21st Aug 1968 - Soviet tanks enter Prague / USSR SSO Svetlanov/Rostropovich at Proms

[rodney_h_d]

Difficult to believe it was 50 years ago today. I had been looking forward to hearing Rostropovich play the Dvorak Concerto and was shocked to hear the news that morning. I phoned the BBC who told me the concert was going ahead.

The demonstrations outside and inside the RAH were not surprising. I was in the Arena. I'm sure some others reading this must also have been there that very unusual evening.

[Serial_Apologist]

Difficult to believe it was 50 years ago today. I had been looking forward to hearing Rostropovich play the Dvorak Concerto and was shocked to hear the news that morning. I phoned the BBC who told me the concert was going ahead.

The demonstrations outside and inside the RAH were not surprising. I was in the Arena. I'm sure some others reading this must also have been there that very unusual evening.

This - the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia and overturning of the reforming liberalising Dubcek government - was an event which had a huge impact on many of those older than me who had already become growingly critical of the Communist Parties'-promulgated mythologies about the Soviet Union, in the wake of the invasion of Hungary that had taken place 12 years earlier. Communism "as such" no longer held appeal for those of us raised in the consumer age to become radicals critical of our own commonly accepted versions of freedom and democracy: seeing Marxism afresh through prisms of anti-imperialist struggles in the Third World, sociology, environmentalism, feminism, post-Structuralism and post-Freudian psychoanalyis would evince a very different spin on the basics of class and wealth than the simplified authoritarian versions pitting workers against bosses assumed for granted by some of our elders.

[PJPJ]

The Prom of Peace

21 August 1968

from the series "For One Night Only".

[gurnemanz]

Five of us, aged 19 after first year of university, were camping in Northern Italy and Yugoslavia. We got a boat from Punta Sabbioni across the bay to Venice for the day. There were pictures of the Prague invasion all over the newspapers on sale on St Mark's Square. I remember the headline "Dubcek assassinato!" (... fake news). On the same holiday we heard the Beatles' new single "Hey Jude" for the first time via Radio Luxembourg. Driving home, we stopped off at Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. Back in England, I attended my first Prom (and I think first classical concert) with Colin Davis ... this one. The live sound of the strings playing together made a big impression and I have been hooked ever since.

[Bryn]

The Prom of Peace

21 August 1968

from the series "For One Night Only".

And, of course:

albeit with the edit mentioned in the "For One Night Only" programme.

[LMcD]

I believe the Soviet authorities had the nerve to call the invasion 'fraternal assistance'.

[rodney_h_d]

And, of course:

albeit with the edit mentioned in the "For One Night Only" programme.

There wasn't much chance of protests during the fiery performance of the Ruslan & Ludmilla Overture of which no recording has been found, but what was edited out at the start of the Dvorak was that Svetlanov started and stopped twice because of interruptions. The third time he just carried on and the protests gradually died out well before Rostropovich's entry.

Most of the protests I recall and joined in with were shouts of "Dubcek! Dubcek!". I'd love to know who the young man was who remonstrated with me because it was a concert and had nothing to do with politics!

[MrGongGong]

Most of the protests I recall and joined in with were shouts of "Dubcek! Dubcek!". I'd love to know who the young man was who remonstrated with me because it was a concert and had nothing to do with politics!

Some people still insist that this is still the case.

[bluestateprommer]

The interval talk from Prom 24 is well worth hearing on this subject. There are 3 days left to catch it. It starts at about 1:05:45 in iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bclvz0