Hope Dies Last: The Autobiography of Alexander Dubcek

In this vigorous, engrossing autobiography, Dubcek (1921-1992), the Czech communist leader whose brief experiment in liberalization was crushed by Soviet tanks in 1968, charts his transformation from Communist Party reformer to democratic socialist. Dubcek's parents were Slovak-American ``socialist dreamers'' who returned to Czechoslovakia from Chicago shortly before his birth; they then moved to a commune in Soviet Central Asia, where Dubcek was raised in harsh conditions. In WW II he took part in the guerrilla uprising against the Slovak collaborationist regime which abetted the Nazis. He rose quickly through the ranks of the Czech Communist Party, but only gradually became a reformer. Because he was a trusting, moral man with deeply ingrained Lutheran traditions, Dubcek did not believe that the Soviets would suppress the Prague Spring of 1968 by military force. This valuable memoir, written with former Czech journalist Hochman, also makes clear Dubcek's catalytic role in the coalition of democratic forces that ended communist control of Czechoslovakia in 1989. Photos. $50,000 ad/promo. (May)