Canada

1912–2001 ○ Natural causes

The Canadian political scientist who chronicled the Prague Spring

He named the Prague Spring an “interrupted revolution,” leaving the possibility of reform as a historical question.

Gordon Skilling was a Canadian political scientist and a leading scholar of Czechoslovak modern history and politics. In Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution, he interpreted the Prague Spring as a reforming revolution cut short by outside intervention rather than a doomed experiment, offering a durable framework for debate about the potential of reform communism. At the University of Toronto he helped build an institutional base for East European studies while combining scholarship with solidarity for Czechoslovak democratic forces.

1912–2001 ○ Natural causes

The Canadian political scientist who chronicled the Prague Spring

He named the Prague Spring an “interrupted revolution,” leaving the possibility of reform as a historical question.

Gordon Skilling was a Canadian political scientist and a leading scholar of Czechoslovak modern history and politics. In Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution, he interpreted the Prague Spring as a reforming revolution cut short by outside intervention rather than a doomed experiment, offering a durable framework for debate about the potential of reform communism. At the University of Toronto he helped build an institutional base for East European studies while combining scholarship with solidarity for Czechoslovak democratic forces.