A portrait photograph signed by Alexander Dubcek
A gelatin silver photograph (298 × 208 mm, with the photographer's imprint on the verso ('Foto CTK Nakladatelstvi, Praha'); trifling blemishes to the edges; in very good condition.
The lower portion of the image contains a caption in Czech: 'Alexander Dubcek, První Tajemník ÚV KSC' (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia). Dubcek became 'Slovak Communist Party leader in 1963 and was Czechoslovak party leader 1967-69. After student riots in Prague in 1968, President Antonin Novotny resigned, and in the so-called "Prague spring" Dubcek offered "socialism with a human face", granted press freedom and rehabilitated political victims of the Stalinist years. On 9 April 1968 a reform program entitled Czechoslovakia's "Road to Socialism" was announced and these moves aroused Soviet concern about a possible domino effect in Eastern Europe. The "Brezhnev Doctrine", asserting that the USSR had the right to intervene in the affairs of its satellites, led to immediate invasion. Dubcek was replaced as Secretary-General of the CP by Gustav Husak, made Ambassador to Turkey 1969-70, expelled from the CP (1970) and worked in the forestry industry (1971-88). After the velvet revolution of 1989, Dubcek became President of the Federal Parliament 1990-91' ('Dictionary of World Biography'). Provenance: Collection of The Hon Barry Jones AC.
Item #115765
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