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The Czech history of the second half of the 20th century is marked by a number of historical twists which suppressed the public discussion of past history; however, the discussion was sometimes possible in the form of allusions. This essay focuses on one of those discussions; i.e. the one organized by Plamen magazine in 1969. The participants knew that they could not openly express their opinions on the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. Thus, they used the 500th anniversary of Niccolo Machiavelli's birth (1469-1527) to both recollect his personality and his work and to discuss the question of whether small countries were allowed to defend themselves against big ones. The message and topicality of the discussion constituted an unambiguous criticism of the Soviet Union, which claimed supremacy over its neighbors: its bloc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]