Unrest within the USSR
Even during the rule of the firm-fisted USSR, especially towards its later stages, Red Square was animated by protest. During the USSR’s violent invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, a new form of protest took place in Red Square. Rather than the violent form of protest that has been seen thus far, instead, the 1968 protests regarding the invasion of Czechoslovakia were ‘influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King Junior’s beliefs and activities’[1].
This would suggest that Red Square became an arena for more subdued protest during this phase of the Soviet period, however this is untrue. Instead, it is important to note that the activities that occurred in Red Square at this time were highly patrolled by the KGB, as we are told protestors managed to showcase a banner ‘before being taken away by the KGB’[2]. This creates the impression that Red Square still served its purpose as a public commonplace for inhabitants of the city to protest and demonstrate their anger at the system, however, the increased level of patrolling prevented city-dwellers from fully exercising the rights that, in previous times, they had been able to exercise. Thus, the function of Red Square remained the same; it was instead government’s control of the area that changed.
A video showing the protest of 1968, and the poetry that was read at the time. This is a different type of protest to the ones Red Square has previously seen.