The ‘Normalisation’: A Return to Abnormality

Abstract

Although in the previous chapters we sought to identify the reasons for the installation of a totalitarian, anti-meritocratic social system in Czechoslovakia, as well as the reasons for its actual development, it was doubtless clear that this system was alien to the standard course of Central European historical development. It was, in other words, an abnormal phenomenon, the historical emergence of which could have been explained by the extraordinary concurrence of very specific conditions. It is therefore peculiar that the reintroduction of the abnormal social conditions following the defeat of the Czechoslovak reform attempts by the violent intervention of foreign forces was termed the ‘normalisation’ by the ‘victors’ of August 1968 and April 1969. This slogan had only one possible meaning: to show that Czechoslovakia was to return to the specific system of relationships dominating the country during the Stalinist period which preceded the commencement of the first reform attempts. In the document, Instruction Derived from the Crisis Development, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, led by G. Husák, quite openly criticised the Party leadership of the late 1950s and 1960s for its ‘retreat’ under the pressure of right-wing opportunism. The only explanation is the early 1970s’ ruling group’s desire to return to the times preceding the first reform attempt of the year 1956.