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The sixties brought a more relaxed atmosphere. After Nikita Chruschov’s speech in 1956, when the new Soviet president demolished Stalin’s cult, many things changed. Czech political leaders were now well-educated and wanted to gain people’s trust. Freedom of speech was no longer such a big issue and Czech art flourished, especially cinematography. Politicians were open to debates about the system and worked out a program that would bring a compromise between Soviet communism and Czech requests. This five-month period called the Prague Spring only lasted until August 1968, when the Soviet army invaded the capital city and restored the Soviet-dictated order. Many people were killed or wounded, women were raped on the streets. A student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire as a protest against this inhuman behavior.
The invasion was followed by a thorough purge of nonconformist politicians. The so-called era of Normalization began and it was a tough thing to swallow. A big flow of artists and intellectuals left the country, including world-famous author Milan Kundera. A group of dissidents, those who didn’t agree with the regime and therefore couldn’t find jobs or a place in the society, was growing in numbers and gaining public respect. Among them was the future president, Václav Havel. The “samizdat” literature that helped Czechs through these hard times is a phenomenon – publishing companies were communist-controlled, so people were self-handedly typewriting and spreading forbidden literature and newspapers.