The Prague Spring endures?

[Sam R.]

My only knowledge is about communism in Czechoslovakia. The real economical difference would be found between OTL normalization and TTL economical liberalization. As per the action plan, state-owned businesses would be able to make decision about trade deals and most prices themselves. Cooperatives would be rid of most of the state influences.

These alone I believe would be enough to get the economy by the 80's into much better shape than in OTL.

If successful I agree that it would solve the immediate economic crises. The longer term issues are on the table though and the forces unleashed in society may not accept such limited reform either for or against.

 

[Petike]

What if Dubcek had help from Jonas Kadar? Having replaced Nagy after the 56 blood bath, Jonas understood the need for carrots as well as sticks.
Iotl he tried to persuade Brensnev to avoid an armed invasion?

Communist Hungary was among the invasion troops in communist Czechoslovakia. Hungarian soldiers with armoured vehicles were stationed all throughout the Slovak south.

After what happened in 1956, with the loss of life in Hungarian cities and towns as a consequence of Hungarians fighting back against the soviets, neither Kádár nor anyone else in the leading positions of post-1956 communist Hungary would dare directly oppose Moscow's dictat.

Romania and Albania had more of a special position at the time, and could get away with it. Albania even decided to leave the Warsaw Pact. Romania could stand its own without being reprimanded too much. But 1960s Hungary ? Absolutely no chance. Hey, even Poland invaded in 1968.

Neither Czechs or Slovaks consider Poles or Hungarians or Romanians to be particular enemies, even after 1968. (Well, there's the occassional fear of Hungarian irredentism, but that's not likely after 1945 and was impossible during communism.)

Czechoslovakia had to fight and should have fought in 1938 and 1939, with support of their European allies, and once again, in 1945-1948, though this time, diplomatically, to stay in the sphere of their European allies and not the USSR.

The first opportunity at renewed liberation was in the late 1980s. Short of the USSR deciding to collapse in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and its satellite states breaking free again, a few decades ahead of OTL, I can't see an easy return to democracy and sovereignty within those horrid forty years. The US, western Europe, NATO and European (Economic) Community made it very clear in both 1956 and 1968 that they are not going to come to the rescue. They also didn't come to the rescue when the Polish government went off its rocker and declared a military junta in a 1980s European country. (Only for that to, also, thankfully crumble like all else in the communist oppressor regimes, and said regimes undergoing a swift demise in the late 1980s.)

 

[Seandineen]

Communist Hungary was among the invasion troops in communist Czechoslovakia. Hungarian soldiers with armoured vehicles were stationed all throughout the Slovak south.

After what happened in 1956, with the loss of life in Hungarian cities and towns as a consequence of Hungarians fighting back against the soviets, neither Kádár nor anyone else in the leading positions of post-1956 communist Hungary would dare directly oppose Moscow's dictat.

Romania and Albania had more of a special position at the time, and could get away with it. Albania even decided to leave the Warsaw Pact. Romania could stand its own without being reprimanded too much. But 1960s Hungary ? Absolutely no chance. Hey, even Poland invaded in 1968.

Neither Czechs or Slovaks consider Poles or Hungarians or Romanians to be particular enemies, even after 1968. (Well, there's the occassional fear of Hungarian irredentism, but that's not likely after 1945 and was impossible during communism.)

Czechoslovakia had to fight and should have fought in 1938 and 1939, with support of their European allies, and once again, in 1945-1948, though this time, diplomatically, to stay in the sphere of their European allies and not the USSR.

The first opportunity at renewed liberation was in the late 1980s. Short of the USSR deciding to collapse in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and its satellite states breaking free again, a few decades ahead of OTL, I can't see an easy return to democracy and sovereignty within those horrid forty years. The US, western Europe, NATO and European (Economic) Community made it very clear in both 1956 and 1968 that they are not going to come to the rescue. They also didn't come to the rescue when the Polish government went off its rocker and declared a military junta in a 1980s European country. (Only for that to, also, thankfully crumble like all else in the communist oppressor regimes, and said regimes undergoing a swift demise in the late 1980s.)

While Kadar would never have openly stood up to Moscow, He understood blood alone couldn't sustain power.