THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, a book full of history
"All this happened in the spring of 1968.
Alexander Dubcek was in power, along with those Communists who felt guilty and were willing to do something about their guilt.
But the other Communists, the ones who kept shouting how innocent they were, were afraid that the enraged nation would bring them to justice.
They complained daily to the Russian ambassador, trying to drum up support. (p.178)"
"In 1618, the Czech estates took courage and vented their ire on the emperor reigning in Vienna by pitching two of his high officials out of a window in the Prague Castle.
Their defiance led to the Thirty years War, which in turn led to the almost complete destruction of the Czech nation.
Three hundred and twenty years later, after the Munich Conference of 1938, the entire world decided to sacrifice the Czechs' country to Hitler.
Should the Czechs have tried to stand up to a power eight times their size ? In contrast to 1618 they opted for caution. Their capitulation led to the Second World War..." (p.222, 223)
"The decade immediately following the Second World Was was a time of the most horrible Stalinist terror..." (p.252)