Josef Špaček

Josef Špaček was a Czechoslovak communist politician who was an important member of the government during the 1968 reformist period known as the Prague Spring. He was appointed to the Central Committee of the communist party of Czechoslovakia after communist party leader Antonín Novotný was replaced by Slovak politician Alexander Dubček. Along with Dubček and other Central Committee members, Špaček was arrested by the Soviets during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (22 August 1968). In the years following the collapse of the Dubček government, Špaček was relegated to low-level, non-political positions, including working as a forestry official.

Background

Following World War II, liberated Czechoslovakia became increasingly subject to political pressure from the Soviet Union. Although the pre-war democracy was initially restored, by 1948, Communist influence had grown to the point that a puppet communist state under Clemet Gottwald took power in February of that year. The communist party retained power until the pro-democracy, anti-communist Velvet Revolution of 1989. Following the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, however, some degree of reform took place in several of the Iron Curtain countries of central and eastern Europe.

Dissatisfaction with only modest reformist development within Czechoslovakia led to political maneuvering against First Party Secretary Antonín Novotný. Early in 1968, Novotný was ousted and replaced by Slovak Alexander Dubček. Špaček, a party official from Moravia, was soon appointed to the Central Committee, along with other reformist communist politicians, where he was a voice for increased democratization [Barnard, Frederick M. (1991). Pluralism, Socialism, and Political Legitimacy: Reflections on Opening up Communism, Cambridge University Press.] .

Five weeks before the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Špaček was injured in a head-on automobile collision outside the town of Havličův Brod (along the Bratislava-Prague highway) and briefly hospitalized. ["Rudé právo", 18 July 1968]

Following the invasion of August 1968, Dubček and the other leading politicians were returned to their positions in the party and government, but within a year, under Soviet pressure, they were swept out, to be replaced by the hard-line government under Gustáv Husák. Like Špaček, Dubček was also relegated to minor posts, a common fate for the reformists.

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