„Zlaté šesťdesiate“ Politický vývoj na Slovensku v 60. rokoch 20. storočia
The "golden sixties". The political developments in Slovakia in the 60s of the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: The study discusses political developments in Slovakia in the so-called "golden sixties" – a period of certain cautious liberalization trends culminating in the 1968 attempt to reform the Soviet-style socialism in the former Czechoslovakia. To understand why there still remains such a lasting intensive remembrance of this time, one must realize it was then that the citizens of Czechoslovakia could briefly feel the whiff of freedom and democracy, after the tragic 50s characterized by brutal political oppression and social engineering, destroying all the previous material and spiritual infrastructure. This paper attempts to assess the causes of this social phenomenon – of the liberalization of Slovak social system in the years 1963 – 1967 (the so-called „Before spring“), the course of the attempt to reform socialism in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and its distinctive features in Slovakia, as well as the onset of "normalization" of social system in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, first after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops in late August 1968, but especially after Mr. G. Husak became first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in mid-April 1969. The above-mentioned Soviet-style normalization of socialism in Czechoslovakia then caused an incredible moral and political marasmus which resulted in a deadlock stagnation of political, economic, social and spiritual life of society. From this lethargy was then Czech and Slovak Society roused only by the time of "Velvet Revolution" in November 1989.

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