1968: The Global Revolutions

In August 1968, Soviet tanks drove into the streets of Prague, bringing an end to the period of liberalization of dissent and free expression known as the “Prague Spring.” This broadside was ubiquitous on the streets of the city during the protests that followed the Russian incursion. “We will be united,” the poster asserts, showing a map of Czechoslovakia in the jaws of a Red Army soldier. Beneath the large text, a smaller stamp reads: “Socialism, yes / Occupation, no!”

The harsh Soviet crackdown against the “Prague Spring” vision of a tolerant and liberal communism further increased American progressives’ dissatisfaction with Russia as a potential radical counterbalance to the United States as a world power. The student movement would look to China and the Third World for inspiration, while the Soviet Union and the United States increasingly came to seem like indistinguishable repressive global forces.