Prague Spring
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2018
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A former student, Olda Cerny, tells Alan Johnston about how he made a desperate appeal for the support of the outside world as invading Soviet tanks rumbled through the streets of the Czechoslovak capital in August 1968. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.
Picture: Soviet troops in Prague (Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, and that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.4 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over |
| 1:11.1 | at BBC Sounds. |
| 1:12.2 | Hello and welcome to the witness podcast on the BBC World Service. |
| 1:17.0 | Today we're going back to August of 1968 |
| 1:20.0 | when Soviet tanks poured into communist Czechoslovakia to crush what was known as the Prague Spring. |
| 1:27.0 | Alan Johnston has been speaking to Alde Cerni, who was a student at the time, about how exciting life was before the tanks rolled in. |
| 1:35.6 | It is August 1968 and for several months communist Czechoslovakia has been passing through an extraordinary period of reform. |
| 1:45.1 | The regime has been pushing back the boundaries, |
... |
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