Prahos pavasario atgarsiai Lietuvos visuomenėje 1968 m.

LTPrahos pavasaris – tai komunistinėje Čekoslovakijoje 1968 m. sausio 5 d. prasidėjęs politinio atšilimo laikotarpis, kai komunistas reformistas Aleksandras Dubčekas (Alexander Dubček) tapo pirmuoju Čekoslovakijos komunistų partijos Centro komiteto sekretoriumi. Jo kulminacija įvyko 1968 m. naktį iš rugpjūčio 20-osios į 21-ąją, kai Varšuvos pakto valstybių kariai, vadovaujami Sovietų Sąjungos kariuomenės, įžengė į Čekoslovakiją, kad sustabdytų prasidėjusias demokratizuojančias reformas. Straipsnyje analizuojama Lietuvos visuomenės – ne tik tuo metu sovietinės Lietuvos, bet ir išeivijos – reakcija į 1968 m. Prahos pavasarį. Bandoma išsiaiškinti, kaip jos oficialioji spauda atspindėjo šiuos įvykius, tiksliau – kokią propagandą šalies visuomenei skleidė sovietinė valdžia. Skiriama dėmesio ir tiesioginių karinės intervencijos dalyvių atsiminimams, analizuojamos KGB ataskaitos, kurios parodo Lietuvos visuomenės būseną. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: Prahos pavasaris, Čekoslovakija, Lietuva, KGB, Lietuvos išeivija. [Iš leidinio]

ENThe ‘Prague Spring’ marks the period of political liberalisation in communist Czechoslovakia in 1968. This period began on the 5th of January, 1968, when Alexander Dubček, a reformist communist, became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It culminated on the night of the 20–21st of August, when the troops of the Warsaw Pact states, led by the Soviet Union army, entered Czechoslovakia to halt the democratising reforms that had begun. The events of the Prague Spring of 1968 did not go unnoticed, even in Soviet Lithuania. Lithuanian society’s hopes for democratisation, or perhaps even independence shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953 soon turned into disappointment as even moderate reforms were equally destroyed. The suppression of the Hungarian uprising three years later contributed to the dashing of these hopes. Therefore, in 1968, Lithuanian society observed the events of Prague with less scepticism, and without the same hope as the Hungarian uprising in the mid-1950s. Strict Soviet censorship, which tended to present selected information, did not allow the wider Lithuanian society to know exactly what was really happening in Czechoslovakia. The position of the Soviet government was predominantly reflected in the official Lithuanian newspapers, especially in Tiesa or Komjaunimo tiesa, which often only reprinted the statements of the Soviet agency TASS. The Soviet government explained to the public that the Czechoslovaks themselves had asked the Soviet Union and other socialist states for intervention. The reactions and responses of Lithuanian society were captured predominantly in the regular reports of KGB agents. Memories of direct participants in the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, comprised of soldiers, both conscripts and active reserve from the federal Lithuania, were also recorded.In conclusion, we can say that only a small part of Lithuanian society was in favour of intervention, mainly workers or peasants. The majority of the intelligentsia and dissidents sided with Czechoslovakia. The KGB and the Soviet regime attempted to turn the Lithuanian public to their side, but without much success. On the other hand, there were no open mass protest actions in Lithuania in 1968–1969 that publicly declared sympathy for Czechoslovakia. Protests against the regime were only individual. The Lithuanian exile press, which had a limited but not inconsequential impact in Lithuanian society, was the only newspaper that consistently reported on the events of the Prague Spring. The Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia was compared to the occupation of the Baltic nations. The Prague Spring garnered a highly favourable response in Lithuanian society because, as a result of Czechoslovakia’s democracy, Lithuanian society aspired for the same democratic process, which did not occur owing to Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia. [From the publication]

• Lietuvos jaunimo pasipriešinimas sovietiniam režimui ir jo slopinimas / Juozapas Romualdas Bagušauskas. Vilnius : Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras, 1999. 446 p.
• Vilties desantas: JAV radijo transliacijos į Sovietų Lietuvą / Inga Arlauskaitė-Zakšauskienė. Vilnius : Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2019. 245 p.