The book examines the history of Czech and Slovak socialism from 1938 to 1968. In the first part, special attention is paid to the coming of the Communist Party to power in Prague in February 1948. It is significant that this date is considered in the West as the "official" beginning of the Cold War. But the birth of socialism in Czechoslovakia took place even before the war, and the authority of the communist party was greatly strengthened during the Second World War, since it was the communists who formed the core of the anti-fascist resistance. The history of socialism in Czechoslovakia has common features with the development of this ideology throughout Europe, so the study of the “spring of Czech socialism” is important for understanding the European history of the 20th century as a whole.The second part of the book is devoted to highlighting the prehistory of the “Prague Spring” "1968, which would be more correct to call the "Prague autumn", since it was more like the beginning of the decline of the old era than the birth of something new. Leaving aside the achievements and problems of socialism, we can say that this book is the story of how a small country is engaged in state building, being embroiled in a confrontation between two mighty superpowers.If capitalism suffers from crises of overproduction goods, then Czechoslovak socialism "produced" too many educated and free people. It was they who formed the ideological core of those who fanned the wind of the “Prague Spring”, while the “party apparatchiks” tried to carry out economic and social reforms.Unfortunately, almost all the mistakes of the Czechoslovak reformers of the sixties were repeated in perestroika USSR. Perhaps history does not teach anything, but it makes it possible not to lose the past.The book is intended for historians, diplomats, anyone interested in the history of the Cold War, international relations and the study of social dynamics in transitional historical periods.