Abstract
This chapter shows how Polish society welcomed Alexander Dubček’s appointment as Czechoslovak Party Secretary in early 1968. University staff and students launched a nation-wide campaign for academic freedom and writers protested against state censorship. But the Polish party leader Władysław Gomułka, an acclaimed hero of ‘national communism’ in 1956, now saw the Prague Spring as challenging the maintenance of one-Party rule. He long advocated and then strongly supported the August invasion. Kemp-Welch shows how its subsequent justification, the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’ of limited sovereignty, was eventually revoked by Gorbachev in 1989.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kemp-Welch, T. (2018). ‘To Hell with Sovereignty!’: Poland and the Prague Spring. In: McDermott, K., Stibbe, M. (eds) Eastern Europe in 1968. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77069-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77069-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77068-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77069-7
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)