after the ending of the antonín novotný regime, in the period known as the prague spring, svoboda was elected president of czechoslovakia on 30 march 1968, on the recommendation of alexander dubček, the first secretary. he was an acceptable candidate both for czechs and slovaks, and as a war hero and a victim of the purges of the early 1950s. people saw him as a new light of democracy and reform. but he was afraid of soviet union, because he saw all the crimes that they made.