Thirty-three years ago, one of the most important figures in Slovak history, Alexander Dubček, tragically passed away.
Dubček served as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from January 1968 to April 1969, and became a symbol of the reforms known as the Prague Spring, which was forcibly ended by a military invasion by forces of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries in August 1968. Dubček had to leave his post under pressure from the Kremlin. Historians regard this as the beginning of the normalisation process in the former Czechoslovakia. After the Velvet Revolution, Dubček became speaker of the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia in December 1989. He died in a tragic accident on November 7, 1992.
Slovak President Peter Pellegrini commemorated Dubček’s memory, stating on social media that he was a modest man, a social democratic politician who never gave up his values during the harshest political persecution.
Source: TASR
