A response from a district committee of the Communist Party after the "hockey week" protests in March 1969:
"The spontaneous demonstrations, organized by no one, not only in Prague but in other cities of the republic after the victorious match of our ice hockey players against the Soviets, have shown our true feelings and the thinking of the popular masses. We therefore fully agree with the fact that national and human feelings can be displayed even in this unexpected way.
Some cases of damage and destruction, however, interfered in a disturbing and undignified manner. The demolition of Aeroflot offices in Prague, and the attacks on buildings and equipment of the Soviet armies in other places, were out of place, but they should not be considered as an action that could have a catastrophic consequence for our people. Especially when we compare them with similar events in both socialist and capitalist countries that have as a consequence damages several times higher as well as injuries and deaths. Therefore, the standpoint of the governments of the Czech and Slovak Socialist Republics, made public on March 31, 1969, is truthful and objective and helped to calm down the public. We fully agree with it and can defend and support it.
Therefore the Declaration of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from April 1, 1969 weighed on us heavily. It does not capture the causes of these events with complete accuracy, one-sidedly emphasizing some and suppressing others. Its formulations are too harsh, so that it awakens fears for the future political development of our country. This declaration does not consolidate conditions but, just the opposite, increases the danger of the separation of the wide masses of party members and non-members from the leading organs of the Communist Party. . . ."