Günter Bischof - The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968

61. From the official log of the ambassador of the USSR in Austria, B. F. Podtserob, 28 September 1968, AVP RF, F. 66, op. 47, p. 100, d. 6, pp. 195–98.

62. From the official log of the ambassador of the USSR in Austria, B. F. Podtserob, 28 September 1968, AVP RF, F. 66, op. 47, p. 100, d. 6, pp. 195–98.

63. Eger, Krisen an Österreichs Grenzen , 97.

64. A KGB report mentioned that “500 Austrian plain-clothes policemen [had infiltrated the ČSSR] and had smuggled weapons into the country.” The only charge ever mentioned by the Soviet ambassador in his meetings with Federal Chancellor Klaus concerned the smuggling of German-made mobile radio stations into the ČSSR via Austria. See the official call by the Soviet ambassador in Austria, B. F. Podtserob, on the Austrian federal chancellor, J. Klaus, 31 August 1968, AVP RF, F. 66, op. 47, p. 100, d. 6, pp. 179–83, reprinted in Karner et al., Dokumente , #182. In an even more bizarre claim, the KGB reported that Austria’s military intelligence had activated its agents in the ČSSR, “especially among the officers of the Czechoslovak army.” According to the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, “the agents were given the task to set up underground organizations and carry out acts of terrorism against those who impeded the process of liberalization.” See the report of the head of the KGB, Y. Andropov, to the CC CPSU, 13 October 1968, RGANI, F. 89, op. 61, d. 5, pp. 1–60, reprinted in Karner et al., Dokumente , #121.

65. Gehler, Österreichs Außenpolitik der Zweiten Republik , 342–51.

66. Gehler, Österreichs Außenpolitik der Zweiten Republik , 345–51.

67. Eger, Krisen an Österreichs Grenzen , 98.

Report by the ambassador of the GDR in the ČSSR, P. Florin, on the situation in the country. 1

10 March 1968

[Prague]

The activities of the oppositional forces have been stepped up over the last few days; they are displaying counter-revolutionary traits ever more openly. Systematic attacks are being launched against the organs of the power of the state, against their representatives, against the pillars of a socialist society and against basic socialist principles. [The] writer Kohout calls for the publication of the so-called “Writers’ Manifesto,” which famously contains the demand for a return to a bourgeois parliamentary republic. On the 118th anniversary of Masaryk’s birthday articles were published containing such passages as: “Our socialist society and its political system are connected by an umbilical cord to this historical development [i.e. the era of Masaryk] and not to the Soviet system, which came into being in totally different circumstances… Masaryk is for us a living compass between the past and the present” ( Mladá fronta ). The Trade Union paper Prace quotes Masaryk’s phrase of a “social socialism” and states that today is the time to realize this idea.

[…] The press in general or at least the key papers, TV, radio, CTK and a large number of periodicals are in the hands of the oppositional forces. They are doing everything they can to foment an atmosphere of opposition, they allow no space for counterarguments and are working systematically to organize the counterrevolution. They have managed to bring about the abolition of censorship and a new media law, in whose drafting the journalists themselves are to be given a say. Both measures have been passed by the presidium of the CC. The presidium of the CC CPCz has also passed a resolution that allows the practically unchecked importation of foreign literature and news media.