A COUNTRY PROFILE: http://www.country-data.com/frd/cs/cstoc.html#cs0054

“MY Czech History” http://www.myczechrepublic.com/czech-history/great-moravian-empire.html

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APRIL 1968 – Dubček  and associates call for individual liberties and reforms for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Read about Dubček  here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Dubcek

(Prague Spring period of liberalization begins Jan 1968 and ends August 21 1968)

Excerpts from the Communist Party Action Programme:

http://library.thinkquest.org/C001155/documents/doc13.htm

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JUNE 1968 – The Two Thousand Word Manifesto –

The Complete Document: http://library.thinkquest.org/C001155/documents/doc26.htm

Radio Prague Article about the Document: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/105579

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AUGUST 20-21, 1968

IMAGES – The End of the Prague Spring – Warsaw Pact Invasion

Check out this video for some compelling and intense shots of the Prague invasion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuWyQaHkPbY

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JANUARY 16, 1969 – Jan Palach protests the occupation of Czechoslovakia by setting himself on on Wenceslas Square

See the Palach memorial pages here: http://archiv.radio.cz/palach99/eng/

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APRIL 1969 – Dubcek replaced by Gustav Husak. http://www.radio.cz/en/article/61591

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Analysts identify a cause and effect relationship with the accords and the eventual collapse of the Soviet bloc.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Helsinki_Accords

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JANUARY 1977 – “CHARTER 77” inspires a movement

Original document: http://libpro.cts.cuni.cz/charta/docs/declaration_of_charter_77.pdf

Signatories – http://libpro.cts.cuni.cz/charta/index2.htm

http://www.rferl.org/content/From_1968_To_Charter_77_To_1989_And_Beyond/1192331.html

..and the ANTI-CHARTER is formed in response:

http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/22

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/87078

APRIL 1978 -The Committee for the Unjustly Persecuted/Prosecuted (VONS) is founded:

http://www.vons.cz/en

Here is a VONS Chronology

http://www.vons.cz/chronology

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1989 – The Civic Forum, most of whose members came from the civic initiative of Charter 77, is active.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_Forum

A Word about Slovakia and “The Velvet Divorce”:

http://www.slovakia.org/history.htm

http://www.slovakia.org/history-breakup.htm