Issue and Opponent: On the night of August 20 – 21, 1968, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring, the challenge to centralized planning and censorship by Communist leader Alexander Dubček. The protesters were protesting the Soviet Union leadership, its military, and their allies for having launched this invasion.
Dilemma Action: The protesters were aware that public dissent against the Soviet government was always performed at a high cost, even in so-called sanctioned spaces. Protesters chose the Lobnoye Mesto, the Place of Proclamation, on Red Square intentionally – it was a sanctioned place to make proclamations. This move was designed to avoid any accusations against public order. The eight protesters (Larisa Bogoraz, Konstantin Babitsky, Vadim Delaunay, Vladimir Dremliuga, Pavel Litvinov, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Viktor Fainberg, and Tatiana Baeva) sat publicly, beginning at noon, holding a Czechoslovak flag and placards with various anti-war slogans (included here).
“We are losing our best friends” (“мы теряем лучших друзей”),
“Ať žije svobodné a nezávislé Československo!” (Long live free and independent Czechoslovakia),
“Shame to the occupiers” (“Позор оккупантам!”),
“Hands off the ČSSR” (“Руки прочь от ЧССР!”),
“For your freedom and ours” (“За вашу и нашу свободу!”),
“Freedom for Dubček” (“Свободу Дубчеку!”).
Outcomes: Within minutes, seven of the protesters were assaulted and brutally beaten, the Czechoslovak flag was broken, the placards were confiscated, and they were arrested by KGB operatives. Five faced public, fixed trials. Despite inconsistencies in the prosecution’s arguments and the defense’s proving lack of criminal intent, seven were sentenced to severe punishment, including years at work colonies and psychiatric hospitals. No concessions were made by the Soviet regime, but the action received recognition around when it occurred and in the years since.

Singer and rights activist Yuliy Kim released two songs following the protest, one called Attorney’s Waltz and the other Ilyich; both reference or directly name those who participated in the protest and the subsequent trials. The 2005 documentary They Chose Freedom recounts this DA. In 1990, seven of the protesters were awarded honorary citizenship in the Czech Republic. In 2008, Former Czech Republic president Václav Havel expressed his sympathies for the protesters of 1968 and Czech Premier Mirek Topolánek recognized the heroism of the protesters with awards

Replications occurred in 2008, 2013, and 2018, all with references to this DA and resulting in crackdowns similar to 1968.