Brezhnev and the Warsaw Pact Invasion 1968 Interview with Dr Adéla Gjuričová

In the 14th interview with “The Aggressor” project senior scholars, Dr Adéla Gjuričová, the Director of the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, talks about the immediate reactions to and memory of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Her focus is on the special role of Leonid Brezhnev, who has been perceived by most Czechs and Slovaks as a disgusting “aggressor on the telephone.” She cautions against overestimating the historical significance of the Brezhnev Doctrine and its counterpart(s) in the Western hemisphere, and illustrates how the memory of the 1968 invasion has profoundly shaped Czech responses to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Interview with Dr Adéla Gjuričová