what we wanted.
07:58The explanation was simple.
08:01Uncle Sam and the imperialists are making an atomic bomb.
08:06So we had to make two in order to frighten them.
08:10If they made two bombs, we had to produce four.
08:20The Overmarsh
08:40Government films celebrated the onward march of Communism.
08:49But most people in the Soviet Union still lived in hardship and overcrowding.
08:59They were mainly communal flats. In one flat there were two or three, sometimes four rooms,
09:06and in each room there lived a whole family. Can you imagine a whole family in one room?
09:13There was only one kitchen and only one of all other conveniences. It was an awful life.
09:25Khrushchev was impatient to see Soviet people living as well as Americans, or even better.
09:32He tried to shift the planned economy towards light industry and consumer needs.
09:37But the Soviet establishment, set in its ways, resisted change.
09:48He understood that politics is about people. The basis of his policy was to improve people's lives.
09:57He knew he had to deal differently with the outside world, that change was needed.
10:03He understood it as a man with a lot of common sense, peasant's common sense.
10:07He had very strong instinctive gut feelings and he followed them.
10:18But professional politicians and diplomats at the time were horrified.
10:23They said, what is he doing?
10:28To solve the housing shortage, prefabrication seemed the answer.
10:32In the 1960s, apartment blocks shot up around every Soviet city.
10:51For millions of Russians, it was an opportunity for a new life.
11:02Of course, we were happy. We had waited every day for this apartment, like a cake out of the oven.
11:10We were fed up with lodging with three other families.
11:16When we moved here, we thought it was paradise. We've lived here ever since, and it's fine.
11:25Living conditions improved, but there was still a shortage of goods in the shops.
11:32We were quite hard up. I can't say we were rolling like cheese in butter.
11:42We had to queue for a loaf of bread.
11:48Such products as cereal, pasta and bread, they were all rationed.
11:53To solve the food shortage, Khrushchev rushed through agricultural reforms.
12:04He launched the Virgin Lands campaign, which plowed up the natural grasslands of Central Asia
12:10and planted them with wheat. Khrushchev boasted that he would overtake America in meat, milk and grain.
12:19Volunteers poured out the Virgin Lands with the old communist zeal.
12:26The Virgin Lands and Khrushchev are inseparable.
12:32He was such a vivacious, enthusiastic person. He woke up the whole country.
12:37He inspired people. It was exciting and romantic.
12:41Though that sounds naïve now, it was a wonderful time.
12:47But there were not enough fertilizers, railroad cars or grain silos. Much of the harvest was wasted.
12:59It was hard to get meat in our town, so we had to go to Moscow.
13:04We took huge rucksacks and we went on a bus 120 kilometers to Moscow.
13:12We went to GUM, the central department store on Red Square, and spent a whole day shopping.
13:20We bought sausages, cookies, all the delicacies.
13:24We held our rucksacks open while our mothers did the shopping.
13:28Then we went to Moscow.
13:30We held our rucksacks open while our mothers did the shopping.
13:34Then we went back on the bus.
13:36It was a real celebration.
13:38Moscow got the bulk of the supplies.
13:40The provinces were sausage-less and meatless.
13:50Moscow, the showcase capital city, was allowed special supplies.
14:00We had no advertising.
14:06We just looked at what the others were wearing.
14:10We tried to keep in step with fashion.
14:16We normally bought only inexpensive clothes and shoes, but we tried to get something modern.
14:24We wanted to look good.
14:29Not to look old-fashioned.
14:43People wanted more out of life and found ways to get it.
14:49Russians who worked in the defense industry got special privileges.
14:53Soviet home movies recorded changing behavior.
14:57The company picnic.
15:00Russian home movies
15:18We used to go in very large groups, about 40 people.
15:24We used to buy food and cook in large pots on open fires.
15:29We slept in tents, that's how we spent our time.
15:38Resorts were run by the party and the trade unions.
15:45Millions of families took a free vacation.
15:53Official films showed the world a new image
15:56of modern Soviet man and woman.
16:00Western lifestyles were alluring.
16:09Fashion did penetrate our country.
16:13In the late 50s and the beginning of the 60s,
16:15when we got trousers, we changed them
16:17to make them very narrow and flute-like.
16:21You could only get them on and off
16:22by using soap on your legs.
16:26We were punished severely for wearing them.
16:29We were harshly persecuted.
16:38I think that the war of the trousers
16:39was of great importance.
16:43People suddenly started allowing themselves
16:45something they could not have
16:47during all those decades of Soviet power.
16:51The young people who did this were rounded up.
16:54There were special patrol guards
17:00with red bands on their arms.
17:02And if they saw that someone was dressed
17:04English style, not Soviet style,
17:06he was pulled out of the crowd
17:07and taken to the militia station,
17:09where they cut the trousers,
17:11then cut their hair, and then let them off home.
17:16That's how they fought against Western fashion.
17:21But the new sounds, the new dances,
17:23still found their way in,
17:25the twist with a glance over the shoulder.
17:30New portable radios could sometimes
17:32pick up forbidden programs from abroad.
17:43Society was trying to crawl out
17:45from under the stones of totalitarianism.
17:48You couldn't get any discs here,
17:50and to record them off-air was almost impossible
17:53because the radio was jammed.
18:01But I don't know how, some were smuggled in.
18:06Copies were made on X-ray plates
18:08and sold illegally.
18:11It was music on X-rays.
18:13You played it on the bones of your relatives.
18:20We used to go from one end of town to the other,
18:24paid crazy money for them.
18:27Each record cost one ruble.
18:29That was a lot of money at the time.
18:34So I skipped lunch at school for a week,
18:37and then I'd go to school for a week.
18:39So I skipped lunch at school for a week, for two weeks.
18:44Several of us would save up the money together
18:46and go and get a record,
18:49get back, put the record on,
18:51and listen to rock and roll, to Elvis Presley.
18:57That was really something.
19:01But most ordinary Russians received
19:03only what the state approved.
19:06We made sure our people were getting
19:08only what we believed they needed,
19:11and what we thought was beneficial
19:13and necessary for our state, our system,
19:16and the policy of our party,
19:20which played the leading role in our society.
19:24And that's what we did.
19:26We made sure our people were getting
19:28only what we believed they needed,
19:30and what we thought was beneficial
19:32and necessary for our state, our system,
19:35and the policy of our state, our system,
19:38and the policy of our state, our system.
19:41They interfered in all spheres of our life.
19:46If a man behaved badly in the family,
19:49if he was drinking or had another woman,
19:52then his wife would tell the party
19:54or Komsomol organization,
19:59and he would be called before a party meeting.
20:05The young were trying to make up their own rules.
20:10The old Russian family was losing control of its children.
20:15In vain, the communist youth movement
20:17tried to preserve traditional morals.
20:24To have sex before marriage, for us, was very bad manners.
20:28The first night was normally after the wedding.
20:36Of course, there were some young people
20:38who did not stick to this.
20:42They behaved freely.
20:49But they were called before the Komsomol committee,
20:51where they had to explain themselves.
20:53We tried to deal with their emotional conflicts
20:55and give them direction.
21:24Writers and artists grew bolder, challenging the censors.
21:30The young crowded to hear new voices
21:32speaking from the heart.
21:37I became popular nationally,
21:40not as a political poet, but as a poet of love,
21:44because for many years of the Cold War,
21:48after the 19th century,
21:50years of Cold War, after 1945,
21:56some poets even didn't use, in the poetry,
22:00about love, war, and I.
22:02They were using we, we love, we love.
22:05If we love, I love you as I love my country, for instance.
22:11That was typical, you know, hypocritical quotation
22:15from poetry of that time.
22:19And even poems about, not political poems,
22:23about loneliness, for instance.
22:25Like my poem, yearly poem.
22:27It was accused like anti-Soviet poem,
22:31because if I'm Soviet man, how I could be lonely
22:35if I'm member of such a giant collective,
22:38like two millions of my friends
22:42who are working for ideals of communism,
22:44something like that.
22:45I remember this hypocritical articles.
22:48The KGB did not deal directly with artists and writers.
22:56But if certain facts came to the attention of the KGB,
23:01and if they discovered anti-Soviet content,
23:05or something that contradicted our ideology and policies,
23:11then the KGB could get involved
23:15and try to find out who started it,
23:19why, and what their motives were.
23:26The party was in control everywhere.
23:29In 1962, hardliners persuaded Khrushchev
23:33to visit an exhibition of modern art.
23:36They hoped he would be shocked
23:38and restore even tighter censorship.
23:41He asked, say, are some unfinished canvases?
23:44They said, no, but why they have no human faces
23:48or landscapes of our motherland, he asked.
23:52They answered him,
23:54because they hate the faces of our Soviet workers, miners.
24:01The hardliners succeeded.
24:03Khrushchev exploded
24:05and shouted abuse at the painters and sculptors.
24:11The exhibition was a provocation.
24:17It was like a move in chess,
24:19which had several targets at once.
24:22It was a trap set for the intelligentsia,
24:26which included a trap for me,
24:29because I had won lots of competitions.
24:36And it was also meant to provoke Khrushchev
24:39into repression.
24:47He didn't like,
24:49he didn't understand avant-garde art.
24:52He liked opera, classical music, folk music,
24:56realistic art where one could see a forest
24:59and know it was a forest.
25:02The ideologists told him
25:04he was very wise not to understand it,
25:08because behind it bourgeois ideology
25:11is penetrating our pure society
25:14and it could all end up rather badly.
25:38The censors stifled free speech
25:40in other parts of the Soviet empire.
25:43In Czechoslovakia,
25:45where a rigid Stalinist leadership
25:48blocked all reform,
25:50the struggle was the same,
25:52the free-thinking artist
25:54trying to elude the party censor.
25:58In those years,
26:00Václav Havel began to write for the theatre.
26:04To criticize communist ideology
26:07was like suicide.
26:09It was better to find another way,
26:12to write about human rights,
26:15human freedom and basic human existence,
26:18rather than enter into
26:20a direct confrontation with ideology.
26:25You know, the censorship itself,
26:28that's not the worst evil.
26:31The worst evil is,
26:33and that's the product of censorship,
26:35is the self-censorship,
26:37because that twists spines,
26:39that destroys my character,
26:41because I have to think something else
26:43and say something else.
26:45I have to always control myself.
26:48I am stopping to being honest,
26:51I am becoming hypocrite,
26:55and that's what they wanted.
26:57They wanted everybody to feel guilty.
27:01Whatever went wrong,
27:03the communist system itself
27:05must never be blamed.
27:07Khrushchev had still not solved
27:09the problem of food supply.
27:11But he was buoyant
27:13about his grand schemes.
27:15He ordered everyone to grow corn,
27:17claiming, wrongly,
27:19that new Soviet varieties
27:21could survive in cold climates.
27:27The poor girls and boys
27:29had to warm up the fields
27:31day and night
27:33so that the corn would grow.
27:35They burnt fires
27:37all through the night,
27:39especially if a frost was forecast.
27:41Sometimes they fell asleep
27:43too close to the fire
27:45and burnt their hands and faces.
27:47So the corn, for us,
27:49was not the queen of the fields,
27:51but an evil stepmother.
27:59When they couldn't save the crops,
28:01despite burning the fires,
28:03the boys would put on a brave face.
28:09But the girls cried bitter tears
28:13because the crop had died.
28:21In 1963,
28:23the harvest failed.
28:25There were bread shortages
28:27and rationing.
28:29Wheat had to be imported from the West.
28:35At least we'd always had bread before.
28:41But when suddenly it disappeared,
28:43thanks to him,
28:45Khrushchev was cursed.
28:47But only at home.
28:51In the streets,
28:53you had to keep quiet.
28:56At home, even though my father
28:58was a communist,
29:00he used to swear and curse Khrushchev
29:02because he made life
29:04much more difficult for us.
29:12The Soviet people,
29:14officials and citizens alike,
29:16were losing patience with Khrushchev.
29:18His great plans all seemed
29:20to end in calamity.
29:22Khrushchev's peasant boisterousness
29:24confused the West,
29:26but it shocked Russians.
29:28They found him clownish,
29:30irresponsible.
29:34Over Cuba,
29:36he had nearly blundered
29:38into nuclear war.
29:44He caused unrest
29:46among the party elite.
29:50Almost everyone was dissatisfied
29:52but for various reasons.
29:58These could be personal
30:00or because of the constant reforms
30:02he introduced and then cancelled
30:06or his unsuccessful moves
30:08in politics.
30:14Of course, personal reasons
30:16played a part too.
30:18A lot of people were afraid
30:20that he would undermine
30:22the stability of the system.
30:29The fruit was overripe.
30:31We had to decide quickly
30:33before the fruit fell
30:35and started to decay
30:37and infect society
30:39because then society
30:41would start to rot.
30:43That is why we made the decision
30:45to depose Khrushchev.
30:47It was done quietly
30:49The Politburo
30:51selected Leonid Brezhnev
30:53to lead the attack
30:55on Khrushchev.
30:57In October 1964,
30:59Khrushchev was deposed.
31:03I met him.
31:05He gave me his briefcase
31:07and he never touched it again.
31:09He said,
31:11it's all finished,
31:13I resign.
31:15When they all went into lunch,
31:18I didn't want to join them.
31:20I don't think they actually
31:22invited him to have lunch anyway.
31:26He was in a state
31:28of nervous stress.
31:30He had tears in his eyes.
31:32He was very unsettled.
31:34He couldn't find
31:36a place for himself.
31:38He would go to the dacha,
31:40come back, sit around.
31:44It was a month and a half
31:46before he gradually calmed down.
31:52Few people missed Khrushchev.
31:54Many wanted a firm hand
31:56on the tiller again.
32:02Everybody was satisfied
32:04with the wiser,
32:06more sensible position
32:08taken up by the new leadership
32:10and by Brezhnev in particular.
32:12That was
32:14our first impression.
32:16It was more acceptable
32:18to the people because
32:20it was more stable.
32:22Before that, the situation
32:24had been uncertain
32:26and we didn't know
32:28what would happen
32:30from one day to the next.
32:32Stability was restored
32:34in the Soviet Union
32:36but unrest stirred
32:38in the empire.
32:40In Czechoslovakia,
32:42the repressive regime
32:44of Antonin Novotny
32:46still stamped on demands
32:48for a more open society.
32:50They tried to push
32:52back the
32:54progress of
32:56freedom but they didn't
32:58succeed anymore.
33:00We made two steps
33:02forward and
33:04we were repressed by one step
33:06but we gained one step always.
33:08By February 1968,
33:10the Czechoslovak reformers
33:12were taking over.
33:14Brezhnev flew to Prague
33:16to size up the new leader
33:18Alexander Dubček.
33:20Brezhnev accepted
33:22that some change
33:24was inevitable.
33:26Alexander Dubček
33:28seemed a loyal communist
33:30who would alter
33:32only what was necessary.
33:34By March 1968, Dubček
33:37and Sloboda were in charge
33:39but their reforms
33:41were already shocking
33:43the rest of the communist world.
33:45The reformers
33:47were confident
33:49that they could bring
33:51communism up to date.
33:53The party would still lead
33:55but by consent,
33:57not force.
33:59There would be freedom
34:01to speak and write,
34:03to travel and organise.
34:05Dubček's vision was named
34:07Socialism with a Human Face.
34:13One of the first changes
34:15was the ending of censorship.
34:17Suddenly the papers
34:19were full of truth
34:21revealing the crimes
34:23of Stalinist Czechoslovakia.
34:25Everywhere crowds
34:27gathered in anxious debate.
34:35After two decades
34:37of terror and silence
34:39Czechs and Slovaks
34:41had found their voice again.
34:43People came
34:45in thousands
34:47and if they didn't get in
34:49they listened outside
34:51for hours on end.
34:53People suddenly
34:55realised that they can live
34:57more freely
34:59and they came
35:01very anxious
35:03to learn
35:05about the new
35:07enlarged boundaries
35:09of their lives.
35:15Western styles
35:17and visitors poured in.
35:24This May Day
35:26there was genuine joy.
35:28Trust was growing
35:30between the people
35:32but could
35:34Communism be reformed?
35:40On the one hand
35:42they wanted to preserve
35:44Communism and Socialism
35:46as they called it
35:48but on the other hand
35:50they wanted to give it
35:52a human face
35:54which meant
35:56that they wanted to lift
35:58the lid a little
36:00but they hoped that
36:02the lid would not fly off
36:04with the pressure inside
36:06the cooker as it were
36:08that they would still
36:10be able to contain
36:12the situation.
36:14It was funny that
36:16before in the 50s
36:18and like that
36:20people were looking
36:22over their shoulders
36:24who could be following
36:26you and
36:29somebody
36:31brought from West
36:33some newspaper
36:35it was in the pockets
36:37in the 60s
36:39in the euphoria of free press
36:41everybody was talking freely
36:43and at the same time
36:45looking over their shoulders
36:47because I think it was
36:49a freedom in spasm
36:51spasmatic freedom
36:53that people were really
36:55it was like a freedom
36:57unleashed by fever
36:59it was not really
37:01a comfortable freedom
37:03it was not
37:09In May, a grim Soviet
37:11Prime Minister, Alexei Kosygin
37:13visited the Czechs
37:15Soviet dislike
37:17of Dubček's reforms had turned to horror
37:19Moscow feared
37:21the Communist Party might lose power
37:23worse, Dubček might
37:25change sides in the Cold War
37:29A few hardline Czechoslovak
37:31communists agreed with the Kremlin
37:39They didn't ask
37:41for anything special
37:43just to halt
37:45the disintegration of the party
37:47stop anti-Soviet
37:49activity
37:51and anti-socialist propaganda
37:55stop the growing
37:57voices saying
37:59that Czechoslovakia should leave
38:01the Warsaw Pact
38:03they said quite openly
38:05we cannot accept it
38:07we cannot allow
38:09the border of the West
38:11to come right up to the Soviet border
38:17In the early summer
38:19Warsaw Pact troops staged
38:21very public maneuvers in Czechoslovakia
38:23After the exercise
38:25they left their signals network
38:27in place
38:29the warning was not hard to read
38:35Threats from Moscow
38:37and the Warsaw Pact failed
38:39to make Dubček climb down
38:43In July, Brezhnev, Kosygin
38:45and the entire Politburo
38:47arrived from Moscow with renewed demands
38:49The situation was
38:51quite tense
38:53We came to an agreement
38:55that the Czechoslovaks
38:57would themselves
38:59carry out a certain number
39:01of crucial measures
39:03to restore order
39:05This involved
39:07some changes
39:09of personnel
39:11the introduction
39:13of tighter control
39:15over the mass media
39:18and stricter work
39:20among certain layers of society
39:26and the imposition
39:28of censorship
39:30because openly anti-communist
39:32anti-Soviet publications and articles
39:34had started to appear
39:40Two days later
39:42the Czechoslovak leaders
39:44made some concessions
39:46The Soviet Politburo
39:48had already decided
39:50to solve the problem
39:52by force
39:58On the night of August 21st
40:00Soviet paratroopers seized Prague airport
40:06Soviet and Warsaw Pact armies
40:08burst through the Czechoslovak frontiers
40:16As the invasion began
40:18the Czechoslovak leaders
40:20were meeting in Prague
40:32We listened to the airplanes
40:34flying overhead
40:36Dubček was waiting
40:38for a telephone message
40:40but instead the door suddenly opened
40:42and paratroopers came in
40:44They stood behind us
40:46and the commander said
40:48they were taking us under protection
40:50in the name of the forces
40:52of the Warsaw Pact
40:54What will happen later
40:56we will see
40:58We were prisoners
41:02Before their arrest
41:04the party's leaders
41:06managed to condemn the invasion
41:08By morning
41:10Soviet tanks had taken over
41:12Dubček, freedom!
41:14Dubček, freedom!
41:16Dubček, freedom!
41:18Dubček, freedom!
41:20Dubček, freedom!
41:22Dubček, freedom!
41:34A lot of the population
41:36were bewildered
41:38they were surprised
41:42When we'd taken up our positions
41:44in front of the target buildings
41:46people started coming up to us
41:48asking what's going on
41:50what's happened
41:58They came like burglars
42:00and pretended they wanted to help us
42:02So we went to speak to them
42:04We climbed on the tanks
42:06and we told them to go back home
42:08that they had lost their way
42:10or been sent to the wrong place
42:12They were really surprised
42:14and didn't understand
42:16what we were trying to tell them
42:28Suddenly
42:30we heard a shot
42:32I saw a boy
42:34only two metres away from me
42:36fall to the ground
42:40The armoured car
42:42started to advance
42:44People moved to the side streets
42:48But there were so many of us
42:50we couldn't all fit in those narrow streets
42:54I was at the edge of the crowd
42:56The armoured car struck me
43:00There was nothing I could do
43:02It hit my knee with the front wheel
43:10Explosions
43:13Explosions
43:39I went through
43:41the Hitler invasion in 1939
43:43and I must say
43:45that the Soviet invasion
43:47in 1968
43:49was
43:51an even crueler impact
43:53than the Hitler one
43:55Hitlerite one
43:57Because Hitler was our declared enemy
43:59We didn't expect anything
44:01from him but the worst
44:03But here
44:05those who for years
44:07and decades
44:09preached that they are our best friends
44:11our brothers
44:13the guarantors
44:15of our independence
44:17came with an army of half a million
44:19to suppress
44:21our drive
44:23for a little bit more freedom
44:25They came to crush it
44:27They came to murder it
44:29to murder that attempt to democratise
44:31socialism
44:39This action
44:41was dictated
44:43first of all
44:45by the need
44:49to preserve
44:51the balance
44:53of power
44:55in the relations
44:57between East and West
45:01And of course
45:03we were interested
45:05in preserving there
45:07the established system
45:13Czechoslovakia's
45:15kidnapped leaders
45:17decided resistance was hopeless
45:19In a tragic broadcast
45:21Dubček broke the news
45:37The Czechoslovak experiment
45:39the most daring attempt to marry
45:41communism with democracy
45:43had failed