Invasion 68: Prague
Photographer: Josef Koudelka
Date: August 1968
Location: Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Josef Koudelka, a Czech photographer then working primarily in theater photography, spent the days following the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968, documenting the occupation of Prague with extraordinary courage — moving through the streets photographing confrontations between desperate civilians and soldiers as tanks rolled through the city. To protect Koudelka from potential Soviet reprisals, his photographs were smuggled to Magnum Photos in the West and published anonymously under the initials 'P.P.' (Prague Photographer). Only in 1984 was his authorship publicly acknowledged. Koudelka was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1969, received anonymously. He defected during a visit to the United Kingdom in 1970 and was granted political asylum in England. He became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1971. The invasion ended the Prague Spring reform movement led by Alexander Dubček and established 'normalization' — a period of Soviet-aligned conservatism that lasted until 1989.
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