The longest night

Today seemed as good as any to visit the Police Museum in Prague, given that there was the opening of a new exhibition marking the 45th anniversary of one the the country's darkest days -- the Soviet-led invasion of Prague.

Quite simply, the invasion was the Soviet Union's way of showing their annexed Communist countries who was boss. The Soviets had freed the former Czechslovakia from Germany, which had wiped the country off the map. Three years later, Communist rule kicked in. Over time, the Czechs sought reforms that would give them more freedoms, prompting the Soviets to call for about 200,000 troops and 20 tanks to roll into town the night of 21 August, 1968.

Courtesy Paul Goldsmith Photography

A Dutch-born tourist named Okky Offerhaus took photos that day and kept them before turning them over to the Czech government a couple of years ago. Her photos are now on display at the Police Museum. When I got there, there was an older lady reading every word of the exhibit (called "Nejdelsi noc," or "The Longest Night")  intently. Even if I was fluent in Czech I wouldn't have known what to say to her.

Artists marked the anniversary in cheekier ways. According to Czech Radio, some artists in Bulgaria altered a monument to Soviet soldiers by painting it pink and writing "Bulgaria is sorry!" [UPDATE: A link to another story and accompanying video is here.] Bulgaria was one of the Warsaw Pact countries with a complicit role in the invasion.

Also, the invasion is the reason that Jaromir Jagr, the Czechs' greatest hockey player whose grandfather died during the rebellion, wears No. 68.