Normalization (Czechoslovakia)

In the history of Czechoslovakia, normalization is a name commonly given to the period 1969 to about 1987. It was characterized by initial restoration of the conditions prevailing before the reform period led by Alexander Dub?ek (1963/1967 - 1968) and subsequent preservation of this new status quo. Normalization is sometimes used in a narrower sense to refer only to the period 1969 to 1971.

Persons

A remarkable feature of the KS? leadership under Husák has been the absence of significant changes in personnel. The stability of the leadership during the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s could be attributed not to unanimity in political opinion but rather to practical compromise among different factions vying to retain their leadership positions. Husák's leadership, then, was based not on any ability he may have had to rally opinion but rather on his skill in securing consensuses that were in the mutual interest of a coalition of party leaders.

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After the 1968 invasion, Husák successfully ruled over what was essentially a coalition of the conservative and hard-line factions within the top party leadership. (see KS?-History for details)

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