English: The suppression of the Prague Spring. Black-and-white photograph from 1968-08-21, passed to the Swiss ambassador, from an embassy report 1968-10-08. View from Schwarzenberg palace (Palacio Schwarzenberský) in w:Hradčany Square facing toward New Royal Palace (Nový královský palác).

Quoted from Dodis E-dossier: "Have been taken under Soviet fire. Shots were directed at embassy building", the Swiss representation in Prague wired to Bern on 21 August 1968 at 11.30 a.m..[1] The embassy was then located in the Schwarzenberg palace, right outside the gates of Prague Castle. When troupes of the Warsaw Pact occupied Czechoslovakia in a sudden attack, the Swiss diplomats found themselves at the very center of the dramatic events. It remains unclear why the Red Army opened fire on the embassy. In response to repeated protest, Moscow finally claimed that not its own soldiers but "provocateurs and 'saboteurs'" were responsible for the shooting. [2]

The "Prague Spring" of 1968 inspired hopes for a "socialism with a human face". It also inspired fear. "The fundamental question everybody in Prague is more or less openly asking themselves today is that of knowing whether the USSR, if necessary, will use force", ambassador w:Samuel Campiche reported to Bern in July 1968.[3]