In Czechoslovakia in 1968, communist reformers appealed to democratic ideals that were deeply rooted in the country's pre-second world war past.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I just happen to know quite a lot of what happened in Czechoslovakia between 1968 and the fall of Communism.
Through the inspiration of Vaclav's words, the courage of his dissidence and the integrity of his leadership, Czechoslovakia successfully transitioned from an authoritarian state to a free democracy at the heart of Europe.
Hungarian communists were the most talented. They convinced everybody that reforming the communist party was better than making a new party.
My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.
The Polish freedom movement of 1968 lost its confrontation with police violence; the Prague Spring was crushed by the armies of five Warsaw Pact members. But in both countries, 1968 gave birth to a new political consciousness.
It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me.
Most Hungarians know what it was to live in a dictatorship; some are old enough to have known both fascism and communism. No one wants to go back to that.
I became a Communist because I fell in love with a man who was a Red and entered the Army to take care of the Fascists, and I knew it would please him if I became one.
I'm a Slovak. And when I was growing up, I believed that I was Czechoslovakian because of what Russia did. They came in and took two separate countries - Slovakia and the Czech Republic - put them together as one.
If I hadn't left Czechoslovakia, I would have been dead.
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