A blood-stained flag
On 21 August, 1968, the Boy Scout Petr "Kim" Maišaidr went out on the street with a scout fleur-de-lis, a tricolor badge attached to his lapel, and the national flag of Czechoslovakia wrapped around the waist under his shirt. He was on his way to the Czechoslovak Broadcast building in Prague's Vinohrady quarter to join his fellow citizens in the protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the forces of the Warsaw Pact. "I lost my flag while I was helping with the erection of the barricades. I didn't even notice it at that point, but later, when I was in the agitation center in Balbínova Street, I took a new one." During the clash between occupation troops and the citizens at the Broadcast building several people got shot. "I soaked that national flag in the blood of four people who had died at the broadcast and whose bodies lay in the courtyard entry of one of the houses in Balbínova Street. Since then, all the Scouts from our troop have taken their Scout oath on this flag."
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August 21, 1968 – the invasion of the Warsaw Pact forces
In the night of August 20/21, the armed forces of five Warsaw Pact countries (Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Eastern Germany) crossed the Czechoslovak border. The propaganda called it "fraternal assistance" in response to attempts to reform socialism, the so-called "Prague Spring". The first to be occupied were the country's airports. Over six thousand tanks appeared in the streets during the invasion. The citizens of Czechoslovakia expressed strong opposition to the occupation. There was a struggle for the building of the Czechoslovak Broadcast in Vinohradská Street in Prague (similar to 1945). In 1968, however, it was a lost battle - an army standing against citizens who were only armed with stones. In many places, people tried to discuss with the occupying soldiers, who often didn't grasp the situation. As a result of gunfire and accidents, over a hundred Czechoslovaks died throughout the country. The representatives of Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubček, Josef Smrkovský, Zdeněk Kriegel and Josef Špaček were arrested and taken from the seat of the Central Committee to an unknown location. Despite all the resistance (partly also foreign), the occupation forces remained in Czechoslovakia until 1991.
