Promises of 1968: Crisis, Illusion and Utopia

Revolutions and Revolutionaries, Lessons of the Years of Crises (Three Czech Encounters with Freedom)

marTin Palouş Revolutions and Revolutionaries, Lessons of the Years of Crises Three Czech encounters with freedom forty years have already passed since 1968 and there is no doubt that what happened during this year of promises and hopes turned into illusions and utopias, leaving behind a significant trace—both locally and globally—in our recent history. That the legacies of 1968 are worth being explored and discussed today, not only from the historical point of view, but also in the light of our current political experience. The present volume’s declared aim is to put forth a discussion of 1968 as both a global event and a local moment of crisis. The global versus local connections become, indeed, especially manifest in the moments of crises. The conference’s declared aim is “to put forth a discussion of 1968 as both a global event and a local moment of crisis.” The global versus local connections become, indeed , especially manifest in the moments of crises. seen from my own locus—from the Czech point of view—any meaningful discussion of 1968 must address, in one way or another, the following questions: What actually was the place and significance of the Prague spring and all other events that occurred during the subsequent seasons of this year, in the broader context of modern Czech political experience? What are the lessons we should have learned from them? What is the legacy of 1968—freedom rediscovered and lost again—as far as all future Czech encounters with freedom in the second half of the twentieth century are concerned? in 2007 we commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of Charter 77, a Czechoslovak human-rights movement initiated by a small group of people who decided to make a stand against the post-1968 “normalization” process. in 2009, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the revolutionary events of 1989 that brought i4 Promises.indb 21 2010.10.18. 14:30 22 Promises of 1968 our Babylonian captivity to its end; that reversed, abruptly and unexpectedly , what looked in 1968 as our inescapable fate—to remain forever a satellite vegetating on the periphery of the soviet “evil empire .” is it possible at all to understand the significance and meaning of 1968 without also taking into account the other two recent Czech anniversaries? it needs to be said that all three years just mentioned—1968, 1977, and 1989—were also turning points in my own biography. is it something that makes me unfit to perceive and analyze them now as their unbiased observer? i frankly do not know. Being aware of this dilemma , i have decided not to aspire to an observer’s detachment and instead to hold onto my experience. instead of attempting an impartial analysis of these three Czech encounters with freedom in the second half of the twentieth century, i will offer three short sketches of 1968, 1977, and 1989, based primarily on my personal memories, three “anamnetic experiments” (to borrow the term from eric Voegelin), in the hope that they may be capable of revealing something of general relevance. 1968 in 1968 i was a teenager just entering the world of grown-ups. i certainly was not shocked nor too surprised when the “process of renewal ,” announced by the “progressive” reformist leadership of the Communist Party, which replaced its “conservative” wing, got into full swing in early 1968. on the contrary, i perceived the sudden burst of freedom into our closed society as a logical, one would say almost natural, outcome of the “thaw” which had been taking place during the 1960s, when i myself, born in 1950, was progressing through my teens. Growing up in the environment of an intellectual, non-communist family, i became during this decade (later symptomatically nicknamed “golden”) an avid consumer of everything—books, essays, and articles published in “progressive” journals and periodicals, films, theater plays, music—that was bringing a fresh breeze to our socialist everydayness . i hoped to learn more about the world beyond our borders , which was getting more accessible thanks to the gradual removal of ideological barriers. i desired to travel to the West and to establish i4 Promises.indb 22 2010.10.18. 14:30 23 Revolutions and Revolutionaries, Lessons of the Years of Crises new lines of communication. i had the same basic feelings as all other youngsters anywhere else in the world, believing, because of their age, that the future is...