Jan Šinágl angažovaný občan, nezávislý publicista

This documentary in Czech and English contains video footage and photographs from the London demonstrations against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. Czechs living in the UK could not accept the Soviet occupation and one of the few ways to show this was through public protests. They demonstrated in the centre of the British capital, seeking help against the occupation of Czechoslovakia, both in 1968 or 1969 after the self-immolation of Jan Palach, but also regularly in the following years until the fall of the normalisation regime in 1989. The programme also includes footage of the 1978 demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, which was the largest ever. It illustrates the development of London's resistance to the oppressive Communist regime through the stories of Czech refugees in Britain after 1938, 1948 and 1968, and the associated StB espionage games in London. CT 2018.

Lest we forget: Prime Minister Wilson compared the invasion to the Nazi seizure of the Sudetenland in 1968. When the Russians played Dvorak in London, there was a "Freedom for Czechoslovakia!" from the audience - Jan Kuttlwascher, the great RAF aviator, was the brother of Gen. Karel Kutlvašr - Concert of the British group in Lucerna 17.6.1969 Break Away Beach Boys. It was at the top of the British hit parade. The band dedicated a song to occupied Czechoslovakia - "Down with the Russians Brezhnev = Hitler!" - John Tusa Bata - After the expulsion of Russian "KGB diplomats" from London, they were replaced by Czech "STB diplomats", they were also expelled.

"We did not defeat communism because we had better secret services, but because we had a proper democratic society. That was our strength. The StB agents were trying to defend and support a society that was fundamentally corrupt. Yet despite their best efforts, it collapsed."

Martin Nicholson (First Secretary of the British Embassy in Prague 1872-1975)

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Today's society is also corrupted, with totalitarianism still in control. We still do not have a proper democratic society. JŠ