Search | Wilson Center Digital Archive

Switch to Visualization

Czechoslovakia--History--Intervention, 1968 Clear All

Related Resources

Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Placeholder image for when a Topics image is not available

Prague Spring, 1968

Placeholder image for when a places image is not available

Eastern Europe

Czechoslovakia

Soviet soldier taking a photograph of another soldier in Red Square, Moscow, 1959

Eastern Europe

Soviet Union

Warsaw Pact

Portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, 1972.

East Asia

China

Warsaw Pact Military Planning

Placeholder image for when a places image is not available

Eastern Europe

Poland

Sino-Soviet Relations

Sino-Soviet Split, 1960-1984

Photograph of Zhou Enlai in 1972.

Zhou, Enlai

1898- 1976

Placeholder image for when a places image is not available

Eastern Europe

Aerial view of National Mall

North America

United States

Portrait of Mao Zedong from propaganda poster

Mao, Zedong

1893- 1976

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Shelest, P. IU. (Petro IUkhymovych)

1908- 1996

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Sawczuk, Wlodzimierz

-

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Andropov, Yuri Vladimirovich

1914- 1984

Leonid Brezhnev, 1974.

Brezhnev, Leonid Il'ich

1906- 1982

Results:

31 - 40 of 61

Display:

Sort By:

Documents

March 24, 1989	Conversation between M.S. Gorbachev and Karoly Grosz, General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, March 23-24, 1989 These conversations reveal Gorbachev’s contradictions, as the Soviet leader proclaims again that the Brezhnev doctrine is dead and military interventions should be "precluded in the future, yet at the same time, tries to set "boundaries" for the changes in Eastern Europe as "the safekeeping of socialism and assurance of stability."
November 5, 1968	Report Relayed by Andropov to the CPSU Central Committee, 'Students and the Events in Czechoslovakia' KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov presents a secret, 33-page report to the CPSU Central Committee about the mood of Soviet college students. The report had been completed sometime before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and had been circulating within the KGB. It is not clear precisely who drafted the report, but Andropov’s cover memorandum and the report itself indicate that the author was a college student in Odessa who had recently finished his degree.
August 22, 1968	Prague Embassy Urges Caution on Radio Free Europe and Voice of America In Prague Embassy Dispatch No. 3079, Ambassador Jacob Beam urges the US Radios to provide factual reporting and neither encourage nor discourage Czechoslovak youth opposed to the invasion
August 22, 1968	CIA-State Consultations on Czechoslovak Crisis Consulted by Cord Meyer, Deputy Undersecretary of State Charles Bohlen approves RFE’s cautious approach to covering the Soviet invasion and also agrees to use of RL transmitters to reach Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia
August 30, 1968	Cipher Message 3235-8/223, Warsaw to Minister of National Defense of the Polish People's Republic Division General Cde. W. Jaruzelski Because the Warsaw Pact has recently conducted a large number of military exercises and the costs of doing so, and given the present military occupation of Czechoslovakia, Soviet Marshal Yakubovsky proposes postponing the October joint military exercise to the following year. Yakubovsky solicits Polish General Jaruzelski's opinion on the matter.
August 30, 1968	Cipher Telegram 3234-8/220, Warsaw to Minister of National Defense of the Polish People's Republic Division General Cde. W. Jaruzelski Following the successful completion of the first stage of the joint military exercise in Czechoslovakia, Soviet Marshal Yakubovsky gives orders to Polish General Jaruzelski concerning the second stage. Four specific orders are given: the Polish military leadership must maintain friendly relations with the political bodies and civilians of occupied Czechoslovakia; maintain military preparedness; ensure the maintenance of proper living conditions for the Polish troops; and maintain adequate food supply and medical support for the Polish troops.
August 1968	Letter from Czech Communist Politicians to Brezhnev Requesting Soviet Intervention in Prague Spring In August 1968 a small group of pro-Moscow hardliners in the Czechoslovak Communist Party, led by Vasil Bilak, wrote two letters requesting urgent assistance from the Soviet Union to thwart the imminent "counterrevolution" in Czechoslovakia. Both letters were addressed to Leonid Brezhnev, the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU), and both were written in Russian to ensure that they would be read promptly. The first (and more important) letter was signed by Bilak and four of his colleagues: Drahomir Kolder, Alois Indra, Oldrich Svestka, and Antonin Kapek. Brezhnev later used the letter as a formal justification for the impending military invasion of Czechoslovakia.
September 30, 1968	Gen. Djurov’s Report on the participation of Bulgarian troops in the Warsaw Pact operation in Czechoslovakia, 30 September 1968 The Minister reports on the progress of the allied operation and on the strength of the Czech resistance.
October 10, 1969	Working Material for the Preparation of a European Security Conference An analysis written by the GDR's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the respective positions of European socialist states, socialist states in general, and NATO and other capitalist European states, on the organization of a European security conference, as well as guidance for carrying out the CSCE negotiations based upon an analysis of each side's perceived strengths and weaknesses
August 21, 1968	Letter from the Central Committees of the Bulgarian, East German, Hungarian, Polish, and Soviet Communist Parties regarding the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia Letter from the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Soviet Union explaining the need for intervention in Czechoslovakia. The letter lays out the rationale behind the Brezhnev Doctrine.