Dubcek: ‘Prague Spring’ Leader Is Back

Alexander Dubcek, the Czechoslovak reformer whose voice is being heard again after years in the political wilderness, had a career that led from obscurity to the heights of power and then down to disgrace.

When he became first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in January, 1968, Dubcek--a member of the Slovak minority who started his career as an apprentice machine fitter--began a drive to strengthen civil liberties, pursue an independent foreign policy and promote what came to be known as “socialism with a human face.”

But the face became twisted in pain when, the night of the following Aug. 20-21, Soviet and Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into Prague to put an end to the brief period since known as the “Prague Spring.”

Dubcek and other Czechoslovak leaders were arrested, flown to Moscow and intimidated into signing a declaration that legitimized the presence of Soviet troops in their country. Dubcek was forced to turn over leadership of the party to Gustav Husak in April, 1969. He served briefly as ambassador to Turkey, but the process of turning him into a non-person had been set in motion. Over the next seven years, Dubcek and nearly half a million of his supporters were ousted from the party, and his official disgrace was complete. Even his hunting license was revoked.

Dubcek returned to his hometown of Bratislava and held minor clerical jobs in the Forestry Ministry of Slovakia. He retired a few years ago and since then has turned his attention to gardening. He and his wife, Anna, are grandparents.

In recent years, after imposing two decades of police surveillance and near-total public silence on Dubcek, the Prague regime has begun to loosen his restraints somewhat. Close surveillance ended after reformist Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev visited Prague in 1987. Last November, Dubcek was allowed to travel to Italy to receive an honorary degree at the University of Bologna.

In addition, the government has begun to acknowledge his existence--although not favorably. The party now portrays the 1968 reform movement as idealistic and generally positive but Dubcek, now 67, as a weak and vacillating leader.

In July, 1988, in his first interview with an American publication in 19 years, Dubcek told Life magazine, “I support Gorbachev’s policies unconditionally.” He also reflected pride in his working-class background, pointing out that before he became a politician, he had been a factory mechanic. “Our ancestors,” he said, “had a proverb: ‘The profession which is made with your hands has a golden bottom.’ ”