Today’s word of the day, courtesy of The Dictionary Project, is encore. It can be pronounced / ˈɑŋ kɔr /, or / ˈɑŋ koʊr /, or / ˈɑn kɔr /, or / ˈɑn koʊr / (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/encore). The “Eng, agma, or engma (capital: Ŋ, lowercase: ŋ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, used to represent a voiced velar nasal (as in English singing) in the written form of some languages and in the International Phonetic Alphabet” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eng_(letter)).

It means “again; once more (used by an audience in calling for an additional number or piece)” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/encore). And the website says that it is an interjection, “any member of a class of words expressing emotion, distinguished in most languages by their use in grammatical isolation, as Hey! Oh! Ouch! Ugh!” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/interjection). But it can also be used as a noun: “a demand, as by applause, for a repetition of a song, act, etc., or for a performance of a number or piece additional to those on a program, or for a reappearance by the performers, as at the end of a concert, recital, etc.,” “the performance or reappearance in response to such a demand,” or “any repeated or additional performance or appearance, as a rerun of a telecast or a rematch in sports” (ibid.). And it can be used as a transitive verb: “to call for a repetition of” or “to call for an encore from (a performer)” (ibid.). I have to admit that I have never heard it used as a verb.

Samuel Johnson, in his 1755 Dictionary, says that it’s an adverb meaning “Again; once more. A word used at publick shows when a singer, or fiddler, or buffoon is desired by the audience to do the same thing again” (https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=encore). Merriam-Webster adds this as an additional definition: “a second achievement especially that surpasses the first” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encore). I can especially hear this use in a question, like, “What can she possibly do for an encore?”

It appears in the language in “1712, from French encore ‘still, yet, again, also, furthermore’ (12c.), generally explained as being from Vulgar Latin phrase *hinc ad horam ‘from then to this hour,’ or (in) hanc horam ‘(to) this hour’ (Italian ancora ‘again, still, yet’ is said to be a French loan-word). As a noun, from 1763; as a verb, from 1748” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=encore). As evidence, it provides this quote: “Whenever any Gentlemen are particularly pleased with a Song, at their crying out Encore … the Performer is so obliging as to sing it over again. [Steele, ‘Spectator’ No. 314, 1712]” (ibid.).

On this day in 1968, “Warsaw Pact forces complete their invasion of Czechoslovakia by arresting Czech leader Alexander Dubček and forcing him to sign the Moscow Protocols” (https://www.onthisday.com/events/august/21).

The Warsaw Pact was comprised of the Soviet Union (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, or soyuz sovetskikh sotsialisticheskykh respoublic; if you remember the uniforms worn by the Russians in the Olympics before the collapse of the USSR, they always said CCCP, the initials of the Russian name]), and the several satellites that were under the control of the Soviet empire. The pact included Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The Warsaw Pact was primarily a military alliance, a counter to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO was formed in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

Just a year after the Warsaw Pacts formation, the Soviet Union violently put down a revolution against the communist government in Hungary. But that was just a prelude to 1968.

In 1968, reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring). “The Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech and travel. After national discussion of dividing the country into a federation of three republics, Bohemia, Moravia–Silesia and Slovakia, Dubček oversaw the decision to split into two, the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic” (ibid.).

It was called the Prague Spring. And it was the promise of a return to Czechoslovakia of freedom. But it didn’t last.

The Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact nations objected, more or less, to the democratization of Czechoslovakia because the reforms seemed to be an inherent criticism of the Soviet model (ibid.). There were meetings. The KGB (the Soviet version of the CIA and FBI combined) infiltrated Czech political parties. They tried meeting with the Czech leaders. “On 3 August representatives from the “Warsaw Five” and Czechoslovakia met in Bratislava and signed the Bratislava Declaration. The declaration affirmed unshakable fidelity to Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, declared an implacable struggle against “bourgeois” ideology and all “anti-socialist” forces. The Soviet Union expressed its intention to intervene in any Warsaw Pact country if a “bourgeois” system—a pluralist system of several political parties representing different factions of the “capitalist classes”—was ever established” (ibid.).

“As these talks proved unsatisfactory, the Soviets began to consider a military alternative. The Soviet policy of compelling the socialist governments of its satellite states to subordinate their national interests to those of the Eastern Bloc (through military force if needed) became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine. On the night of 20–21 August, Eastern Bloc armies from four Warsaw Pact countries—the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary—invaded the ČSSR.
“That night, 165,000 troops and 4,600 tanks entered the country. They first occupied the Ruzyně International Airport, where air deployment of more troops was arranged. The Czechoslovak forces were confined to their barracks, which were surrounded until the threat of a counter-attack was assuaged. By the morning of 21 August Czechoslovakia was occupied” (ibid.).

There are some common traits among totalitarian regimes, whether they be communist, socialist, fascist, or just populist. They solve problems by force. They object to any move that contradicts the public image they are trying to put forth. People tend to want to flee them. People tend not to want to go live in them. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state. So is China, and we all remember Tian’anmen Square. And we remember the Arab Spring and the response it got from a variety of Middle Eastern countries. As long as there are these totalitarian states, the Springs will see encores. Maybe some day the encores will have a different result.

Today’s image comes from the Prague Spring (https://okok1111111111.blogspot.com/2013/08/prague-spring.html). It kind of makes that iconic Tian’anmen Square photo look like an encore performance.