As the last wisps of summer faded, the Prague Spring, a beacon of democratic hope in communist Czechoslovakia, was brutally extinguished by Soviet tanks. The Warsaw Pact, a military alliance of Soviet-aligned states, orchestrated the invasion, with East Germany contributing only a handful of specialists, still haunted by the ghosts of World War II. Albania and Romania, however, refused to participate, defying Soviet pressure. The invasion crushed the reformist government, silencing the voices of liberation and shackling Czechoslovakia to Soviet dominance for decades to come.