Dubcek was removed in April 1969, and the hated controls were reimposed.

The destruction of the dramatic reform movement in Czechoslovakia was reflected in tightened controls in the USSR and served to reassert Soviet control over all of Eastern Europe except Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania. It weakened Communist parties outside the Soviet bloc, split the international Communist movement apart, alarmed the West, and delayed all negotiations on disarmament. From the Soviet point of view, it improved the Soviet position in the contest for Europe. By endorsing the territorial status quo in Europe, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki, Finland, 1975, apparently sanctioned Soviet authority in Eastern Europe. The USSR played a major behind-the-scenes role in halting a drive towards free trade unions and increased democracy in Poland in the early 1980s.