structural:expansion, linguistic:voice_change, structural:scholar_edition
Dubček's rise to power

As President Antonín Novotný was losing support, Alexander Dubček, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia, and economist Ota Šik challenged him at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Party. Novotný then invited the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, to Prague that December, seeking support; Brezhnev, however, was surprised at the extent of the opposition to Novotný and so he rather supported his removal. Dubček replaced Novotný as First Secretary on 5 January 1968. On 22 March, Novotný resigned and was replaced by Ludvík Svoboda, who later gave consent to the reforms.