Iranian Spring is in the Air

Iranians are in the streets again, and this time it feels different. It feels that the end is coming for Ali Khamenei and his sycophants. Iran erupted two weeks ago and demonstrations have been intensifying and spreading into cities all over Iran together with calls for overthrowing the government and even for death to Khamenei. IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), the elite armed forces of the Iranian Republic have not been able to suppress this uprising though reports of mass killings have been coming out of Iran. This would not be surprising as IRGC killed many people during episodes of unrest in previous years. So far the Iranians are resisting and I am sure that they hope that the American president will come to their rescue.

This time it appears, at least to me, that Iranian Spring is in the air. I feel exhilarated and I feel young again, going back some decades ago when I lived in communist Prague. No, I am not writing about my long-gone youth. I am drawing a parallel between the events of Prague Spring in 1968 and the current events in Iran. I can only reminisce about the sense of liberation and being able to determine, or at least seriously contemplate my own destiny. One could finally live real life without shackles – in reality only for several months, but those months are well ingrained in my brain.

What is going on now in Iran is not just an episode of unrest – protests are getting more powerful and expanding into many parts of Iran and so far they are not abetting. On the contrary they are getting more resolute and powerful. It is a revolution! I grew up in communist Czechoslovakia and I do remember the sweet smell of freedom emanating from the Prague Spring in 1968. Officially it began on January 5, 1968 with the election of Alexander Dubček as the Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and ended with the invasion of Warsaw Pact Armies on August 21, 1968. Yes, it was short, but it did start already in the Spring of 1967 when journalists, writers and other intellectuals were calling for reforms within the communist party together for calls of freedom of speech, travel and independence from the hegemony of the communist party. Even university students joined forces. When electricity failed in Prague dormitories students came out en masse into streets chanting We want light. That was not liked by the authorities who understood (correctly) that this was not a call for electricity. The protests were suppressed but the sense of upcoming changes has grown. The antisemitic propaganda during the Six Day War and cutting diplomatic relations with Israel ignited more discontent and mistrust of the Communist Party.

The short period of liberty in 1968 was called Socialism with a human face. I was 14 when Prague Spring started and still remember it as a time of unlimited opportunities and miracles. It was a time when people treated each other with respect and were eager to help each other. And even after the occupation by mostly Soviet troops people stuck together against the occupiers. Of course, this togetherness (Zusammengehörigkeit in German) did not last forever, it disintegrated and people went back to their survival mode marked with collaboration with the regime.

I still remember the Prague Spring together with its prelude and epilogue as the best time of my life in Prague. My family, including myself, managed to escape to this continent in 1976. It took 13 years before I experienced a similar exhilaration with the fall of the Berlin wall, followed by the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the collapse of communist regimes within the Warsaw pact .

And that’s what I feel now when I read about the courageous Iranians who are endangering their lives in their fight against Khamenei and his henchmen. They have it much worse than we did in communist Czechoslovakia, especially after the death of Stalin in 1953. But their enthusiasm and yearning for freedom and better lives notwithstanding their miserable living conditions and the Damocles sword of Khamenei and IRGC is contagious. Millions if not billions of people around the world live under oppression and some of them are brainwashed into believing their dictators. However, most of them are terrified and terrorized, or as we say browbeaten into obedience. That happened to European communist countries. It took decades of increasing resistance, including the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968 before citizens of these countries were able to liberate themselves from the Soviet Union. One can hope that the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the illegitimate president of Venezuela, and his wife by the US military will encourage Venezuelan citizens to dismantle the regime.

But it is the Iranians who are fighting and dying for their freedom and their country. They deserve our support, or at least our support for Donald Trump’s promise to help them, and our admiration of their resilience and courage. Yes, the Iranian Spring is in the air!