Writers, Slovaks, scandal cast spell of 1968 Prague Spring

PRAGUE: Fifty years ago, writers—including Milan Kundera—and a bizarre scandal helped spark a fleeting but heady spell of openness in communist Czechoslovakia before Soviet tanks rolled in to crush it.

The 1968 Prague Spring that brought “Socialism with a human face” to Czechoslovakia was personified by the smiling Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak who had become Communist Party (KSC) chief on January 5 the same year.