Four years after Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia, the Russian presence still dominates the country, in sometimes unexpected ways. Fully 60,000 Soviet troops are stationed there, but Moscow has also poured an estimated $1 billion in aid into Czechoslovakia, in an obvious attempt to buy civil peace, if not the loyalty of the country's citizens. As a result, a surface prosperity prevails in Prague that contrasts curiously with the mood of Czechoslovaks; as a nation they remain gripped by apathy and despair. TIME'S Chief European Correspondent William Rademaekers, who covered Czechoslovakia before the...
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