Czechoslovak Hockey Riots (Paperback)

The Czechoslovak Hockey Riots were a short lived series of protests, mildly violent on occasion, that took place in response to the 1969 World Ice Hockey Championships. After Soviet invasion into Czechoslovakia political ideals of Prague Spring were slowly but steadily replaced by politics of accommodation to demands of Soviet Union. People in Czechoslovakia, unable to find other ways to express their opinion, reacted with few very visible but ultimately ineffective manifestations of disagreement. On March 21 and 28, 1969, the Czechoslovak national ice-hockey team beat the Soviet team in the 1969 World Ice Hockey Championships in Stockholm. Throughout Czechoslovakia, possibly 500,000 fans crowded the streets of their cities to celebrate the wins. In some places, particularly Prague, the celebrations turned to protests against the Soviet military who continued to occupy the country after the Warsaw Pact invasion the previous August. While the majority of these demonstrations were peaceful, some turned violent as protesters attacked Soviet military units.