Abstract

Official and unofficial circles in Czechoslovakia have been surprised both by the depth and duration of perestroika in the USSR. The former assumed that “real existing socialism” needs no reform, while the latter had come to the conclusion that Soviet-type societies could not reform. Although similar views were widespread throughout Eastern Europe, the reaction to Soviet perestroika in Czechoslovakia has been conditioned by factors peculiar to that country, such as the violent suppression of Prague Spring in 1968.

Although separated by twenty years, Prague Spring and perestroika are responses to related processes of social and political transformation. Both emerged from deep internal systemic crises precipitated by the Stalinist legacy.