Prague: 21 August 1968

Peaceful resisters in Prague attempt to contain a Soviet tank on August 21, 1968. Soviet forces had invaded Czechoslovakia the previous night in an attempt to quell the Prague Spring.

In response to international outrage, the Soviet Union announced that its invasion of Czechoslovakia had been nothing more than an act of “fraternal assistance”.

200,000 Soviet troops participated in the invasion.

300,000 Czechs took advantage of the temporary breakdown in civilian authority to flee to the West.

Austria, in an act of humanitarian kindness, opened its borders, just as it had done in 1956 at the time of the Soviet invasion of Hungary.