Glossary of Terms
Dubček, Alexander
Reformist First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1968. Dubček replaced Antonín Novotný as First Secretary on January 5, 1968 and began instituting reforms and a period of liberalization, characterizing his vision as “socialism with a human face [socialismus s lidskou tváří].” Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968 that ended the reform trend in Czechoslovakia, he was demoted in the party ranks and eventually had his membership revoked. Dubček remained in obscurity in Czechoslovakia until reentering public life during the Velvet Revolution in 1989.