In 1955 he began his studies at Moscow's Party's Higher College and, after obtaining his degree in 1958, his career continued without interruption, undisturbed even during the 1968 Prague Spring period.

Yet, despite the Communist Party's attempt to appease the public's demands for reform, Jakeš remained staunchly opposed to any dialogue with the growing opposition movement in the country.

[citation needed] Jakeš gained unwanted infamy through his famous speech addressed to local party workers in Červený Hrádek close to Plzeň.

Jakeš also mistook the word broiler (type of chicken) for boiler and spoke in an embarrassingly familiar way about some Czech pop music singers when pointing to their allegedly super-high incomes ("None of us earns so much!").

He wrote a book entitled Dva roky generálním tajemníkem (Two years as the General Secretary), in which he compared the forty-year-long Communist rule of Czechoslovakia to the Hussite period in the nation's history.