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The Prague Spring (Czech, Pražské jaro) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5 1968, and running until August 20 of that year when the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies (except for Romania) invaded the country.

The Czechs and Slovaks showed increasing signs of independence under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek. Dubcek's reforms of the political process inside Czechoslovakia, which he referred to as " Socialism with human face", did not represent a complete overthrow of the old regime, as was the case in Hungary in 1956. However, it was still seen by the Soviet leadership as a threat to their hegemony over other Eastern European states under the control of the Comintern.

The policy of the USSR to enforce Soviet-style governments among its satellite states, through military force if needed, became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, named after Soviet leader Leonid BrezhnevLeonid Ilyich Brezhnev ( Russian: ) ( December 19, 1906 November 10, 1982) was effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with others. He was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964, who was first to publicly declare it, although it was in use since Stalin's times. This doctrine remained in force until it was replaced by the Sinatra DoctrineThe Sinatra Doctrine was the name that the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev used jokingly to describe their policy of allowing neighboring Warsaw Pact nations to determine their own internal affairs. This doctrine, named after the Frank Sinatra song under Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ( Russian: ́ ́ ; Pronunciation: mih-kha-ILL ser-GHE-ye-vich gor-bah-CHOFF) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His attempts at reform led to the end of the Cold War, but also in the 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends.

The period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia came to an end on August 20, when 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tankM1A1 Abrams tank is a typical modern main battle tank. The turret is low-profile, well-integrated into the overall shape of the vehicle. A tank is a tracked and armoured combat vehicle ( armoured fighting vehicle), designed primarily to destroy enemy grous invaded the country. Criticism from the democratic countries was quite muted. Leftist writers such as Tariq AliTariq Ali (born 1943) is an author, filmmaker, and historian. He was born and grew up in Lahore, now part of Pakistan, into a communist family. While studying at the Punjab University, he organized demonstrations against Pakistan's military dictatorship. argue that this was because the western states saw the humane and democratic socialism espoused by the Czechoslovaks as being an even greater threat to capitalism than Soviet communism, which had largely been discredited by 1968. A more accepted explanation is that the West had already problems enough to keep it busy, in part because of the disruptive leftist agitation of May 1968, and the Vietnam War.

A decade later, the Prague Spring lent its name to an analogous period of Chinese political liberalization known as the Beijing Spring.

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