The events of 1968 were, in Europe, the last act of fascination with Communism while, simultaneously, its Soviet model was rejected and other varieties were popular. With the exception of Czechoslovakia, these events were also a generational movement, most of all a student one. The Communist social stipulations were combined with political demands aimed at implementing direct democracy. What was missing in the West, however, was the comprehension of the problems occurring in the Soviet block and a knowledge of the situation in the non-European Communist countries. In the East, on the other hand, what was lacking was a more active interest in Western frustrations. The movements of 1968 suffered a defeat everywhere, though the reasons for this were different.
In Western Europe, they were wholly unsupported by organisational structures, while the awareness of the realities of all Communist regimes, which did gradually sink in, evoked disappointment. In the Eastern part of Europe, the crushing of revisionism, which attempted to combine Communism with democracy, pointed the way towards perspectives other than reformed Communism. Despite the defeat, the events of 1968 became an important watershed in the life of Europe, to a large degree transforming society’s awareness and customs in the West, and the political awareness of the generation entering adulthood in the East.