What Do Alexander Dubček and Volodymyr Zelensky Have in Common?
Ukraine's fate and Zelensky's legacy hinge on whether the Republican Party returns to being the party of Lincoln or of Philippe Pétain.
Ask even an educated Millennial or Gen-Z what they think of Alexander Dubček and you will draw a blank face. Ask them about Volodymyr Zelensky, however, and their faces likely will brighten. Some may even respond with “Slava Ukraini!” and a raised fist. Such is the rock star image of Ukraine’s feisty and inspirational president, a short Jewish comedian-turned politician who has defied all odds since the Russian invasion and who may well go down in history as his country’s Winston Churchill.
But Alexander Dubček haunts me to this day. A reformist leader, he sought to give his fellow Czechoslovaks “socialism with a human face” in the late 1960s, and inspired hope in his countrymen. Czechs and Slovaks at that time chafed under the Soviet jackboot and the gray apparatchiks in Prague who imposed communist rule. Dubček tried to straddle the fine line of meeting his people’s aspirations for more freedoms with not crossing the line which would incur Soviet intervention. He lost.
On the night of August 20-21, over 2,000 tanks, 250,000 troops, and 800 planes from the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary stormed into Czechoslovakia and put an end to the “Prague Spring.” Dubček called for no armed resistance to the invasion, fully aware of the futility of such a stance and the many lives that would be needlessly lost. Soviet troops hauled Dubček and several deputies to Russia where they were berated and beaten. Fearing widespread protests in the East Bloc, Moscow, however, relented and returned Dubček to office, emasculated and essentially powerless. After several months, Moscow dumped Dubček, replacing him with, yes, a gray apparatchik. Dubček lived in the shadows in the subsequent years, refusing to quit his country. He and his family members were under constant surveillance; his children’s opportunities for meaningful employment constrained for a time.
I recall visiting the Soviet embassy in Washington along with other students invited to view some Soviet propaganda films. A number of us stood up in protest of the Soviet invasion. Flustered and beside themselves, embassy officials cut the film and hurriedly ushered us troublemakers out of the building.
After the 1989 “Velvet Revolution” and collapse of communist rule, Dubček was resurrected from the margins. Viewed as a national hero and martyr, he served as Chairman of the Federal Assembly from 1989 to 1992 — until his untimely death in an auto accident at age 70. To this day, Dubček has stood in my pantheon of heroes as a courageous, though doomed, visionary leader. I am glad, at least, that he got to see his nation throw off the shackles of Soviet domination and restore democracy, not to mention being honored with a leadership position in the new government.
Dubček inspired future reformist activists, including in the Soviet Union. Andrei Sakharov said, “The invasion of Prague started the true dissident movement in Russia. An abyss opened up between them and the system, which was a catastrophic harbinger of change. Without Prague, there would have been no perestroika.”
I feared that Volodymyr Zelensky would become his country’s Alexander Dubček when Russian troops barged into Ukraine in February 2022. I even wrote a piece in the Washington Monthly, “How to Make Russia Bleed,” in which, assuming as most others that Putin would prevail, I advocated, “In tandem with NATO allies, we must pursue a robust program of covert military assistance to Ukrainian insurgents, including more Stingers as well as Javelin anti-tank weapons.”
Well, thankfully, Zelensky proved us all wrong. Unlike Dubček in 1968, he is leader of a nation of over 40 million people, not under Moscow’s thumb and willing to fight aggression.
But there is another key factor: Western support. During Dubček’s day, Czechoslovakia was a member of the Warsaw Pact. Since the Iron Curtain descended in the aftermath of World War II, there was a tacit respect for spheres of influence between the West and Russia. Just as we didn’t intervene in the Hungary uprising against Soviet control in 1956, we likewise gave only moral support to the beleaguered Czechoslovaks in 1968. This time it’s different. Ukraine, as a fully sovereign nation with aspirations to join the EU and NATO, warrants and deserves our full support.
Which gets us to that support. The Europeans have stood steadfastly in helping the Ukrainians defend themselves. This week, they even managed to roll over Putin ally, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, in getting a 50 billion euro aid package approved.
Such is not the case in the United States, where Vichy Republicans, enthralled to their evil master-puppeteer, Donald Trump, continue to block passage of a $61 billion aid bill for Ukraine. As I wrote in December, the consensus is that Trump cynically wants the migration crisis on the southern border to fester, the more to shame President Biden as an ineffective leader. But I go further than that. Trump is not only again aggrandizing himself at the expense of the country and its allies; he is consciously doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding as a long-time asset of Russia’s security services.
Whether Volodymyr Zelensky becomes his nation’s martyred Alexander Dubček or triumphant Winston Churchill hinges on whether the American Republican Party returns to being the party of Lincoln, or being that of Philippe Pétain.
The opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions of the U.S. government.