Moscow Protocol

Invasion and abduction

On the night of 20–21 August 1968, troops of four Warsaw Pact countries led by the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. The operation, code-named Danube, involved some 250,000 troops, rising afterwards to about 500,000. The invasion halted the Prague Spring liberalisation reforms led by Alexander Dubček and strengthened the hard-line wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

The invasion came with the arrest of the reformist leadership. Dubček, Oldřich Černík, Josef Smrkovský, Josef Špaček and Bohumil Šimon were detained by Soviet KGB and Czechoslovak StB units and flown to Moscow, effectively brought to the negotiating table as hostages.

Four days in Moscow

The negotiations ran in Moscow from 23 to 25 or 26 August 1968, and the protocol itself was signed on 26–27 August. The Soviet delegation included Leonid Brezhnev, Nikolai Podgorny, Alexei Kosygin and Mikhail Suslov; the Czechoslovak side included President Ludvík Svoboda, the abducted reformist leaders, and Gustáv Husák among others.

The fifteen points

The protocol consisted of fifteen numbered points. They required the renunciation of the Prague Spring reforms and the introduction of censorship, approval of the stationing of Warsaw Pact troops, annulment of the 'illegal' 14th Party Congress and its resolutions, a commitment not to raise the invasion at the United Nations Security Council, personnel changes in the party leadership, and confidentiality of the negotiations.

Kriegel's refusal

František Kriegel, chairman of the Central Committee of the National Front, was among those deported to Moscow. Distrusted by the Soviet officials, he was not even allowed to attend the negotiations and was made the target of antisemitic insults. When asked to sign the final document he was the only one of 26 politicians to refuse, replying: "Send me to Siberia or shoot me dead." His name was accordingly left off the protocol.

Ratification and 'normalization'

On 31 August 1968 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia approved the protocol. The Prague Spring policy then ended and the so-called normalization that lasted until the Velvet Revolution of November 1989 began. Prague Spring figures were soon pushed out of the leadership, some expelled and driven into dissident activity. In April 1969 Gustáv Husák took over the party and carried normalization further, becoming its leading figure.