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On August 21 1968, people woke up to discover that the dream of freedom they were living in the late 1960s had turned into a nightmare. Thirty-nine years ago, the streets of Prague and other cities and towns in Czechoslovakia were full of the tanks and soldiers of five armies led by the Soviet Union. Today, we look back at the anniversary of what for Czechs and Slovaks was one of the formative moments of the 20th century.

Rare hand-made posters dating from the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led forces have been discovered at Prague's Institute of Military History, Lidove noviny reported. A collection of almost 130 posters calling on citizens to resist the invasion was found in a bundle of maps, the paper said. They were originally placed around the top of Wenceslas Square, and were saved by somebody from the institute after an order was made for their removal. There are plans to exhibit the posters next August, 40 years after the invasion.

The second half of the 1960s in Czechoslovakia was a time of change. Things were happening that had not been seen, or even heard of, for almost two decades, since the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over the country in February 1948. Twenty years later, people in Czechoslovakia began to wonder whether Soviet-type of 'socialism' was the only way to go. On the eve of the anniversary of the crushing of that movement, we look back at a momentous era in modern Czech history.

Historians are planning a project which will map the stories of Czechoslovak citizens who died tragically during the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Institute of Contemporary History has reportedly begun contacting surviving relatives and friends for information, photographs, and other documentation. 72 people were killed in the first fourteen days or so following the August 21st invasion. The occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops crushed the period of reforms known as the Prague Spring. The project underway will help mark the 40th anniversary of the invasion next year.

Tuesday marks the 38th anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach, the young student whose suicide transformed him into a symbol of Czechoslovak resistance following the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. Jan Palach would have turned 59 this year he not taken his own life. His legacy, however, lives on.

Today in Mailbox: Problems with sending e-mail messages to Radio Prague, comments on interview with Holocaust survivor Zdenka Fantlova, Talking Point on foundation of Charter 77, Radio Prague on DRM. Listeners quoted: Evelyn Coviello, Constantin Liviu Viorel, Helmut Matt.

If we delve into the Czech Radio archives, we find recordings in English going right back to Radio Prague's beginnings 70 years ago. Some of the extracts we are going to feature in this programme have not been aired for well over half a century. They capture some of the most interesting and dramatic moments in our history.

This past week marked the 38th anniversary of a key event in 20th century Czech & Slovak history: the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. I'm too young to have witnessed the event, but still it's part of my consciousness and a milestone that changed the lives of many people I know.

Thirty-eight years ago on August 21, 1968, Czechoslovak citizens woke up to find that the country had been invaded by Warsaw Pact forces. It was the beginning of the end of the so-called Prague Spring, a period of reform communism ushered in by Alexander Dubcek, who is known for wanting to create "socialism with a human face." Yet this experiment involving freedom of the press and the opportunity to travel abroad was not looked upon kindly by the Communist Party leadership in Moscow, nor by the leadership in neighbouring socialist states. The solution

Fifteen years ago, on June 27th, 1991, commander general Eduard Vorobyev headed east from Prague to Kyiv. A year and a half after the Velvet Revolution, he was the last Soviet soldier to leave Czechoslovak territory after 23 years of military occupation.