The television talks which constitute the main content of this book were delivered in late June and early July 1968. Barely had the series been completed when Soviet tanks turned up in the streets of Prague. Publication in book form had to be scrapped, and it was not until 1969 that a German edition was published. The introduction to that edition still contains much that is relevant and therefore it has been retained in the present book. However, this book is not merely about things past, but also about processes presently reappearing in Czechoslovakia's economic life. This title was first published in 1972.