Even when Soviet tanks invaded their country on August 21, 1968, to wipe out a pro-democracy movement, Czechoslovaks managed to maintain their unique sense of humour.
The forces crushed the Prague Spring movement that had briefly introduced democratic reforms to the totalitarian Soviet-led regime, but the Czechoslovaks would not go down without a fight.
Devoid of other means of defence, they turned the walls of Czechoslovakia into a humour magazine of sorts. They wrote ironic slogans in chalk or paint or scrawled them on papers posted around town — the 1968 equivalent of memes.
The generic Russian
"Ivan, go home, we want to go to school," protesters said as the beginning of the school year approached, using "Ivan" as an ironic generic term for "Russian".
In this file photo taken in August 1968 in Prague, a tank drives on a street during confrontations between demonstrators and the Warsaw Pact troops and tanks | AFP
"Ivan, go home, your Natasha is dating Kolya," went another slogan, which then inspired a popular song: "Go home Ivan, Natasha is waiting for you/ Go home Ivan, our girls don't love you/ Go home Ivan, and don't ever come back!"
Such chants puzzled the ordinary Soviet soldiers who did not understand why they were sent to Czechoslovakia in the first place and now had to face the question "Why did you come?" dozens of times a day in Russian from Czechs and Slovaks.
Many slogans also targeted Moscow's insistence that Czechoslovakia had welcomed the Soviet Army with open arms for having "crushed an emerging counter-revolution".
"The TASS news agency reports that the soldiers were welcomed with flowers. We add: this is true, but they were in flying flower pots," went one such joke.
Silently subversive
To slow down the Soviet army and secret services, Czechs and Slovaks painted road signs across the country white, while streets were renamed "Dubcek Street" after the reformist leader Alexander Dubcek.
In this file photo taken in August 1968 in Prague, a tank drives on a street during confrontations between demonstrators and the Warsaw Pact troops and tanks | AFP
The Vecerni Praha newspaper published "Ten Commandments" for local residents: "1) I don't know, 2) I don't know them, 3) I won't tell, 4) I don't have that, 5) I can't do that, 6) I won't give that, 7) I can't, 8) I won't sell that, 9) I won't show that, 10) I won't do that."
Czechoslovakia finally shed totalitarian rule in 1989, four years before splitting into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
