In the history of Czechoslovakia, 1968 marks an attempt to reform the ruling communist regime and create a special model known as "socialism with a human face." This term reflects the reformed communists' efforts to make the Communist regime more humane. The Communist Party leadership, led by Slovak communist Alexander Dubček since January 1968, implemented several democratisation measures. In April 1968, the Action Programme of the Communist Party was approved, providing legitimacy to the new political direction and its democratisation reforms. The most visible changes included the removal of censorship, economic reforms allowing small enterprises, freedom of travel, rehabilitation of the victims of Communist terror from the 1950s, easing of pressure on churches, and the establishment of non-communist organizations. An important part of these democratisation measures was the establishment of an equal position for Slovakia within the state. Czechoslovakia had undergone centralisation between 1946–1948, and Slovak national bodies had lost all relevant competencies. This changed with the approval of the law of federalisation in October 1968. Such measures were welcomed and supported by the citizens. However, this policy was unacceptable to the Soviet Union and the member states of the Warsaw Pact. The Soviets interpreted the situation in Czechoslovakia as a gradual move to leave the Soviet Bloc and viewed the regime's reforms as a “threat to socialism.” After numerous urgent warnings, in which the Soviets expressed their “concerns about the fate of socialism” and the “danger of counterrevolution,” they decided to take military action in August 1968 to reverse the situation. This decision was made despite the fact that the Czechoslovak leadership had never questioned key Communist principles or the alliance with the Soviet Union.
On the night of 20-21 August, 1968, countries belonging to the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia. The invasion provoked mass protests and resistance. Thousands of people gathered in the streets and squares to protest against the military invasion, which they considered an occupation. In many places, these protests were met with punishment by the occupying forces.
On Šafárik Square in Bratislava, in front of the Comenius University building, a large number of people gathered along a road where Soviet troops were passing. People not only shouted against the occupiers but also threw bricks and stones at the tanks. A subsequent shooting by Soviet soldiers into the assembled crowd claimed three lives: a young student, Danka Košanová, Captain Ján Holík, and a worker, Stanislav Sivák. Despite this, the protests continued the next day, mainly on SNP-Square. Young people organised a demonstration there, along with a petition in support of Alexander Dubček, who had been abducted to the Soviet Union. Soviet soldiers were stationed on the square, and after an incident where a soldier dropping his gun made the crowd laugh, the soldiers fired into the crowd: The young apprentice Peter Legner was shot in the back and collapsed. Another young man, Jozef Szvityel, was seriously wounded. Legner died on the way to the hospital, and Szvityel succumbed to his injuries in November.
However, Bratislava was not the only place in Slovakia where citizens protesting the invasion were killed on August 21. In Detva, Štefan Zdechovan and Rudolf Gavornik were shot while protesting against the invaders. In Zvolen, a worker named Jozef Levák tried to stop the tanks by lying down on the road, but the troops continued forward. In Poprad, people attempted to stop the Soviet tanks by barricading the square and throwing stones. The subsequent shooting claimed the life of a young student, Jozef Bonk. The most tragic outcome occurred on August 21, 1968, in Košice, where intense protests were taking place. Early in the morning, people built barricades on Liberators’ Square and threw stones at passing troops.
Worker Bartolomej Horváth jumped onto one of the tanks and tried to break the glass on its periscope with a shovel; in response, a soldier shot him with a machine-gun bullet. He died on 11 September, 1968. Later in the afternoon, a bullet struck Michal Hamrák, a 16-year-old apprentice from the East Slovak Ironworks.
Ladislav Martoník, a 19-year-old music student, was hit inthe head shortly afterward Ján László and Jozef Kolesár also died in the afternoon due to the protests at Liberators’ Square and the subsequent shooting. Ján Hatala, a worker at the East Slovak Ironworks, was hit by a bullet near a petrol station on the road toward Prešov. Ivan Schmiedt was hit in the back of the head after the tram he was taking home from work stopped under the soldiers' gunfire.
Not all victims of the invasion lost their lives in the shooting. Incidents involving troops passing through villages were also a frequent cause of fatalities. Current research indicates that a total of 37 victims of the military invasion in Slovakia occurred between August 21 and December 31,1968 (Bárta et al., 2008).
In the context of the events of 1968, the 21st of August, the date of the invasion by Warsaw Pact troops, is widely regarded as a symbolic date for commemoration. However, the 21st of August itself is not a public holiday.
Some Members of Parliament, led by Ján Budaj (a leader of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia in 1989) from the party Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (now OĽaNO), have long advocated for making the 21st of August a remembrance day. These days serve to commemorate significant events in Slovak history but are not official holidays.
Their efforts were finally successful in 2020, when the latest amendment to the list of remembrance days was enacted. The 21st of August was added as the Day of the Victims of the Occupation of Czechoslovakia, along with other days connected to the communist regime (e.g., the 21st of June as the Day of the Departure of the Occupation Troops of the Soviet Army from Czechoslovakia, and the 24th of June as a Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Communist Regime). On the 21st of August, wreath-laying ceremonies are held at various memorials dedicated to the victims of the invasion. The most prominent commemoration takes place in Bratislava at the Comenius University building on Šafárik Square, where a memorial plaque is dedicated to those shot on the 21st of August 1968.
The event is organised annually by the Confederation of Political Prisoners of Slovakia in cooperation with Comenius University and is regularly attended by representatives of state authorities, local government, former political prisoners, the diplomatic corps, and remembrance institutions. In recent years, the commemoration has also been attended by high-ranking state officials, including the President, Speaker of Parliament, and Prime Minister.
For the 50th anniversary in 2018, the National Bank of Slovakia issued a souvenir banknote (nominal value 10€), acollector's coin (designed by Prof. Patrik Kovačovský), a commemorative medal (produced by the Kremnica Mint), and a postage stamp (issued by Slovak Post). The central theme of these items was the well-known photograph by Ladislav Bielik, Man with Exposed Chest, which depicts a man standing in front of a Soviet tank with his chest exposed in a gesture of despair.
A unique situation has arisen in the city of Košice, where the strongest resistance against the invasion took place in August 1968. The original commemorative plaque, designed by the renowned Košice sculptor Arpád Račko, was installed in 1968 but was removed during the period of so-called normalisation (1969–1989), when the communist regime feared public gatherings on the 21st of August and was even reluctant to commemorate those who died on that day. In short, the regime after 1969 attempted to erase the memory of the invasion's victims.
The original plaque was restored by Košice's citizens after 1991. However, many people in the city remained dissatisfied, leading to a (sometimes passionate) dispute about its content. Some argued that the names of certain victims were missing. A new memorial plaque was unveiled on the 45th anniversary in August 2013 by the then mayor of Košice, Richard Raši, on Main Street. He even established an expert commission to assess the number of victims based on current research.
Despite this, the ceremony to unveil the new plaque sparked heated discussions among its participants. Local activists, led by artist Peter Kalmus and Katarína Rubinová (the sister of Michal Hamrák, who was killed on the 21st of August 1968), demanded the reinstallation of the original plaque and questioned the methodology used to count the victims.
Their concern was that the new plaque included not only the names of those who died as a result of injuries sustained on the 21st of August but also those who died in the following days due to the presence of the Soviet army in Czechoslovakia. They argued that the plaque should only list those who died directly as a result of the protests during the first days of the invasion, as was the case with the original plaque from 1968, which was restored in 1991.
On the other hand, proponents of the new plaque argued that all those who died as a result of the invasion army's presence deserved to be mentioned, even if they were victims of various incidents or car accidents. The most appropriate solution might be a plaque that distinguishes between direct victims (those who died as a result of the protests on the 21st of August) and indirect victims (those who died later due to various incidents), ensuring the dignity of all victims. However, such a solution currently seems unattainable.
A particularly contentious issue was the inclusion of the name of State Security officer Ján Bajtoš, who was shot by a Soviet military defector in September 1968. Although he was an indirect victim of the military invasion of the 21st of August 1968, his name appeared on the plaque. Bajtoš was an officer of the State Security, the communist regime's political police, and was involved in activities against so-called internal enemies. Protests escalated into dramatic events when activists first taped over and later scraped off Ján Bajtoš's name from the memorial plaque. As a result, the plaque was removed.
The events of 1968 hold an important place in Slovakia's politics of memory. As a period still remembered by hundreds of thousands of people, 1968 attracts attention not only for its historical significance but also for the contribution of Slovaks, led by Alexander Dubček, to its key events. This is reflected in the way the events of 1968 are commemorated, focusing primarily on the August occupation and its dozens of innocent civilian victims, the positive portrayal of Dubček as a politician striving to humanise the communist regime, and the negative portrayal of Vasil Biľak as a pro-Soviet collaborator who betrayed the nation's aspirations for freedom by supporting the policy of normalisation and calling for Soviet intervention in 1968. The resulting narrative is relatively homogeneous and is reflected in historiography, journalism, artistic representations, and the occupation of public spaces with monuments and busts across Slovakia. The debate about the pillars of this narrative has been the subject of numerous controversies, some of which have ended in court cases, such as the aforementioned disputes in Košice.
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