A reform communist who sought to democratize socialism
Recalling a 1967 visit in which he laid his reform plans before his old roommate Gorbachev, Mlynář said: 'It seemed to me he understood very well what I was talking about.'
Zdeněk Mlynář was a Czechoslovak Communist politician and lawyer who sought to join socialism to democratic control and active citizenship. During the Prague Spring of 1968, he served as a Central Committee secretary, worked in Alexander Dubček's reform leadership, and helped shape the political and legal team that drafted the Action Programme. After the Warsaw Pact invasion he signed the Moscow Protocols, then confronted the limits of reform and the reality of occupation by resigning his posts and later leaving the party. He signed Charter 77 and emigrated to Austria, where he became a political scientist and an important interpreter of the Prague Spring.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1950–1955Studied law at Moscow State University
- 1955–1956Worked at the General Prosecutor's Office in Prague
- 1956–1968Researcher at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences Institute of State and Law
- 1967–1968Worked on political-system reform and the Action Programme
- 1968Central Committee secretary and Presidium member, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
- 1970Expelled from the Communist Party; researched entomology at the National Museum
- 1977–1997After signing Charter 77, emigrated to Austria and taught political science at the University of Innsbruck
Related historical events
A programme for democracy within socialism
In late 1966, Mlynář was placed in charge of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s political reform research team. A lawyer and political theorist, he publicly advocated gradual reform rather than replacement of the existing system. His team aimed to develop a model of political reform, survey the views of social groups and organizations, and shape debate over the following five to seven years. The Warsaw Pact invasion halted the project before its survey findings could be made public. Mlynář was also one of the principal authors of the Party’s Action Programme of April 1968.
His approach sought to develop democracy in a socialist state through citizens’ rights and institutions of political representation while retaining the Communist Party’s leading role. He argued that effective representation under socialism could be organized through institutions such as the Party, and that the success of economic reform depended on political change. In public statements in early 1968, he treated democratization chiefly in terms of intra-party democracy and legal guarantees of civil liberties. His reform programme thus opened space for pluralism and citizen participation while presupposing the Party’s leading position.