(1968) Brief period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dub 010D; ek .
In April 1968 he instituted agricultural and industrial reforms, a revised constitution to guarantee civil rights, autonomy for Slovakia, and democratization of the government and the Communist Party. By June, many Czechs were calling for more rapid progress toward real democracy. Although Dub 010D; ek believed he could control the situation, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries, alarmed by the threat of a social-democratic Czechoslovakia, invaded the country in August, deposed Dub 010D; ek, and gradually restored control by reinstalling hard-line communists as leaders.