Who led Czechoslovakia before the 1968 Soviet invasion
Normalization (Czechoslovakia) Normalization (Czechoslovakia) In the history of Czechoslovakia, normalization (, ) is a name commonly given to the period following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and up to the "glasnost" era of liberalization that began in the Soviet Union and its neighboring nations in 1987. It was characterized by the restoration of the conditions prevailing before the Prague Spring reform period led by First Secretary Alexander Dubček of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) earlier in 1968 and the subsequent preservation of the new "status quo". Some historians date the period from the signing of the Moscow
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, officially known as Operation Danube, was a joint invasion of Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact countries – the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Hungary – on the night of 20–21 August 1968. Approximately 250,000 Warsaw pact troops attacked Czechoslovakia that night, with Romania and Albania refusing to participate. East German forces, except for a small number of specialists, did not participate in the invasion because they were ordered from Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion. 137 Czechoslovakian civilians were killed and