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A memorial service at the Czech Radio building on Prague’s Vinohradská St. on Sunday morning commemorated the 48th invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops. The then Czechoslovak Radio building saw some of the bloodiest clashes after tanks rolled into the country on the night of August 20 and 21 1968 to quell the Prague Spring reform movement. Among the speakers at Sunday’s ceremony was MP Karel Schwarzenberg, who said it was not only important to honour the fallen heroes of that time – it was necessary to fight for the freedom of speech in all eras. Other participants included the ministers of human rights and culture, Jiří Dienstbier and Daniel Herman. Mr. Dienstbier said Russia today was pursuing a policy of limiting the sovereignty of other states and that the 1968 invasion showed that the best route for a country like the Czech Republic was cooperation within Europe.

Events are being held on Sunday remembering the 48th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops. Over 100 people died during the invasion, which began on the night of August 20 and 21 1968 and was the start of an occupation lasting over two decades. As every year a memorial ceremony is being held at Czech Radio, the scene of some of the bloodiest clashes 48 years ago, while the names of those who died during the invasion and on its first anniversary in 1969 will be read out by the statue of St. Wenceslas on Wenceslas Square. The occupation came in response to the Prague Spring reform movement, which saw a degree of liberalisation and an end to censorship in Communist Czechoslovakia.

The film Code Name Holec (Krycí jméno Holec) set against the backdrop of the August 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia will be released in Czech cinemas in September, a spokesperson for the distributors said on Tuesday. The movie is based on a short story by Jan Němec and also takes place in Vienna. A number of scenes were shot around the Czech Radio building in Vinohrady, where some of the most intense fighting took place in 1968.

Three Communist MPs in Russia’s Duma have proposed that soldiers who served during the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia should be granted war veteran status, in order to gain extra social benefits. The MPs said the aim of “Operation Danube” had been to supress a coup prepared by the Czechoslovak opposition with the support of Western states. I asked historian Jan Adamec how he interpreted the initiative of the Russian MPs:

Czech foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek has said that he expects the Russian government to refuse a move by members of parliament to recognize soldiers who took part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia as war veterans. The move to give veteran status has been proposed by three Communist members of the Russian Duma. They said that the so-called operation Danube, the code name for the invasion, had been a pre-emptive move by the then Soviet Union to prevent Czechoslovakia moving into the Western camp during the Cold War. The Prague Spring reforms in Czechoslovakia had created unease in Moscow.

Three Communist MPs in Russia’s Duma have proposed that Soviet-era soldiers who served during the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia be afforded war veteran status. The MPs said the aim of “Operation Danube” had been to quell a revolution that the opposition in Czechoslovakia had been preparing with the support of Western states. The USSR led a Warsaw Pact invasion of the country in August 1968 to quell the Prague Spring reform movement, starting a military occupation that was to last more than two decades.

Commemorative events are being held around the country to honour the memory of Jan Palach, a Charles University student who set himself ablaze on Wenceslas Square 47 years ago to protest against growing public apathy to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. His act rekindled the desire for freedom in the nation and was a powerful motivating force behind the 1989 protests that toppled communism.

Vladimír Fišer, the legendary radio announcer who in 1968 announced the news of the Russian-led invasion of Czechoslovakia has died at the age of 81. A popular radio personality Fišer excelled as a talk show host, a presenter of radio plays and a dubber artist, but in the minds of the Czech people he will always be remembered at “the voice of 1968”.

This Friday marks the 47th anniversary of invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops in 1968, which crushed the short-lived Prague Spring reform movement and brought in political and moral decline which lasted until the late 1980’s. On Friday, the event was commemorated at a traditional ceremony in front of the Czech Radio building, which bore witness to one of the most brutal clashes between civilian protesters and the occupying forces.

Czechs are marking the 47th anniversary of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops. Speaking at a commemorative ceremony outside the Czech Radio building, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said the lessons of the past remain pertinent to the present day. He drew a parallel between the 1968 invasion and Russia’s invasion of Crimea and its policy in Eastern Ukraine.

Numerous other events are taking place to mark the anniversary, including a concert on Prague’s Wenceslas Square and an exhibition of photos capturing the events of 1968. Over 100 Czechs and Slovaks were killed in the invasion, when an estimated 500,000 soldiers invaded the country in the early hours of August 21 1968 in order to supress the Prague Spring reform movement.