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'Prague Spring' in a hundred shots

Exhibition at the Italian Institute of Culture

20 April, 17:38
(ANSA) - PRAGUE - The exhibition called 'Praga 1968', housed in the halls of the Italian Institute of Culture in the capital of the Czech Republic, is more than a photographic exhibition and a simple re-enactment. It collects pieces of history caught on film by Czechoslovakian photographer Pavel Sticha, Sweden's Sune Jonsshon and Italy's Carlo Leidi and Alfonso Modonesi. The exhibition, promoted by Ambassador Aldo Amati and director Giovanni Sciola, is part of the celebrations of the one hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia and the fiftieth anniversary of the attempt to establish "socialism with a human face", crushed by the Warsaw Pact tanks sent by Leonid Brezhnev. At the beginning of 1968 the Czechoslovaks tried to break free from the Soviet orthodoxy imposed by the Kremlin, launching a programme led by the Czechoslovak Communist Party secretary Alexander Dubcek, and President Ludvik Svoboda, two politicians determined to introduce into the system a decisive reform, as well as elements of democracy, liberalism and freedom of expression. Czechoslovakia knew democracy well, having experienced it before and after the Second World War, until the Communists took power in 1948. Even Luigi Longo, secretary of the PCI (Italy's Communist Party) showed to appreciate the policy put in place in Prague. In May, the "Manifesto of the 2000 Words" written by Ludvik Vasulik achieved great success in the world of culture, art and sports. A new season of hope seemed to begin. But Moscow did not sit back. On July 7 the 'Pravda' issued a warning to Prague and the press in the DDR is even more direct, writing about "imperialist risk" and "counter-revolution".

On August 19, Brezhnev sent a letter to Dubcek expressing "deep dissatisfaction" with what was happening in Czechoslovakia. At 11 pm the following day, August 20, tanks and soldiers from the USSR, Poland, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria invaded Czechoslovakia. The Communist Party succeeded in approving the Program of Action for Reforms at an urgent meeting of the XIV Congress, convened in a large factory on the outskirts of Prague. The USSR crushed peaceful street demonstrations and any attempt to deviate from 'orthodoxy'. The final act of the tragedy happened on October 28, the anniversary of the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia, when several hundred young people marched with national flags towards the Soviet Union embassy: when the police intervened, thousands of people took to the streets, And they were even more along the Narodni avenue, and the National Theater, where a play in honour of President Svoboda was on stage, hosted a mass demonstration. A long and thunderous applause gave welcome to Svoboda, and an absolute and moving silence followed the national anthem. There would be no more demonstrations in "normalized" Czechoslovakia. But on January 16, 1969, university student Jan Palach reached Wenceslas Square and set himself on fire as a protest against the invasion. He died after three days in agony. The world was moved, but this was not enough. The epic of "socialism with a human face" is a page of history. The photographic exhibition and its catalog allows us to live again this experience, suffused with hope and tragedy. (ANSA).

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