The Restoration of Order: The Normalization of Czechoslovakia, 1969-1976
By Milan Simecka
Verso, 1985, 167 pp.
Reviewed by Zbigniew Brzezinski
Milan Simecka's description of the fate of the Czechoslovak people after the Prague Spring rings tragically true. He explains why the "normalization" continues, with the "passive loyalty" of the great majority of the citizens, in human terms: fear, greed, selfishness, despair, resignation, adaptation to the facts of power. The author draws on his own experience as a victim of the process, but his book is much more than a personal story; it grasps the psychology of a people trapped by history.
More By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Republics