The Prague Spring of 1968 and its impact on religious life and statechurch relations in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

The oncoming of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1948 meant for churches and religious communities the “nationalization” of church property and the implementation of supervision through the State Office for Church Affairs. The communist state never thought about the separation of church and state, but rather assumed such a step would be in given historical conditions an increase in the social impact of churches. The consequence of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia was a fusion of the Uniate Church in Slovakia with the Orthodox Church. The pressure on the church caused various illegal activities that became the target of persecution by state security forces. The Prague Spring was the culmination of attempts at social reform in Czechoslovakia that were intensively conducted after January 1968. The weakened grip on power and the overall trend of democratization led to a significant recovery in activities of churches, until they were suppressed in August 1968 by Warsaw Pact troops. The paper is an attempt to analyze the most significant reversal in church policy of Czechoslovakia in connection with the democratization of socialism under the influence of Alexander Dubček’s reformism. It follows this development through the prism of Soviet Union concerns about the weak position of the Soviet bloc, as well as the suppression of reforms, and the subsequent establishment of the Slovak Republic in the framework of a socialist federation. It notes the role of civil society activists and Catholic dissidents who developed vastly different level of activity in both parts of the federation. Finally, it aims at the synthesis of knowledge of the interactions of religious institutions and elites and the communist government and political elites in the period around 1968.