25 August 1968 year
"For your freedom and ours!"
Eight people came out to Red Square to protest against the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia.
I was faced with a choice: protest or remain silent. For me, remaining silent meant joining in the approval of actions I disapproved of. For me, remaining silent meant lying. (Larisa Bogoraz)
Troops from the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries entered Czechoslovakia on the night of August 21 to stop the start of the Prague Spring reforms.
They went to the Execution Ground Konstantin Babitsky, Tatyana Baeva, Larisa Bogoraz, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Vadim Delone, Vladimir Dremlyuga, Pavel Litvinov и Victor Fainberg. At precisely noon, they unfurled banners with slogans such as "Hands off the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic!", "Long live a free and independent Czechoslovakia!", "Shame on the occupiers!", and "For your freedom and ours!" Almost immediately, they were all arrested by police and KGB officers patrolling Red Square.
At first, for three or five minutes, only the public surrounded her, perplexed. Natasha held the flag of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (Czechoslovakia) outstretched. She spoke of freedom, of Czechoslovakia. The crowd was deaf... Suddenly, a whistle blew, and six or seven men in civilian clothes ran from the mausoleum... They tore out the slogans, and after a moment's confusion, the flag. One of them... began kicking Fainberg in the face... The public looked on approvingly, only one woman protested: "Why beat him?" (Tatyana Baeva)
During the investigation, demonstrators claimed that 21-year-old Tatyana Baeva had not participated in the protest and had found herself at Lobnoye Mesto by chance. She was released and later continued her dissident activities. The others were tried. The protest went down in history as the "demonstration of seven."
The court presided over Valentina Lubentsova considered all the posters "slanderous." Fainberg and Gorbanevskaya were found "incompetent": the philologist was sent to a special psychiatric hospital for four years, and the poetess was released into the custody of her mother. Five others were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment and exile.
Czech newspapers wrote:
Seven people on Red Square are at least seven reasons why we can never hate Russians again.
