Dubcek brezhnev biography net worth

Leonid brezhnev wife

Alexander Dubcek was born in Slovakia in When he was a child his family moved to the Soviet Union. He returned to Czechoslovakia on the outbreak of the Second World War and as a member of the Communist Party fought in the resistance movement against the German Army. After the war Dubcek gradually rose in the party hierarchy and eventually became secretary of the Slovak Communist Party.

In the early s the country suffered an economic recession. Antonin Novotny , the president of Czechoslovakia , was forced to make liberal concessions and in he introduced a programme of decentralization. The main feature of the new system was that individual companies would have more freedom to decide on prices and wages. These reforms were slow to make an impact on the Czech economy and in September , Dubcek presented a long list of grievances against the government.

The following month there were large demonstrations against Novotny. In January the Czechoslovak Party Central Committee passed a vote of no confidence in Antonin Novotny and he was replaced by Dubcek as party secretary. Gustav Husak , a Dubcek supporter, became his deputy. Soon afterwards Dubcek made a speech where he stated: "We shall have to remove everything that strangles artistic and scientific creativeness.

During what became known as the Prague Spring , Dubcek announced a series of reforms. This included the abolition of censorship and the right of citizens to criticize the government. Newspapers began publishing revelations about corruption in high places.