Normalization (Czechoslovakia)

History Politics Economy Industry Agriculture Foreign trade Transport Education Demographics Government structure Health and social welfare Mass media Resource base Religion Society In the history of Czechoslovakia, normalization (Czech: normalizace, Slovak: normalizácia) is a name commonly given to the period following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and up to the glasnost era of liberalization that began in the Soviet Union and its neighboring nations in 1987.

It was characterized by the restoration of the conditions prevailing before the Prague Spring reform period led by the First Secretary Alexander Dubček of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) earlier in 1968 and the subsequent preservation of the new status quo.

The chief objectives of Husák's normalization were the restoration of firm party rule and the reestablishment of Czechoslovakia's status as a committed member of the socialist bloc.

By May 1971, Husák could report to the delegates attending the officially sanctioned Fourteenth Party Congress that the process of normalization had been completed satisfactorily and that Czechoslovakia was ready to proceed toward higher forms of socialism.

Husák's leadership, then, was based not on any ability he may have had to rally opinion but rather on his skill in securing consensuses that were in the mutual interest of a coalition of party leaders.

(see KSČ-History for details) The official objectives of normalization (in the narrower sense) were the restoration of firm KSČ rule and the reestablishment of Czechoslovakia's position in the socialist bloc.

Early post-invasion efforts to keep alive the spirit of the Prague Spring were quashed through a series of subversion trials in 1972 that led to jail sentences ranging from nine months to six and one-half years for the opposition leaders.

Czechoslovak citizens over the age of fifteen were required to carry a small red identification book, containing an array of information about the individual and a number of pages to be stamped by employers, health officials, and other authorities.

Individuals sought the material goods that remained available during the 1970s, such as new automobiles, houses in the country, household appliances, and access to sporting events and entertainment.

Alcoholism, already at levels that alarmed officials, increased; absenteeism and declining worker discipline affected productivity; and emigration, the ultimate expression of alienation, surpassed 100,000 during the 1970s.

Bělohradský in his book Společnost nevolnosti (Slon, 2007) calls ‘neonormalization’ the direction since 1992 that all alternative opinions are crowded out, a culture shifts into the trash of entertainers, next the deepening of democracy is blocked, the public space is infested with right-wing ideology and Czech Republic participated in all sorts of nefarious wars.

Komárek, a philosopher and biologist, in many his articles since 2006[2] popularizes his opinion that in certain stages of society development, the administrative and formalistic aspect (or the ‘power of mediocres’) outweighs a common sense, creativity and utility.